We’re thrilled to announce after months of hard work, introspection, policy review and improvements, AME Group has received our Just Label from the International Living Future Institute.
What is a Just Label?
Acting as a nutrition label, companies concerned with socially just policies self-declare on a range of corporate operations; “Just is not a certification program, it is a transparency platform for organizations to disclose their operations, including how they treat their employees and where they make financial and community investments” (Just).
At AME, we want to actively demonstrate our commitment and connection to these issues, as well as be transparent on how we are doing. We want to walk the walk, not just talk the talk!
JUSTifying Why
Our purpose is Building Legacy; we do this for the company, for our communities, for our employees, and for ourselves. Building our own Legacy is why we come to work each day.
Providing a good environment for our teams to work in is crucial to us. We know that if we’re dedicated to delivering the best place to work that we will attract and retain the best employees– which we would say we have.
One of the ways we can show our employees we’re doing our best corporately is to have this measuring tool. It allows us to see objectively how we measure up to other companies in our field and which areas we need to improve upon.
At AME, social responsibility feeds into our values that we hold true in everything we do. And this is but the first step for us in showing the world our commitment to that.
Our AdJUSTments
Being Just isn’t a goal to be achieved, but we see it rather as an ongoing process that involves our continual effort, conversations and input from all levels of the company, and re-evaluations to ensure we’re always doing our best. Continual improvement is a key pillar for AME, we don’t settle for good, we strive to always grow, learn, and improve.
When we started this process, it was evident that we had all the components and policies to apply for our Just Label, but this process afforded us the perfect opportunity to review our policies, expanding and improving them.
We expanded our Parental Leave policy to include a pay top up, renewed our commitment to AME Gives Back/Volunteering and Charitable Giving, wrote for the first time our dedication to paying a Living Wage, outlined our Training and Education allotment, clarified our Remote and Flexible Work Policy, as well as many others.
One of the additional improvements that came out of the Just. process was the launching of our AME Teams: Social, DEI, Sustainability, Technical, and BIM. By creating these employee resource groups to advise the board of Directors on important topics, we guarantee everyone is heard.
Our JUST Label
Considering this is our first time applying for a JUST label, we’re thrilled with our scores. We’re all on board with being transparent, so let’s take a walk through our label:
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Diversity & Inclusion
- We sent out our first survey about Diversity and Inclusion. The key takeaways included how our workforce is 50% diverse racial and ethnic minorities, but only 25% women, unsurprisingly, since engineering has been a primarily male-dominated field.
- Our DEI Team will be looking at ways we can recruit more women and celebrate our diverse backgrounds.
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Equity
- Evaluating our statistics, all our employees earn more than a living wage, the ratio of pay-scale difference is no more than 1:5, and our gender pay variance is only 7%.
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Employee Health
- With a focus on physical health and well-being, AME provides ergonomic workstations, bike storage, monthly wellness seminars, flexible work options, and social events.
- We’re looking forward to what our AME Teams can recommend for us to improve these areas further.
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Employee Benefits
- Our employees trust us to provide them with everything we can, including an extended health plan 100% paid for by AME, RRSP matching, 16 weeks paid parental leave with an AME top up from EI, plus $2,500 a year for training and education for each employee.
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Stewardship
- Our dedication to giving back is showcased in our relationships with our communities. We helped establish the ḴEL,ḴELOŦENȻE S,ISTEW̱ Education Fund to connect Indigenous people with financial and mentoring opportunities to join our field. We also provide 8 hours of paid volunteering per year per employee. We match donations raised by employees and provide pro-bono work for charitable organizations. And for Positive Products, we always steer and educate our clients on sustainable design options!
- Our AME Sustainability Team will be advising us on more we can do in this area to improve.
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Purchasing & Supply Chain
- Certainly an area we are looking to improve in, we are committed to purchasing more of our products locally and increasing our positive impact on those around us.
The whole process has been extremely gratifying and a wonderful opportunity to further our open discussions and create transparency within our organization. We appreciated the time this process gave us to reflect on what areas we want to and can improve on, and we’re eager to get started!