We seek sustainable long-term, two-way relationships with our supply chain, which build mutual trust through continuous dialogue to deliver exceptional results. Collaboration with our service partners is essential to ensure that new ways of working and best practice are cascaded across our supply chain.
Working collaboratively with our service partners
We work with a broad and diverse range of service partners, from small independent companies to large multinationals. Whilst we require all our service partners to comply with standards and codes that may be specific to their industry, our Service Partners Code of Conduct sets out the standards that we require of our service partners.
The overall objective of the Service Partner Code of Conduct is to build trusting and open relationships, to integrate established standards that help our service partners to operate ethically and responsibly and drive improved performance throughout the supply chain. We recognise that the implementation of this Code of Conduct will be slightly different for each service partners.
Wherever possible, we encourage our service partners to raise any concern with their usual point of contact at the Company. Alternatively, we have a formal whistleblowing policy which can be found here.
Key to the successful and profitable delivery of our developments is our deep relationships and inclusive way of working with our service partners. Integral to our tender processes for both development and our investment portfolio, therefore, is not only the consideration of costs but, equally importantly, the team we work with.
Working together on our developments and refurbishments
On our developments, to maintain our track record of successful project delivery, we seek, where possible, to retain key team members on successive developments.
For all of our development and refurbishment projects, regular communication is paramount. This starts with the design process, where we encourage our design team to consider the art of the possible and work with our contractors to explore new ways of working, to achieve the best outcome.
Involvement of our agents throughout the process also helps us to ensure that, with their input, our buildings are designed and, where appropriate, evolved over the project to meet changing occupier needs.
Throughout the construction phase we maintain a close relationship with our supply chain to make sure we deliver safely and to the highest quality on time and on budget. Separately, we also engage with our supply chain to discuss the impact of all existing, new and forthcoming legislation on matters such as ESG and health and safety.
As part of our collaborative way of working, to support our development contractors in the management of their irregular cash flows, we offer to pay our contractors bi-monthly.
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"We value the long-term relationships with our supply chain and seek to work with people who share our desire to deliver properties to the highest quality. We work hard to create a collaborative environment with people who share our enthusiasm, integrity, loyalty, transparency and desire to create the best quality spaces that our occupiers, investors and shareholders have come to expect."
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"Working for GPE is rewarding because of their level of challenge. They understand the product, they understand the market, they know what they want and they ask the right kind of questions. At the same time, they are very supportive and they want to get the best out of everybody. Frankly, that’s the best kind of client to have."
Working together on our investment portfolio
At GPE, we believe that working in partnership with a select group of service partners provides exemplary service and value for money for our occupiers. To ensure we achieve this, we engage exclusively with contractors who hold appropriate SSiP accreditations, we set clear Service Level Agreements and Key Performance Indicators as part of the contract procurement process and ensure economies of scale are delivered where possible.
As we manage all aspects of our property portfolio in-house, we work closely with our service partners to ensure that they understand and meet our occupiers’ needs. We enter into three-year term contracts to foster a long-term partnership ethos where our service partners invest in the building through their staff and build relationships with both our occupiers and our on-site management staff.
To ensure we remain cognisant of occupiers’ needs and our service partners’ performance in delivering exemplary customer service, formal feedback is sought from our Occupier Services Managers on a quarterly basis and through this process, we identify opportunities for improvement and how to deliver best practice across multiple service lines. It is through this collaborative approach we can provide an ever-improving experience to our occupiers.