Our Purpose, Vision, Values and Ethics
Our purpose
We exist to provide our clients with a single, dedicated point of access to over 1 million of the very best serviced apartments across the world. As this is our primary objective, we're able to focus all of our time and energy on being the best independent serviced apartment agent in the industry.
Our vision
Our long term vision is to maintain our position as the world's leading serviced apartment agent. We strive to provide serviced accommodation that meets our clients' specific requirements. We achieve this by continuously sourcing and providing quality serviced apartments in key business locations throughout the world.
We're experts within the industry and maintain this knowledge by regularly visiting and reviewing our portfolio of apartments, which enables us to deliver our clients an excellent all round service.
Our values
We instil four core values within SilverDoor that we strongly believe contribute to the success of our business:
To be friendly and approachable
To be honest
To be entrepreneurial
To be commercially minded
We aim to always have a positive outlook when dealing with our clients and business partners; making certain that they look forward to meeting, speaking and working with us.
We don't promise what we can't deliver and, when we do promise something, we always go out of our way to make sure it happens.
We push ourselves to be innovative and to constantly look for ways to improve our business processes. We’re always ready to challenge conventional wisdom when we think it’s necessary.
As with most companies, our central aim is to be profitable and to grow. We believe that by reinvesting our profits in our company's growth we're able to continuously improve our service to our clients. We sometimes have to make tough business decisions, but we always try to be fair and we expect all of our business partners to do the same.
Our ethics
Our employees
At SilverDoor we believe if our employees feel appreciated, recognised, valued and challenged the rest will fall into place. We hire the right person for the job irrespective of their gender, ethnicity or beliefs. Consequently, we are a diverse organisation with employees from many different social and cultural backgrounds.
The environment
We take a balanced, reasonable and practical approach to the natural environment and do what we can where possible. We're realistic about the fact that our carbon footprint is already small, but we do our very best to continuously minimise it and encourage our property partners to do the same.
In our offices, we consciously refrain from printing unnecessary documents and wasting paper when it can just as easily be read on our computer screens. We also collect all of our empty printer and photocopier cartridges to send away for recycling; whilst our reservation system is paperless. We're continuously striving to improve and maintain these processes.
When recently redesigning and refurbishing our offices, we approached it in a careful and thoughtful way. We've provided our staff with proper kitchen and dining facilities so that they don't have to dispose of single-use cutlery and cartons every day. We provide mugs for hot beverages and glass tumblers for water and fruit juices, which can be washed and reused. We also actively recycle all waste where possible.
Our head office is located next to Gunnersbury and Chiswick Park underground stations, which encourages our staff to use public transport. We also recognise that it's more practical for some of our employees to drive to work, but encourage them to consider car sharing where possible.
The community
We support the education system and work closely with a number of UK universities to provide several annual placement positions for undergraduates; as well as introducing a graduate scheme that was implemented in July 2014. All of our schemes form part of the SilverDoor Academy, which is designed to help young people develop their skills that enable greater prospects in their future careers.
Standards of business within our supply chain
We take our position of authority very seriously. We recognise that we have a responsibility to advise and influence our suppliers in regards to their sustainability standards and practices.
The safety of our clients is paramount to us and we want to ensure that all of our suppliers are meeting essential minimum standards. We're currently working with industry associations to develop a best practice health and safety framework across the serviced accommodation sector.
We have a zero tolerance policy on bribery and corruption. All SilverDoor account managers are forbidden from accepting gifts for making bookings and this is made very clear to our suppliers. Familiarisation evenings are accepted as a means of product awareness. However, there's a limit to the level of hospitality that we'll accept.
Modern day slavery is a global issue that sees an estimated 40.3 million* people in modern slavery, of which 24.9 million are caught in forced labour. Modern slavery bypasses age, gender and ethnicities however, we acknowledge that modern slavery disproportionately affects women and girls.
We are committed to a zero-tolerance policy regarding modern slavery or human trafficking within our business and our supply chain. SilverDoor is committed to striving for a world in which everyone is treated equally, empowered to make decisions as individuals, and live freely.
Our Structure
We are SilverDoor Apartments, the world’s most trusted provider of serviced apartments
for business travel. Founded in London in 2000, we have been at the forefront of the
industry ever since. SilverDoor operates from 7 office locations in London, Lancaster,
Madrid, Singapore, Denver, Dubai and Hyderabad. The company is led by a group of 8 executives.
Ethical Recruitment and Our Team
Our commitment to preventing modern slavery begins with our recruitment process.
SilverDoor ensures throughout this process all candidates are treated fairly.
We do so whilst complying with regional employment legislation including confirming
an individual’s eligibility to work, and conducting checks to ensure that all candidates
are above minimum working age. These checks are conducted to assist in safeguarding against
human trafficking and modern slavery. We issue successful candidates with written contracts of
employment prior to the first day of employment.
SilverDoor understands that gaining practical work experience is an imperative learning opportunity for university students. We do not engage in unpaid placements and support all of our placement candidates with paid employment during their appointment within our team.
We provide our employees with fair pay and rewards, which are benchmarked. We further offer our team benefits which assist in providing additional options to support individual lifestyle choices and wellbeing.
Responsible Supply Chains
One of the key factors that enable SilverDoor to provide award-winning levels of service to our clients is our
extensive and successful relationships with contacts and partners. These relationships are formed through mutual
respect and conducting business in the manor which upholds and respects the right of individuals. We pride ourselves
on selecting and building relationships with reputable and upstanding partners – founded on a mutual and transparent
understanding of shared environmental and ethical commitments.
We recognise that any risk regarding modern slavery to the company exists outside of our immediate or internal operations. As such, SilverDoor is diligent in forming industry and business relations with legitimate and trusted companies and persons.
Code of Conduct
At SilverDoor we have developed a Business Code of Conduct – this document applies to all SilverDoor employees and to our entire supply chain, and it sets out the moral, ethical and professional standards which SilverDoor employees and our supply chain must aim to meet.
As part of our ambition to create a workplace and business environment that is open, transparent, and trusted and in the interests of transparency our Business Code of Conduct can be found here
Sources
* 2018 Global Slavery Index
If you feel like your personal experience of SilverDoor doesn’t match our stated vision, ethics and values, then contact one of our eight directors. They promise to do something about it.
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