As an equal-opportunity employer we strive to create a holistic workplace for our workforce. We ensure diversity in our employee profile in terms of gender, ethnicity, caste and creed. Our hiring practices are meritocratic, and our compensation policy is solely dependent on our employees’ qualifications, experience, skill set and performance.
We recognise the importance of developing internal talent and investing in future talent, and we encourage our employees to engage in continuous learning and development. Our learning and development programs are designed to help our employees in upskilling, and developing their professional competencies to assure career growth.
We are focused on providing best-in-class sustainable buildings. Our portfolio is ISO/IMS certified for quality management (ISO 9001), environmental management (ISO14001), occupational health and safety management (ISO45001), and data security (ISO27001). We have subscribed to a 3-year program with the British Safety Council (BSC) and a 5-year WELL program with the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI).
Underpinned by the philosophy ‘together we can do more’, we champion collective action for increased social impact through partnerships with other corporates, non-government organizations (NGOs) and the government. We partner with specialised NGOs like Colours of Life, The Anonymous Indian Charitable Trust, Bengaluru North Round Table Trust, Friends of Tribals, Careworks Foundation and others to implement developmental interventions.
Most of our education, health and education infrastructure CSR projects are being carried out in partnership with our occupiers under the Corporate Connect umbrella. These initiatives help us in amplifying our CSR projects and align our CSR mandates with our 200+ corporate occupiers, thereby promoting long-lasting relationships and partnerships. We have completed 60+ projects to date in partnership with 30+ corporates.
Several cultural and entertainment programs are undertaken at our campuses to engage our occupiers’ employees and foster a sense of culture. We have rolled out several initiatives to understand and improve the occupier satisfaction levels with our services and facilities. Further, we have initiated the inclusion of ‘Green Lease’ clauses which declares a common statement of intent to jointly work towards our ESG goals.
Females as % of total new hires
TARGET
50%by FY2023
H1 FY2023 PROGRESS
43%
Track diversity-related KRAs of hiring managers
Conduct 2023 Employee Engagement survey
Average training hours per employee
TARGET
13.5 hours
H1 FY2023 PROGRESS
11 hours
Continue diversity and ESG related trainings
5-star BSC certified portfolio (% of operational area)
TARGET
100%by FY2023
H1 FY2023 PROGRESS
100%
Initiate WELL building performance verification
Continue behavior-based safety culture programme
Positively impact communities around all our properties
H1 FY2023 PROGRESS
₹89 Million CSR spend
Undertake pan-India CSR projects
Initiate community stakeholder surveys
Occupiers engaged under ‘Corporate Connect’
TARGET
10%
H1 FY2023 PROGRESS
8%
Complete the government school in Thanisandra, in partnership with ANZ
‘Green leases’ signed during the period
the period
TARGET
70% by FY2024
H1 FY2023 PROGRESS
71%
Hold half-yearly meetings of ESG Occupier Forum
Conduct 2023 C-SAT survey
Note: Targets set against baseline of FY2020 actuals for the portfolio (including Embassy TechVillage acquisition)
Studies
As India develops, the volumes of waste generated are also increasing. To encourage responsible waste management practices in and around our business parks, we have rolled out EcoGram, a project that encourages villages near our business parks to segregate their waste and reduce the volumes reaching landfills.
The EcoGram project is an initiative started in 2016 by ‘The Anonymous India Charitable Trust (TAICT)’ and implemented in 9 villages of the Bettahalasuru Gram Panchayat in North Bengaluru. The vision behind EcoGram is to create model Gram Panchayats by building processes and infrastructure for sustainable decentralised waste management, soil quality and water conservation and strengthen the foundations of responsible growth by bringing together community members, local governments and funding organisations.
