Our maneki-neko, (Japanese beckoning cat) is clearly attracting good Feng Shui into The OPRA Group! We’re delighted to announce that The OPRA Group have won another award, The Corporate Livewire Innovation and Excellence Award for the New Recruitment Company of the Year UK, 2023. This programme celebrates the recent success and continued achievements of businesses and individuals across a wide range of sectors and industries. This ranges from a commitment to being environmentally friendly in the battle against climate change to enacting positive change via ethical investment and the realisation of corporate social responsibility.
OPRA Services and Social Responsibility
Our extensive HR and Pre-screening services were taken into consideration for this award because we strive to scource businesses and services that align with the same values of sustainability and social responsibility as us. Our services are offered and taken up in a bespoke way so that each business has a tailored service that fits exactly to their requirements, ensuring a cost-effective utility that is fit for purpose.
Wellbeing, Essential for Businesses and Employees alike!
As 81% of employees want wellbeing support from their employer and an estimated 17 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression and anxiety in 2021-2022, we feel that our award-winning, wellbeing packages are not just a frivolous add on to businesses EVPs, but an essential part of employment from both employer and employee perspectives. We have worked very hard on this service, from gathering a host of experts covering a myriad of subjects, to how the content is actually used, sourced and consumed.
How do we stay on top of technological changes?
We continuously review our processes to assess productivity and efficiency often finding that technology is the solution to growth and improvement. We keep ourselves updated by taking part in online system upgrade demonstrations, reviewing blogs, technical news websites, industry publications, attending conferences, workshops and webinars. This keeps us up to date with our CRM, payroll, skills testing, training, HR, pre-employment vetting, job boards and search optimisation tools to make sure we keep on top of developments and streamline our in-house systems.
Current and future innovative strategies
We utilise our Senior IT Consultant’s expertise and networks to improve our technological advancements which have been significant over the past year. We are always open to trying new technologies and tools as they emerge, helping us to understand capabilities, limitations and whether they will be beneficial to the organisation. Our staff complete wellbeing sessions and at least 2 monthly courses to increase skills and knowledge on subjects like green and sustainability training or best ways to support your employer using social media, for example.
We have signed the SME Climate Commitment recognised by the United Nations Race to Zero campaign, joining a wide range of governments, businesses, cities, regions, and universities around the world that are committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions. We are committed to promoting sustainability and aim to follow environmentally friendly practices to reduce the ecological impact of our activities and help our clients and partners do the same. We actively think about how we implement and achieve this in daily decisions by using local services and businesses wherever possible.
Our environmental and sustainability policies promote The OPRA Group’s awareness and importance of being a green aware company.
We take the following actions:
· Waste is kept to a minimum with the majority being recycled
· Energy consumption is reduced with equipment only being switched on when in use
· Use of laptops means we are more efficient in power consumption
· Purchase of environmentally friendly products
· Promotion of car sharing
· Promotion of walk/cycle to work as part of our Wellbeing Strategy
· We minimise our use of paper and other office consumables
· No plastic/paper cups can be used for the water machine, we only use eco cups
· Minimising plasic merchandise bought for corporate events
· Utilising technology to avoid paper and print, utilising digital business cards for the team, for example.
Our Plans for The Future
The OPRA Group currently has 4 offices, City of London, Basildon in Essex, Stirling, Scotland and Bangkok, Thailand, our long-term strategy is to achieve global expansion with a priority to cover Northern America and Canada. We are very excited to continue to promote our award-wining wellbeing programme to our current and new clients.
We will continue our involvement in the community to improve Corporate Social Responsibility. This year we have chosen Essex and Harts Air Ambulance Trust as our chosen charity partner. Our events have included a fun and very busy Quiz Night, a large Family Fun Day and we plan to ride 250kms on 2 static bikes in 1 business day, to raise awareness of the 25th Anniversary of Air Ambulance UK! Teaming up with charities and brining awareness to their cause is close to our hearts. Our business values include Integrity, Innovation, Collaboration, Inclusion and Customer Focused, which we consider in all of our decisions. We have also signed the Armed Forces Charter which gives us the focus to help the armed forces, veterans and their families, choose a new career path and utilise those transferrable skills in other ways.