Introduction

We believe that whilst the pursuit of profit has to be the main aim of a business, this cannot be achieved “….at all cost!”

For a company and it’s staff to achieve everything they want to, balance is required, this isn’t some hippy tree hugging nonsense, it’s common sense:-

•    Unhappy staff can’t be working at their optimum.
•    If you believe your company is destroying the World your motivation might not be at its peak!
•    If you don’t give anything back to society, don’t expect society to love you
Sadly perfection is also impossible. It’s not possible to please all of the people all of the time. However you have to try, and with luck you won’t annoy all of the people all of the time!

Our Staff

We have spent the last three years investing in our offices to provide a better working environment.

•    Roof Garden – at our head office we have taken an ugly, unused flat roof and created an award winning roof garden for our staff. As well as providing a peaceful area to enjoy the lovely British summers, we are helping the environment by reducing water run off, improving the wildlife habitat and providing an area for our legendary summer parties. We won a Green Apple award for our trouble. This is an internationally recognised award presented to us at the Houses of Parliament.

 

•     Gym – we have installed a small gym for the staff to use. Membership is free and entirely optional but it’s currently being used from 6am to 6pm. The health of our staff will impact the profitability of the company.

•    Cycle Scheme – Heaps have signed up for the Cycle scheme and would encourage other businesses to do so too! With a minimal amount of administration it allows people to buy bicycles tax free for commuting. We’ve added a small bike shed to help keep them safe, but sadly it’s see-through so no good for smoking or snogging behind.

Training

The reason our customers value Heap & Partners is because of the technical knowledge of our staff. Our staff are viewed as the technical experts of our industry because of the training they are given and the enormous depth of experience they have. In the words of Albert Einstein “The only source of knowledge is experience”. Our staff have over 700 years of experience in the industry. To maintain that knowledge base and help foster it for the future we invest heavily in training.
•    Apprentices – currently we have two apprentices in the company but aim to double that this year. In this effort we are ably supported by Wirral Borough Council who actually sponsor the apprentices for their first two years with the company. If more councils provided this sort of support youth unemployment could be significantly reduced.
•    Day release college – in addition to our apprentices we are currently putting 15% of our staff through college on a day release scheme.
•    On-going training – working at Heaps means you will almost certainly undergo training throughout your entire time with the company. In an average year we undertake over 3000 man hours of training or to put it another way approximately 5% of our time is spent in training every year.

Manufacturing

We firmly believe the only way to grow the wealth of a country is by making things – manufacturing. However we are horrified at the generally held misconception that UK manufacturing is finished or is in terminal decline with everything heading to China or India. Although manufacturing is only 12.5% of GDP it accounts for 55% of our exports – the only way to pull more money into the country (unless you fancy borrowing more – see Greece). We are still the 6th biggest country in the World for Manufacturing – not bad for a little Island (that puts roughly 189 countries behind us). Manufacturing is good for the economy, for the people and fingers crossed good for Heaps. Here at Heaps we intend to play our small part.
•    Phase – after 145 years of buying and selling valves we have finally launched our own valve (called Phase – an anagram of Heaps), made by us in the UK. We are investing heavily in UK manufacturing.

The Environment

By definition a business must use up resources. We are taking steps to reduce our impact whenever possible.

•    Solar Power – we have installed the first phase of Solar Power at our head office. More will follow, but for now we are generating 10% of our total power needs.

Solar Panels installed by renewable energy company Eco Environments Ltd

Recycling

•    Recycling – having carried out three environmental audits so far; we have taken numerous steps to reduce waste and reuse. However the final step is with the rubbish that leaves our site. We send our rubbish to a recycling centre. They currently recycle 70% of what we throw away!!! Please see Gaskells Waste Services.

Online meetings

•    “Online” Meetings -  with four offices around the country there is a danger of our staff having to spend too much time driving to meeting; wasting resource and time! We have adopted WebEx and encourage our staff to dial in to meeting, using the video conferencing facility to improve the experience. Not a perfect replacement for a face to face meeting, but not bad.

Air heat

•    Air Source Heat Pumps – whilst we still use fossil fuel to heat our production areas, we have now switched over our main sales office, design office, export office, production control and meeting room to air source heat pumps as a more sustainable way of heating.

Helping Others

The staff at Heaps have chosen Claire House as the company charity. The work Claire House does with terminally ill children is simply amazing.  Our staff run regular fundraising events and so far have donated £4,000.00 to the charity. To help this effort Heaps will now match its staffs efforts pound for pound.

Schools

We believe that every company needs to do its bit to help the local schools to prepare the children for a tough jobs market. With 20% youth unemployment they need every help they can get.

Heap & Partners provide work experience for the local schools, attend career days, provide factory tours, give talks on a range of topics including interview techniques (see our crib sheet) and manufacturing.

We believe that we must educate the youth of today to consider all the advantages of a career in manufacturing. It worries us the number of times people say “I didn’t think we made anything in Britain anymore”. Britain is still the 6th biggest manufacturing country in the World, which puts something like 188 other countries behind us! People need to be made aware of this impressive fact! It’s not bad for a little island!