A great place to work where everyone can fulfil their potential
Our people are central to our success. So, we are investing in enhancing our people experience through focused investments to advance diversity and inclusion initiatives, develop talent and protect safety and wellbeing. We're committed to ensuring that SSP is the best part of our colleagues' career journey.
We are also strengthening our efforts to respect human rights across our business and supply chains. And, recognising our important role in the communities where we operate, we support charities to help alleviate food poverty and other local causes.
Our commitments
Commitment 7
Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion
We are committed to promoting an inclusive and engaging culture where everyone can fulfil their potential.
Commitment 8
Protecting safety and wellbeing
We are committed to protecting the safety of our colleagues, customers and clients, and promoting colleague wellbeing.
Commitment 9
Respecting human rights
We are committed to respecting the human rights of people across our business operations and supply chains.
Targets
Each year, improve the colleague engagement score in our global Colleague Engagement Survey.
Each year, maintain Board diversity, with at least 40% women and at least one person from a minority ethnic background.
By 2025, 40% of senior leadership roles held by women.
Target
Each year, ensure appropriate activities to support colleagues’ physical, mental and financial wellbeing, in line with our global wellbeing framework, are in place across all our operating regions.
Targets
Each year, continue to maintain 100% compliance of senior managers (post-induction) to have received modern slavery training.
By 2025, 100% of contracted suppliers with higher human rights risks to undergo our human rights due diligence.
Commitment 10
Supporting our communities
We are committed to supporting our diverse, local communities through charitable partnerships to alleviate food poverty and other causes.
Target
By 2025, all divisions globally to have partnerships with food poverty charities and local charities.
Achieved engagement score of 3.97/5.0
In 2024, we continued to strengthen our ‘Measure, Listen and Act’ engagement programme, which included conducting a Global Colleague Survey with Gallup, a leader in workforce engagement.
Gallup’s Q12 index consists of 12 questions that assess various aspects of an employee’s workplace experience, such as their level of job satisfaction, the quality of relationships with colleagues and managers and their sense of purpose at work.
Over 80% of our colleagues chose to participate, representing a 4 percentage point increase – an additional c.6,000 colleagues – compared to 2023. The overall Q12 engagement score was 3.97/5.00, a strong result that has remained consistent year-on-year.
We've joined forces with Slave-Free Alliance
We believe that respect for human rights is fundamental to our business and the communities we serve. We are committed to upholding and safeguarding these rights throughout our global operations and supply chain.
We’re proud to announce that we have become members of Slave-Free Alliance (SFA), a global social enterprise dedicated to eradicating modern slavery and forced labour in organisations and supply chains worldwide.
Our work with SFA is already underway. We’re actively collaborating with their expert team to review our management approach to human rights and modern slavery. Their insight and support will be crucial in strengthening our approach, helping ensure we uphold the highest human rights standards at SSP.
UK - £1 million fundraised for Macmillan
We reached the £1 million fundraising milestone for Macmillan Cancer Support. The donation will help the leading cancer charity continue providing physical, emotional and financial support for people living with cancer across the UK.
SSP UK began its partnership with Macmillan in 2018, following a company-wide colleague vote. Since then, teams have committed to raising money through a number of fundraising activities, including ‘Go Green’ days, 'around the world' virtual globetrotting challenges, bake-off competitions, sponsored bike rides and marathons, with additional grants also being provided by the SSP Foundation, a UK registered charity.
Case studies
As a global employer, we believe we have a responsibility to create pathways for employment and upward mobility in the hospitality industry. We do this through a mix of training, apprenticeship and scholarship programmes. We also partner with local organisations to provide opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
In India, for example, our joint venture, Travel Food Services, provides job opportunities for people who are speech and hearing impaired. Their Chefs for Good initiative also provides vocational training in culinary skills for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
In the UK, for example, we partner with Ignite Youth to engage and support disadvantaged and marginalised young people, as well as Ambitious about Autism to support people with autism and Only a Pavement Away to assist people experiencing homelessness. In 2024, we hired 11 colleagues through Only a Pavement Away.
Our ‘Fly.Learn.Grow’ development programme in our APAC markets provides short-term secondments for individuals to work in other APAC markets.
As well as a great development opportunity for our people, the programme builds cross-cultural confidence, strengthens our regional connections and enhances collaboration and knowledge sharing. In 2024, 18 colleagues participated in the programme.
“Fly.Learn.Grow is a fully-funded initiative that stemmed from our listening groups following the 2022 Global Colleague Survey, where we heard colleagues’ interest in spending time together and learning from other markets.
What’s great is that it has proven to be mutually beneficial to both the host market and our colleagues. It helps colleagues explore and understand new markets and build cross-cultural confidence, while fostering stronger connections, facilitating better collaboration and sharing.” Patty Wong, Head of People, SSP Asia Pacific
We joined WiHTL (Welcome to all in Hospitality Travel and Leisure) in 2022 - a collaborative, multi-stakeholder group devoted to increasing diversity and inclusion across our sector. In 2024, 24 colleagues from Group and our UK&I business participated in WiHTL’s programmes, with eight graduating from the Ethnic Future Leaders Programme.
Our UK&I CEO, Kari Daniels, joined WiHTL’s Advisory Board in 2023 to support the diversity and inclusion agenda across the industry. She was recognised in the 2024 Women to Watch Index.
Our UK&I business has achieved gender balance in our senior leadership, and in 2024, Kari Daniels signed the LEAD Network CEO Pledge to increase female representation at director level8 by 5% over the next three years.
“As a passionate believer that inclusive businesses are better businesses, I was delighted to join the WiHTL Advisory Board in 2023, helping the organisation achieve its mission. DE&I is an area I’ve long championed, and as CEO of SSP UK & Ireland, I’m committed to fostering a culture which celebrates the rich diversity of our colleagues and the customers we serve.” Kari Daniels, CEO SSP UK&I
In 2024, the SSP Foundation fundraised over £260,000 through a charity gala and auction to support FareShare, the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger, and Trussell, the UK’s largest network of food banks.
The donation will fund an additional lorry for FareShare to facilitate the distribution of millions of meals each year. This builds on the Foundation’s grant for a new lorry in 2022.
In addition, the donation will help fund Trussell’s Help through Hardship helpline, which connects people to advisors who can try to maximise people’s income by helping them access all the benefits they’re eligible for.
"With the £135m000 raised by SSP Foundation, we’re unlocking life-changing support for nearly 900 individuals. This is projected to generate a collective income boost of over £625,000. It will allow the helpline to keep providing people on the lowest incomes with advice and support now and in the future, making it less likely for someone to need a food bank again.” Edlira Alku, Senior Manager Financial Inclusion (Helpline Services), Trussell
In India, our JV, TFS, has a charitable foundation focused on addressing some of the most pressing issues for the country, including poverty and malnutrition. Its flagship ‘Food and Nutrition for All’ initiative focuses on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, as well as educating and empowering adolescent girls and pregnant and breastfeeding women to help ensure proper nutrition and lifelong health. This initiative has benefitted over 100,000 people in tribal communities since 2022.
TFS’s foundation has also empowered rural women in India by creating over 2,000 kitchen gardens, providing fresh produce and enhancing food security. In total, 300 families have been supported to earn additional income from goat rearing, while 740 farmers engaged in multi-cropping and nutri-plots, boosting yields and improving diets.
They also dedicated 110 hours in 2024 to planting over 10,000 fruit saplings across the country – helping to enhance biodiversity and provide nutrition for local communities.