Ceri Jennings, Director of Living Wage Employer Sparkles Cleaning, who also bagged themselves a Living Wage Champion Award earlier this year shares why the Living Wage is so essential for their team especially during the cost-of-living-crisis.
The real Living Wage remains our main focus to help with the everyday living costs that everyone faces, Sparkles is currently paying above the real Living Wage for all our employees regardless of their age or their experience, we have regular conversations with our staff to find out what matters to them as they are the heart of the business.
As a business we are proud that we make a profit, this is due to everyone’s hard work, dedication and loyalty to Sparkles. We show that everyone’s efforts are appreciated, by giving 20% of the profits to the employees, this makes a difference to them and is a massive help at this time as we are all experiencing the cost-of-living crisis.
You can read what our employees have to say about being paid above the the Real Living Wage here.
If members of Sparkles are finding it hard to make ends meet, we also offer subs on their wages and have helped a few members with interest free loans, so that they have less to pay back and there is no added pressure. I know that this has helped, and we will continue to help in any way that we can.
Sparkles, like all the other business around Wales and Great Britain, are feeling the uncertainty, of what’s around the corner for us all, but one thing I know is that we will do all we can to survive, it’s in our blood. Getting through a recession back in 2008 was hard and giving up was not an option, more recently, getting through Covid, working from home and staying in with my daughter who has Cystic Fibrosis was a battle for survival on two levels; family & business. And now the cost-of-living crisis that affects us all from food shopping to mortgages, gas & electric increases which means our products and equipment also going up, well as all the services that we use. I know that I have the fight in me to adapt the business where-ever possible.
Sparkles will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary next year, and we want to mark the occasion.
We are the proud winners of the Living Wage Employee Choice Award 2022, we currently have 30 members of staff, 6 of them put us forward, it was humbling to have won.
Sparkles have been an accredited company for a few years. We proud to say that we are Living Wage Employers, we always paid above the National rate, feeling that this was the right thing to do, getting the accreditation I feel sends the right message and is appealing to people that want to work for an ethical company.
