Our Stakeholders

Why we engage

Having a highly engaged and motivated employee base is central to building our pipeline and delivering high quality developments on time and safely. Our aim is to build a respectful and inclusive culture with opportunities for career growth and continuous learning.

How we engage

We run regular employee engagement surveys, with feedback and proposed actions discussed at Board level. We also gather feedback through meetings, appraisals, internal newsletters, intranet articles, Yammer and our Employee Forum. Regular communication activity ensures we engage with our people, so colleagues feel updated on the financial performance of the business, and can contribute to our strategy.

Survey results confirm we’ve made the most progress on recommending Watkin Jones Group as a great place to work, on providing fair reward, and for recognising our people for their contributions. We have a rolling roadmap to continuously strive for improvement; one area of focus is improving collaboration across the Group.

Key stakeholder focus includes:

• Quality
• On-time delivery
• Track record
• Value for money
• Sustainability

Why we engage

It’s important for us to understand the types of development and locations that are attractive to our clients so that we can develop high quality, desirable assets that meet their investment criteria.

Key metrics

• Forward funding transactions: £500 million of pipeline currently forward sold
• Client net promoter score: +37

How we engage

We meet with clients formally and informally at a variety of levels, including during the marketing of individual and portfolio assets. We host networking events for our clients, working with industry experts to understand the latest industry best practice. A recurring theme with clients, both for the schemes we develop and the schemes we manage is the environmental efficiency of our developments. Because clients are likely to own these assets long-term, they need to be as efficient as possible to maximise their returns. This knowledge informs our continually evolving ESG strategy.

Key stakeholder focus includes:

• Good customer service
• Value for money
• Wellbeing
• Sustainability

Why we engage

Understanding our residents’ needs helps us to provide great customer service. It also forms the basis of our design and innovation for future developments and helps to ensure high levels of occupancy for our institutional clients.

Key metric

• Our resident net promoter score is +35, demonstrating we are a market-leader when it comes to resident satisfaction

How we engage

We continuously engage with our residents and seek their feedback. Throughout the year, we undertake many actions to create a great and supportive resident experience. We are proud of Be, our wellbeing and lifestyle programme which is built on four pillars: Be Active, Be Connected, Be Social and Be Supported. We recruit student ambassadors across our schemes to better understand what our residents want and share ideas for improvement. Through our Resident Awareness Programme, we champion sustainable practices such as providing improved recycling facilities and managing awareness around water consumption. These activities support our many industry accolades, including our Platinum certified operator status in the Global Student Living Index.

Key stakeholder focus includes:

• Health and safety
• Build cost inflation
• Prompt payment
• Environment

Why we engage

We continue to engage with our subcontractors and suppliers, who are best-in-class; providing the skilled people and materials needed to construct our developments whilst recognising that a sustainable supply chain is crucial to successfully delivering our schemes. Through collaboration and careful management, we work with our supply chain to simplify our construction process, reduce risk, improve quality and generate cost, maintenance and environmental benefits.

Key metrics

• Quality assurance reports
• Prompt payment

How we engage

Our recent engagement has focused on build cost inflation and sustainability. Recent events, including Brexit, the Pandemic and the ongoing Ukraine conflict have significantly disrupted the construction supply chain, leading to shortages in building materials and skilled labour, resulting in build cost inflation. This in turn, continues to create issues for the construction industry. Balancing the needs of our business, we have provided support to our supply chain partners through advance procurement, increased communication, on-site support, and the prompt payment of invoices.

The supply chain disruption seen in 2022 and 2023 highlighted how important it is to have trusted supply chain partners. While our self-build expertise gives us greater control of build costs and on-time delivery, the ability to use third parties is an important part of our ability to flex our construction capacity.

As part of our procurement strategy, we review and rationalise our supplier base to ensure that we have appropriate coverage in all areas, and that there are no single points of failure. We are building further on the long-term relationships with these suppliers, and maximising cost efficiency savings. Working with our supply chain, we are providing support for our major suppliers to achieve ISO 14001 accreditation by 2025, in line with our Future Foundations ESG strategy.

Key stakeholder focus includes:

• Financial performance
• Balance sheet strength and liquidity
• Return on investment - share price growth or dividends
• Sustainability

Why we engage

Our shareholders rely on us to manage their investment responsibly and sustainably and expect to be kept well informed about our progress.

We want shareholders to understand our strategy and performance so they can
accurately assess our value.

Key metrics

• Share price
• Dividend payments

How we engage

We hold investor roadshows after the half‑year and full-year results. We also hold a number of one-to-one calls and meetings as well as the annual general meeting.

Investor feedback on meetings is provided to the Board for consideration at least twice a year.

Key stakeholder focus includes:

• Considerate constructors
• Environment
• Health, safety and wellbeing
• Sustainable communities
• Charitable giving

Why we engage

We want to be a good neighbour and deliver real value to our local communities through our developments. This can include providing benefits to local communities as a condition of receiving planning.

Key metrics

• Considerate Constructors Scheme ratings

How we engage

All our construction sites are registered with the Considerate Constructors Scheme, which means they are externally monitored against criteria such as respecting the community, protecting the environment and worker safety. Sites share regular newsletters, continually keeping the local community informed of scheme progress and upcoming works.

Talent Tap, the social mobility charity, is our partner for employee volunteering. It aims to strengthen employment potential in young people from social mobility cold spots by enabling access to professional industries. We provided mentoring to support students on the programme.