Brief and Purpose
This statement sets out how we as a business conduct our business operations to ensure that we do so in an ethical and responsible manner.
Our business values are collaboration, integrity, trust and excellence and this policy sets out some of the ways in which we reflect those values in the way we operate our business.
Scope
This statement applies to all of the companies within the DD Group. It sets the standards for how we expect our employees, suppliers and partners to work in three key areas: governance; social and sustainability and provides information and links to key policies in our business that describe how we operate in those areas.
We seek to be proactive in our approach and are seeking initiatives that promote human rights, help communities and protect our natural environment.
Governance
Human Rights & Modern Slavery
We are committed to ensuring that modern slavery plays no role in our business and do what we can to ensure this practice is stopped. Our statement and policy on Modern Slavery can be found here.
Anticorruption & Bribery
We have a zero-tolerance approach to bribery in any aspect of our business. We provide training and clear policy guidance on the expectations that we have of our employees and require that our suppliers take no part in any sort of bribery.
Competition
We believe that businesses thrive in a market that has free and fair competition. We have in place a clear policy on how we ensure that we comply with the law and ensure that we do not restrict competition. We provide compulsory training to our employees and identify high risk areas of the business for specific training and audit.
Data Privacy
We are aware of the concern that individuals have about how their personal information is used. We comply at all times with data privacy legislation and have in place policies and processes that have protection of personal data at its core. We are acutely aware that as a business that works closely within health and personal care markets some of the personal data we are party to can be sensitive and we ensure that we take particular care with it. Our global privacy statement sets out in general terms how we deal with personal data and it can be found here.
Social
Diversity and inclusion
We recognise the benefits that come with having a diverse and inclusive business that reflects a diverse set of backgrounds and ideas. We have a zero-tolerance approach to any sort of discrimination within the workplace and our employee handbook sets out our policy in relation to diversity.
Pay and benefits
We believe in a fair wage and equitable wage for our staff. We make use of benchmarking in order to assist us with our pay rates and benefits packages. We endeavour to always pay over the National Living Wage for all our staff. We publish our gender pay gap report and proactively seek ways to minimise any gaps reported. Find our latest report here.
Charitable donations
We benefit from working within and being a part of the communities in which we operate out of. Our employees regularly make charitable contributions through fund raising activities to support local and national charities.
Following our rebrand we donated our old Dental Directory uniform to a local homeless charity, Sanctus (www.sanctus-homecom). We also have arranged a collection with our employees for donations of warm clothing and other essentials for another local homeless charity (Warm Hearts for Cold Hands) who were overwhelmed with the generosity of our employees. We also donated products to Bridge2Aid, Dentaid and Health Point Foundation last year for overseas outreach dental mobile clinics in deprived rural areas.
We are committed to continuous education and training within the dental industry and as well as supporting already qualified professionals, we have recently teamed up with Guy's Hospital, part of King's College London Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, to assist students. We have donated restorative materials such as composites to enable undergraduate and postgraduate students to practice their skills and techniques on study models prior to treating patients.
For 2020 DD expanding its support to charities that are tackling the mental health issues facing dentists.
Employee engagement
DD values the input and contribution of our employees and wish to provide them with support in return. We listen and encourage openness from all our employees. We proactively seek input from our employees via our “your voice” group of employee representatives as well as undertaking annual surveys from our employees on key aspects of the business.
We keep our employees informed about the business through regular newsletters as well as the company intranet and the managing director holds regular “town halls” to update employees in person and answer questions.
We provide a free support line for employees as well as having a number of mental health first aiders to help anyone struggling.
Learning
We recognise the importance of training and learning for personal development and will frequently fund employee learning and education courses. We support a number of apprentices in the business and we are looking to further develop this within our business.
Line managers work with their teams to identify career and development opportunities to ensure that individuals feel valued and that their work is moving them forward in their careers.
We provide online and in person learning to employees on key compliance areas and health and safety as well as other soft skills to help them in their roles.
Health and Safety
We prioritise the health and safety of our employees and community. We have a detailed H&S policy and provide training to all our staff in relation to the risks associated with their role and ensure that anyone attending our sites know our procedures.
We continually review and audit our performance and the board reviews progress at every meeting and is actively involved in ensuring that we continue to have excellent standards.
Protecting the environment
Our company recognises the need to protect the natural environment. We are aiming to achieve best practice when disposing of our waste, using non-toxic chemical substances wherever practicable and conserving energy through our program of continual improvement. We look to minimise all forms of waste with an emphasis on recycling where possible. We are seeking to obtain accreditation for our efforts. Already we:
Energy Saving Initiatives
- Light sensors fitted in kitchens and some offices areas that turn lights off when not needed and started using low energy lighting.
- Air con is on a timer also to ensure no wasted energy out of hours
- BF Mulholland Ltd have introduced solar panels, LED lighting and wood pellet heating system to their main office / warehouse.
Waste Reductions
- Recycle all paper, cardboard and DMR (Dry Mixed Recycling) waste in office areas (shredders & waste separation systems).
- Bale all cardboard and clear plastics from the warehouse to ensure it is of good quality, recyclable material.
- Introduce packaging machinery to reduce use of plastics shipping/storage materials.
- Our cardboard boxes, used for despatch, are made from recycled material.
- Air pillows, used for despatch, are recyclable.
- Provided all staff with re-usable drinks bottles to prevent use of single use plastic.
- We use temperature-controlled distribution packaging in our pharmacy which is industry standard, recyclable and compostable e.g. ice blocks, water packs and wool insulated packaging.
Future sustainability
- Have set up a sustainability employee group to identify initiatives to focus on.
- Reduce travel by increased use of software such as Skype/Microsoft Teams.
- Joined the Planet Mark Scheme which includes
- an Annual review of our total environmental performance.
- a review of our total carbon footprint and setting objectives to reduce year on year.
- protecting one acre of rainforest in Peru.
- Undertaking litter picks in the local areas.
We are constantly looking at introducing new environmentally friendly products and developing our sustainable own brand range.