Before the start of EcoGram Project, garbage from around 2500 waste generators (at the rate of 53 metric tons per month) was being dumped and burnt, causing air, water and soil pollution. Our environmental and waste management initiatives have led to high levels of segregation in the villages we operate in, through enthusiastic community participation and awareness. Dry waste is sorted in a collection centre into 35 categories and sold to aggregators and recyclers. Rejected dry, sanitary and mixed waste is sent to government-approved landfills. We conduct weekly monitoring of operations based on 15 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Our initiatives have impacted around 2,800 households and ten bulk waste generators in FY2022. We collected 332 metric tons of wet and dry waste and recycled over 120 metric tons of dry waste. In addition, we conducted 12 workshops and awareness sessions on waste segregation and management for 617 beneficiaries during FY2022.
Water is a scarce resource and taking steps to conserve it is critical for the continued well-being of humanity. In this regard, we are working to rejuvenate two lakes in Bengaluru as part of the EcoGram project. Guided by Dr Vincent Paul Raj, an expert on Miyawaki afforestation and Vetiver plantation, we are supporting the building of bunds around the adopted lakes as a natural reinforcement system. With our implementation partner, we planted 16,000 Vetiver saplings around Tarahunise lake and 40,000 saplings around the Thimmasandra lake. Additionally, with the help of the Forest Department and Gram Panchayat, 900 other saplings were planted around the Thimmasandra lake, of which 70 saplings are lake-friendly native species. More than 100 native tree saplings were also planted around the Tarahunise lake
We are also conducting bi-annual tests to check the quality of water of these two lakes and have also installed trash bins around the lakes and conduct drives to regularly remove litter and weeds to keep the surroundings clean. Further, in partnership with NGOs BIOME and Myrada, we conducted awareness sessions for rainwater harvesting and recharging wells.
Embassy REIT conducted an Employee Engagement Survey during FY2022 through an independent agency Gallup and witnessed a 91% participation from permanent employees. The overall engagement score for the year stood at 4.01 (on a scale of 5) as compared to a 3.97 score in FY2020. The survey helped us to analyse employee sentiments and gather valuable feedback to get actionable insights and chart out specific plans to improve the overall experience of our employees.
The survey results highlighted a few areas which were highly appreciated by the employees like transparent, supportive, open and friendly work environment, dynamic management and empathetic leadership. Areas to improve engagement such as more collaboration and team bonding initiatives were also highlighted as these engagements had reduced due to work from home and COVID-19 related restrictions. Specific action plans for FY2023 have been created to address the feedback after gathering inputs from the leadership, people managers and the human resources team. Some of the planned initiatives include an integrated office setup with regular team interactions, more frequent connects, team engagement activities and knowledge sharing sessions.
As part of our customer centricity initiatives, our goal is to achieve and sustain high customer satisfaction levels. We undertake a customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey each year to understand the occupier satisfaction levels with our services and perceptions regarding our campus facilities as well as ESG aspects such as waste management, safety and security, electrical and utilities management, etc.
According to the FY2022 survey results, we received a net promote score of 88%, a 2% increase in the score from last year. Results of the survey indicated that 86% of the respondents were satisfied with the ESG practices adopted at Embassy, which is also a 2% increase from the previous year. 87% of the respondents also indicated that they were satisfied with the EHS and wellbeing initiatives at our properties.
In our FY2022 CSAT survey, we received an overwhelming response from 169 occupiers, corresponding to a 71% survey participation rate. We committed to contributing ₹1,000 for every survey completed and thereby donated a sum of ₹1,69,000 to our CSR partner The Anonymous Indian Charitable Trust.
Occupiers were highly satisfied with Embassy REIT’s ESG initiatives and programs as well as our COVID-19 prevention initiatives and protocol implementation, including support for occupiers’ vaccination drives. Other areas of strengths highlighted by the survey were utility management, landscaping, and safety aspects especially for women employees in Embassy REIT’s business parks. Some areas of improvement suggested by the survey were rectification of water seepage issues at certain buildings, replacement of conventional CFL with LED lights, general upkeep of parking areas, introducing RFID/automated parking and more EV charging stations and increasing in number of women security guards. We have created specific action plans to address the improvement suggestions noted from this survey results. Such surveys and engagement with our occupiers helps us to continuously assess and improve our services and endeavours to provide world-class office spaces and experiences to our 200+ corporate occupiers.
