We contribute our efforts, time and involvement in activities to the communities in which we operate including Bintulu, Miri, Paka, Labuan and Kuala Lumpur as well as in Indonesia. Part of our contributions also goes to supporting institutions such as orphanages and non-profit government organisations.
As corporate citizen also, we did our part by supporting the front liners in fighting the COVID-19 outbreak. We distributed personal protection equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies including more than 100,000 face masks, disinfectants latex gloves and infrared thermometers worth up to RM1.0 million to several hospitals in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Sarawak.
We have diverse workforce including people of varying gender, age, religion, race, ethnicity, cultural background and languages. Our employees diversify from other countries including Bosnia, India, Indonesia, Guinea, Myanmar, Yemen, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand and United Kingdom.
We are stepping up our actions to improve the imbalance by increasing the employment of women across all areas of our organisations. We make efforts to at least maintain our total female composition between 18% and 21% over the past five years. Part of our initiatives for 2019 is to give seminars and talks targeted at female engineering students in tertiary educational institutions as well as vocational students with the intention of attracting them to join our Group.
At end of 2018, we introduced the Serba Dinamik Education Fund to provide scholarships to our employee’s dependents. The scholarship aims to provide financial assistance to the children of eligible Serba Dinamik employees to pursue either a Professional Certificate, Diploma, Undergraduate or Postgraduate programme locally. For the batch in 2019, (3) students were selected and for the year 2020, (10) students were selected for the program.
We are proud of our reputation for fair business dealings. We seek to preserve this hard-won reputation through our code of business ethics. Our code of business ethics is integral to our operations, especially when we deal with external parties. We are vigilant in ensuring that all employees comply with our code of business ethics. Compliance to these principles is also expected from our business partners, suppliers, contractors, consultants, representatives, and other intermediaries. Our firm commitment to ensure the business is conduct fair is supported by our Anti-Corruption & Anti Bribery Policy and No Gift Policy which can be found on our website.
In this respect, we have incorporated our business ethics, policies, core values and principles into our Code of Business Conduct. This sets the standard on business practices, behaviour and conduct that we expect from our employees in their daily work activities, and dealings with internal and external parties. All new employees are issued with our Code of Business Conduct as part of their orientation programme. Any issue pertaining on harassing will be covered by our Work Harassment Policy.
We are committed to identifying and addressing labour and human rights issues and effects that are directly linked to our business activities, including the rights of our workers as well as communities in the areas we operate. As a global engineering company, we face issues relating to working conditions at our foreign operations.
Part of our business operations includes utilising contractors and their workers in building and construction related works in developing countries. We recognise that safeguarding human rights extend to our suppliers, and part of our corporate social responsibility is to conduct an annual review of our supply chain including contractors and suppliers to assess their safety procedures and working conditions. To prevent child labour and force labour issue, we employed employee with the age of 18 years old and above and they will join our workforce on a consensual employment contract.
We continually promote a culture of communication and transparency in our work place. This is designed to provide a platform for our staff to raise any issues, grievances or concerns regarding the way we operate, as well as how staff interacts internally. We encourage our people to take their concerns directly with the appropriate line managers, supervisors and human resource managers. If issues are not resolved satisfactory and expediently, they are encouraged to bring forward those issues or concerns to senior management.
We had institute a system for handling internal and external complains and grievances by the introduction of Whistle-Blower Policy. This will apply to internal staff as well as external stakeholders including business partners, customers, consultants, suppliers, and contractors. All complains and grievances will be formally acknowledged, investigated, and documented with recommended remedial actions. All these will be conducted on a confidential basis.
To maintain confidentiality, we will provide an online facility to receive as well as create an audit trail of follow-up actions and final resolution or decision.
To promote an ethical work environment, we have a Compliance Officer in our head office in Malaysia to monitor work environment and business practices. The Compliance Officer reports to the Whistleblower Working Committee comprising General Managers from various departments including Human Resources, Finance, Corporate Services, Corporate Governance and Legal Affairs. The responsibility of the Committee is to provide advice, guidance and resolve any disputes relating to the Code of Business Conduct. Any serious issues arising would be reported to the Audit Risk Committee.
We support and commit on equal opportunity, diversity, and non-discrimination in our workplace by providing equal employment, career development and advancement opportunities, and pay packages without discrimination. We prohibit discrimination based on race, religion, sex, age, marital status, national origin, education level, political belief or affiliation, sexual orientation, and any other type of discrimination.
Having diversity in the workplace ensures variety of perspectives, skills and experiences. Although we are focusing on local talent at location where we operate, being a global company with operations in various countries, we have a diverse workforce including people of varying gender, age, religion, race, ethnicity, cultural background and languages. For example, while we are a Malaysian based company, our operations in Malaysia comprises employees from other countries including Bosnia, India, Indonesia, Guinea, Myanmar, Yemen, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and United Kingdom. In a diverse workplace, employees are exposed to multiple perspectives and worldviews leading to higher innovation rate and increased creativity.
In our effort to increase our Group’s total female composition, the numbers of our female employee had grown from 19% in 2019 to 23% in 2020 significantly. We adhere with local law where we operate and therefore, complying with the human right, employment law, business conduct etc. To prevent child labor and force labor issue, we employed employee with the age of 18 years old and above and they will join our workforce on a consensual employment contract.
Our training centres that are approved by City & Guilds since 2008 in Shah Alam has conducted vocational courses where most of the students are from underprivileged background. Upon completion of the course, most of the graduate will be absorb as our employee. This will enable us to develop future skilled workers for our own workforce through developing their capabilities, competencies, and readiness to serve the market.