This week more than 11,000 employers around the country, including Maximus, are celebrating Living Wage Week. Colleagues across our business are taking the opportunity to network with other organisations and reflect on our successes and challenges becoming the first business in our sector to receive accreditation in 2021.
Current cost of living pressures have placed a spotlight on pay, and the importance of paying a Real Living Wage. 18 months into our journey, we’ve made significant progress in ensuring our commitment is consistently implemented and enforced, both internally and in our provider base.
As the head of our Supply Chain and Procurement team, a key priority has been on creating and implementing a new procurement policy and ethical code of conduct, with the Real Living Wage and other best practice at its heart. Maximus is a diverse company that procures everything from cleaning services to IT support. Much of our progress on this agenda has been achieved through consolidation of existing contracts into single integrated solutions with commitments on pay and conditions. For example, our recent selection of Q3 as a national facilities management provider across 270 of our sites offered an opportunity to strengthen terms and conditions through a consolidated approach.
Today, we estimate that up to 500 facilities management roles fall within the scope of our Real Living Wage policy. More than 60 people have already seen an increase to their wages as a direct result. We are on track to meet our obligations to the Living Wage Foundation of implementing a consistent approach across our supply chain by 2023.
There is more to do, both within our organisation and across the sectors we operate in. Continued expansion of the Real Living Wage to new employers in different sectors relies on improving understanding of the accreditation and the benefits it offers. To support this we’ve committed to rolling out webinars and events with our existing supply chain and partners over the coming months.
