Social Value Social value is at the heart of the company, and we believe our culture of ‘doing good’ runs through not just our employees but our supply chain too, creating positive benefits for stakeholders and the communities in which we work.
Re-investment in our local economy by direct or indirect means is integral to Gipping’s mission to pro-actively contribute to the growth and development of our region. Through our work on regenerative projects in the heritage, education, residential and cultural sectors, we have successfully orchestrated various initiatives which have directly benefited local communities, working closely with regional further education providers to offer experience and opportunities to young people.
Culture and Values
A culture of trust, fairness, integrity, equality, and collaboration is deeply rooted at Gipping. It is a culture that prioritises our employees, clients, and supply chain, creating a positive work environment. This is reflected in our staff retention: over 70% have been employed for over five years, 30% for more than ten. Seventy-five percent of our staff live in Suffolk and 19% of our employees are female (nationally, less than 15% of those employed in the construction industry are women).
We have consistently improved our score as an Investors in People since joining 18 years ago, holding gold award since 2019. In 2023, we became an Employee-Owned Trust, putting power and value into the hands of our employees. Gipping’s strong purpose applies to all we do, with social responsibility at our core. We work with a diverse and sustainable supply chain who make positive impacts on our clients, community, and cause.
Developing New Talent
We employ people of mixed ethnicity, sexual orientation, and ability, offering continuous education and training. We currently employ three apprentices directly, who are at various stages in their development. One is studying for HNC Level 4 Construction, Quantity surveying Technician and another is studying for a Bsc (Hons) in Quantity Surveying.
We have recently become an Industry Partner to Suffolk New College and have committed to provide work experience to both T Level and C&G students in 2025. Furthermore, we assist in securing apprenticeships within our supply chain and are actively seeking to offer an apprenticeship in management or surveying.
We sponsor Inspire Suffolk and Lofty Heights Skills Academy, both Ipswich based charities which help young people get back into education or work where college is not an option. As well as financially supporting them, we have organised and funded work taster days to inspire young people to choose a career in construction, provided mock interview days, donated tools and building supplies and hired their facilities to promote their work.
In 2024 we hosted a World of Work Day for twelve young people from Inspire Suffolk at our Ravenswood site. They were able to try out six different trades with our sub-contractors, had a talk from the CITB and we arranged for full PPE to be sponsored and in 2025, we will host three separate visits from Colchester Institute Carpentry students to our sites.
We have again committed to providing one week’s work experience to a student from Northgate School in 2025.
As well as our time, we also donate tools and building supplies to local Colleges – Lofty Heights Skills Academy, Suffolk New College and Colchester Institute have all received donations in the past year and this will continue.
Education, Volunteering and Community
We collaborate with schools, further education centres and youth groups to provide education and offer career advice. Our work in education gives us strong links to local schools who we support.
At Ipswich Museum, our Marketing department has worked closely with the learning team and IBC Comms to organise an art competition within our #mammothmakeover campaign. This was extended to schools and individuals, and we sponsored prizes and organised publicity to highlight the campaign. The artworks are now decorating the hoardings outside the museum, effectively continuing the work of the museum and Ipswich Art Gallery as a cultural hub. We designed and produced an 8’ x 6’ banner promoting the Museum and the stakeholders who enabled the project to go ahead. The banner attracted regional media attention and we have been asked to do the same at our Long Shop Museum in Leiston site.
We are currently collaborating with the Art department of a local school to provide an opportunity to their A level art students to use the hoardings at Ipswich Museum as a canvas for their coursework in Spring 2025. This will not only add interest and colour to the streetscape but provide an additional opportunity for the students to exhibit their work in a large public domain.
Our Marketing and PR department has strong links with local media and works hard to ensure positive coverage of all community outreach activity. Our work at Ipswich Museum has been featured on BBC radio, Look East TV as well as local media outlets and our site manager writes weekly updates for a blog run by IBC, creating a narrative of the progress. We understand how public buildings, especially historic landmarks, which provide services to the community, are held in high regard, therefore regular communication to inform, reassure and give the community a sense of ownership in the project, is essential.
We have responded to requests from the community to support sporting events – in 2023, we produced a series of large-scale banners to promote the Tour of Britain as it went past our site in Hadleigh. The banners made a TV appearance and were very positively received by the local community and our client, Babergh and Mid Suffolk Council.
In 2024, we sponsored a local girl guide group’s trip to Paris and offered them a morning at Ravenswood site to earn a ‘Breaking Barriers’ badge. We also organised a talk by some of our female employees about careers in construction and a visit and talk by the CITB.
Gipping’s site managers are known for their excellent engagement with businesses or individuals affected by our works. Prior to commencement, we drop information leaflets to neighbouring addresses to inform them of any potential disruption, mitigating any issues that could occur on a town centre site. Our site managers have organised coffee mornings, Christmas events and site visits for local people, tenants and stakeholders to encourage good relationships during works.
When working in schools, our Site Managers have organised tours of the site for pupils, explaining what is going on and we have sponsored PPE for them to safely walk on busy roads.
Many of our employees volunteer for local community organisations and are encouraged to do so. One of our Site Managers is a highly active and skilled volunteer for Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue which occasionally requires him to take off time during the working day. Other members of staff volunteer to teach safe motorcycle skills, work at soup kitchens, raise money through sporting activities such as cycling, or coach youth football teams. As an organisation, we fully support and endorse all voluntary work for the benefit of the local community with time off and financial support provided.
Employee Development
Personal growth as well as access to ongoing training is actively encouraged at Gipping with regular reviews to identify individual needs. Where projects require specialist skills, we ensure this need is met with extra training to help career development. Our apprentice carpenter (who was SJCC Apprentice of the Year in 2022), worked on the interior fit out of a contemporary home which in 2023, won the RIBA Suffolk Craftsmanship Awards.
All staff, from groundworkers to directors, attend courses to ensure their safety, well-being and enhance their ability. Psychological health as well as physical health is high on the agenda at Gipping and we have recently collaborated with a mental health professional to raise awareness of the shockingly high rate of suicide among men in the construction industry, organising and subsidising workshops for our supply chain and staff.
Fairness, honesty, partnership and good business practices with stakeholders and staff
Gipping has robust policies on anti-fraud, bribery, fair and ethical trading, and good business practice which form part of both our employee handbook and Sub-Contractor approval process. We are ISO 9001 (quality management) accredited, operating to stringent quality management standards.
Achieving quality is at the heart of everything we do at Gipping. See our Quality page here.
Promoting local employment and protecting the environment
As part of our drive towards sustainability, we re-invest in our local economy wherever possible. In addition to measures on site for protecting our environment, site induction and tool-box talks are regularly given to encourage good practice for energy conservation.
In addition to full measures, we have implemented a number of on-site environmental measures to reduce climate impact and air pollution: At our both our Tooks Bakery and Hawke Road sites, we used air monitoring systems to reduce potentially hazardous particles in earthworks where there is a degree of contamination. At Hawke Road, we also used sound and vibration monitoring systems during piling work. All sites routinely use damp down systems during dry weather, and scaffold screening to reduce noise and contain dust and debris.
