Empowering Our People
People matter – this is one of our core beliefs. We invest in our people, we put power into people and in return we get energy and enthusiasm out of them. We treat our staff with respect, give them opportunities to grow and reward them fairly for performance in a positive and caring work environment.
We achieve world class standards through the ongoing commitment and dedication of all of our staff members. The IFS team lives our values, and receives the training and resources required to fulfil their role to the best of their ability.
Of our 3000+ workforce:
85% of all management positions are held by in-country nationals
23% are women
75% staff received training this year
Developing our staff for the future
We pride ourselves in providing our staff with continuous learning opportunities through numerous training initiatives, delivered by internal and external subject matter experts. Our focus is on our staff and customers safety, and safety training is ongoing and critical. We train our staff in their home language in order to enhance the experience. In addition, we use audio visual aids and learner guides in multiple languages such as English, French, Portuguese and Swahili.
IFS Training Academy
We recognise that the greatest contributors to unemployment are low skill levels. The IFS Training Academy has been established to respond to these challenges by equipping our workforce and the communities that we operate in with the necessary skills to enhance work performance and increase employability.
The IFS Training Academy provides our workforce with career pathing opportunities, entering at level 101 and progressing to level 303 programmes specific to the functional area they operate in, such as catering, housekeeping, laundry, retail, front of house and stores. These programmes develop the skills needed for the staff to function effectively in the jobs they perform.
Bursary programme
IFS provides formal learning opportunities through our Bursary and financial assistance programme. All employees are given an opportunity to apply for Bursaries that would further their technical skills through a formal qualification aligned to their current and or further role within the organisation.
Investing in the Community
For International Facilities Services, Corporate Social Involvement (CSI) is about imparting our internal values to the communities around our operations. It’s about aligning our heart for philanthropy with our social and environmental culture. It’s about making the communities where we operate a part of our growth. It’s about taking our heart into your home, making each individual that we impact feel closer to home.
Community development forms a major part of the social responsibility of IFS within the regions and constituencies where we operate. This is a fundamental driver of sustainability as the ultimate goal. A key proponent of addressing community development is acknowledging that every community that is exposed to a project is considered as a project stakeholder.
General upliftment has many benefits. These range from a better local workforce, through to local produce improvements which reduce the carbon footprint and improve the lives of local farmers. Development of the community has a positive economic impact, on both the site, and the community it resides in.
IFS realises the importance of working with and growing the communities in and around all our projects across the continent. We have built sustainable relationships over the years and our constant focus on CSI is what differentiates IFS from any other facilities company.
Health & safety campaigns
Safety
The health and safety of your workforce is important to you and it is important to us. IFS has a comprehensive “I’m For Safety Campaign”, which has proven effective in reducing the amounts of incidents, preventing risks and increasing awareness amongst ours and our client’s staff.
Nutrition
Providing adequate nutrition, within a safe and hygienically risk-free working environment, is important to keep employees healthy and productive.
Workers need to be alert and sharp at all times. A lack in concentration can be detrimental and even fatal; therefore maintaining energy and healthy blood sugar levels throughout the day is a priority.
Ideally the meal break should be a time to rest, refuel, bond with co-workers, and release stress and to physically remove oneself from the cubical or workstation.
Health & Hygiene
The workplace is the ultimate community-based setting for health intervention. Many workers are present at least eight hours a day, five days a week and spend a third of their day, or half their waking hours at work. They are often of the same educational background and face similar health concerns. We have multi-lingual campaigns for Malaria, Tuberculosis, Diabetes and Aids awareness. IFS Malaria cases have dropped by a whopping 70%!
Green initiative
As a growing demand is placed on the earth’s productive capacity, so the need increases for sustainable initiatives to be implemented in the workplace. At IFS we understand the value of environmental sustainability and the positive outcomes that are achieved for all business stakeholders through such dialogue. To this end, IFS believes in adopting a pro-active approach to sustainability through creative design and implementation of project-centric environmental initiatives.
The IFS Green Initiatives represent commitment to environmental sustainability, and their success is pinned on engagement with the clients that we serve in order to create sustainable operations.
Some of our environmental initiatives include bagasse packaging and reverse osmosis.
“We will be sensitive to the environmental constraints on our operations, including a sensitivity to shortages in natural resources such as fresh water”- IFS Environmental Policy.
