Month: September 2024

Our Culture and the Employee Experience

Through our annual employee culture and engagement survey, we gather confidential feedback to learn and act on how we can continue to create and improve our culture and the employee experience. All levels of management receive aggregated results of strengths and opportunities to develop an action plan to address their team’s needs. Understanding and acting on that feedback has been worthwhile as in our 2024 survey we achieved our highest overall score in the previous four years ― exceeding the national benchmark by 6%. We sustained or improved scores for all questions outpacing the national benchmark by seven basis points.

Encouraging Well-Being

We provide wide-ranging options to support employees’ health and well-being, including an Employee Assistance Program that provides confidential counseling, personal financial guidance and resources, legal support and work-life assistance. As many of our employees are remote and need flexibility in meeting their health and wellbeing needs, we offer a suite of convenient, easily accessible tools to keep our employees well wherever they may be. Our Wellness Community of Interest and our Accessibility Employee Resource Group provide a social way for employees to connect with each other about health and wellness while also providing useful learning and educational sessions.

Employee health and safety is always paramount to our business and to our employees’ well-being. We encourage employees to participate in health and wellness initiatives, and actively work to prevent workplace hazards.

Philanthropy

Not surprisingly, the good our company does begins with our employees. Our employees embrace SAIC’s legacy of community involvement and philanthropy. Giving both their time and money, our employees volunteered 29,000 hours in FY24, an increase of 10% over the previous year and almost 40% over FY22.

Including employee contributions, SAIC donated just over $3.2 million in FY23 to causes important to our mission.

Community Partnerships

SAIC serves the communities in which we live and work through our lasting relationships with community partners. We primarily contribute to our four focus areas: military and veteran resiliency, STEM education, community wellness and diversity. We added a diversity and inclusion focus this year as diverse and inclusive companies are more innovative and deliver stronger business results.

Military and Veteran Resilience

Building Homes for Heroes 
To honor our veteran relationships, SAIC partners with Building Homes for Heroes, a national nonprofit organization that builds and modifies houses and then gifts them mortgage-free to injured veterans and their families. By the end of FY24, we helped donate 16 homes to our military heroes through this partnership, which began in 2013 and continues into our current fiscal year with one additional home already delivered and two others scheduled for later in the year.

USO 
For over 20 years, a senior executive of SAIC has served on the board of directors of the USO. The company supports their annual fundraising gala that provides acts of caring, comfort and connection for America’s military and their families. Each year, SAIC employees support USO’s Project Elf and provide holiday gifts for hundreds of junior enlisted children every year. In 2023, we provided 250 military families with gifts to help make their holidays brighter.

Astronaut Scholarship Foundation 
Since 2017, SAIC has provided STEM scholarships through the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, created to ensure that the United States maintains leadership in science and technology by supporting some of the very best STEM college students. To date, SAIC has provided 22 scholarships in helping to inspire future generations. SAIC serves on the Neil Armstrong® Award of Excellence selection committee, an award given to an Astronaut Scholar Alum that exemplifies personal character and professional achievement mirroring the core values of its namesake, Neil Armstrong.

Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering 
SAIC supports the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering’s mission of educating – tuition-free – the cyber technology and engineering workforce of the future. Today, SAIC continues its financial and community support for the school and its students pursuing STEM education. In 2022, SAIC committed $1.5 million towards Alabama’s leading magnet schools in STEM education.

Community Wellness

Feeding America 
We’re in our tenth consecutive year of helping combat hunger in America through our partnership with Feeding America. During Hunger Action Month in September 2023, SAIC raised $311,908 with the help of donations and fundraising efforts by SAIC employees – an equivalent of 3.1 million meals for people facing food insecurity.

SAIC employees embraced the company’s Give A Meal Team Challenge, participating in a variety of activities that included events to raise funds, along with volunteering at their local food banks. Their generosity, time and dedication resulted in more than $131,000 in direct contributions, which the company matched. Over the past 10 years, SAIC has helped provide approximately 25 million meals to people in need through our partnership the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization. For every dollar given, Feeding America provides at least 10 meals to those facing hunger.

Diversity and Inclusion

Thurgood Marshall College Fund 
SAIC supports the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the nation’s largest organization exclusively representing the Black College Community offering financial assistance to outstanding students attending one of funds member-schools that include 47 publicly supported Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). In partnership for four years, SAIC works with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to help provide scholarships and research initiatives as the organization is a source for top employers seeking talent for competitive internships and good jobs. SAIC CEO Toni Townes-Whitley has served on their board of directors since 2019.

Learn more about community partnerships and employee volunteering in SAIC’s 2024 Corporate Responsibility Report

PARIS, September 26, 2024 /3BL/ – The Consumer Goods Forum’s (CGF) Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative (SSCI) is pleased to announce that the Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporter Association (EHPEA) has submitted its Code of Practice for Sustainable Flower Production application for the SSCI benchmarking.

This marks a significant milestone for EHPEA as it seeks SSCI Recognition, demonstrating its alignment with industry expectations for third-party social compliance programs within the SSCI’s Primary Production scope for social sustainability.

To date, the SSCI has recognised five schemes, and EHPEA joins five additional schemes currently in progress for recognition. Through this benchmarking process, SSCI continues its commitment to building trust in sustainability standards by recognising programmes that uphold key criteria set by leading industry stakeholders.

Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA) is a business membership organisation which was established in 2002. It is an organisation meant to promote the interest of its members who are engaged in the production and export of cut flowers, fruit, vegetables, herbs, cuttings as well as vegetable seeds.

Currently, EHPEA has 126 members and it has been relentlessly contributing to the horticulture industry boom in Ethiopia and effectively representing the interests of its members locally and globally.

The Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association Code of Practice is the result of an initiative taken by the sector to introduce a voluntary system of continuous professional and technical development, monitoring and self-regulation into the sector and is designed to address market and civil society concerns about standards for social and environmental performance in the sector and also to guide the sustainable development of the sector.

It consists of three levels of excellence allowing Ethiopian flower and ornamental plant farms to be rewarded at each stage of their process towards developing more sustainable management practices within the chain. Each level will be recognised by EHPEA through a certificate.

Mr. Tewodros Zewdie, Executive Director of EHPEA, said, “The Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA) has emphasized the significance of the SSCI Benchmark as a rigorous process designed to uphold sustainability standards. The benchmark involves self-assessments, independent expert reviews, audits, and public consultations, ensuring a high level of transparency and accountability. By adhering to these global standards, EHPEA seeks to enhance the international credibility of Ethiopian horticultural products while promoting sustainable practices across the industry”

The SSCI Benchmark is a comprehensive process that recognises which schemes cover key sustainability criteria and apply relevant verification practices. The process revolves around a first self-assessment undertaken by the scheme, followed by a review by an independent expert, office visits, and a public consultation. The methodology also includes opportunities for the applicant to take corrective actions if and when needed.

At the SSCI, we welcome this positive step from EHPEA and look forward to reviewing its alignment towards industry values on transparency, social responsibility and sustainability. To monitor the process of its evaluation, and other schemes undergoing the benchmarking, visit https://recognition.tcgfssci.com/.

Learn More and Apply

Third-party auditing and monitoring schemes and programmes are invited to apply for SSCI Recognition and demonstrate their commitment to industry-defined expectations for social responsibility. Learn more about the SSCI Benchmark and download the application kits at benchmark.tcgfssci.com.

For more information about the SSCI, please visit www.tcgfssci.com or contact the SSCI team at ssci@theconsumergoodsforum.com