Wave is a nationwide water retailer, working with enterprise prospects of all sizes to assist them profit from the open water market in England.
Wave helps companies preserve observe of and handle their water utilization, providing assist and steerage on the right way to maximise effectivity and establish the place potential financial savings may be made.
Working with companies throughout a spread of sectors together with retail, leisure, transport and manufacturing, Wave’s extremely skilled groups possess many years of expertise supporting SME, public sector, giant and multi-site organisations throughout all industries. Whether or not it’s water, wastewater or commerce effluent providers, Wave’s workforce of in-house specialists are in a position to assist a various vary of companies, no matter their wants.
Wave was shaped as a three way partnership between Anglian Water and Northumbrian Water following the de-regulation of the non-household water market in April 2017, which meant that companies, charities, and public sector organisations had been not tied to a single regional supplier for all their water providers. Wave was initially created to assist the entire companies in Anglian Water’s and Northumbrian Water’s areas with their billing, meter studying, customer support and water effectivity wants and to compete nationally for brand spanking new enterprise.
Now seven years in operation, Wave is the third largest retailer within the Non-Family (NHH) water market, supporting over 300,000 companies. The enterprise at the moment stands at over 324 staff throughout its Durham and Peterborough workplaces, with 41 new starters within the final 12 months alone. Wave has established itself as a key participant within the sector with a terrific status for its buyer focus, social worth and wellbeing tradition.
What’s the primary drawback you resolve for purchasers?
Wave’s purpose is to make it as simple as potential for companies to have a water provide – because it actually ought to be. Companies ought to know precisely what worth they’re paying, simply perceive their payments and have their meter learn usually. The actions related to delivering all of this usually aren’t excessive on folks’s radars, nevertheless, if prospects do must work together with us, we additionally wish to make that as environment friendly as potential.
What we purpose for is to be probably the most customer-focused utility, by prioritising the supply of worth and effectivity and having a low value to serve but additionally glorious customer support. The significance that we place on the shopper expertise actually units us aside and implies that we have now a really loyal buyer base.
What are your model values?
Wave’s values are ‘putting the customer first’, ‘succeeding together’, ‘being accountable’ and ‘embracing learning’, all of which type the inspiration of what we do right here. As a enterprise we’re as open and sincere as potential, and we belief in our folks, so from day one they’ll be inspired to be accountable and take possession. That is key to serving to our folks develop and succeed inside their function, which in flip then enhances the expertise of our prospects.
Do your values outline your choice making course of?
Our model values, together with our Social and Sustainability Promise, are answerable for the selections we make and the path we select to take the enterprise. From its formation in 2017, I all the time wished Wave to behave, do and be totally different. To be targeted not simply on commonplace enterprise drivers reminiscent of making revenue, however to additionally drive optimistic change throughout the business and the broader communities through which our prospects and staff stay.
Our Social and Sustainability Promise outlines Wave’s ambition and dedication in the direction of making a optimistic distinction to our society and the surroundings, while aligning to key UN Sustainability Objectives.
Is workforce tradition integral to what you are promoting?
We’ve all the time endeavoured to form our tradition in a means that brings out the very best in folks, by constructing a tradition of suggestions and belief with wellbeing at its core. This 12 months I used to be extraordinarily proud to see our dedication recognised on the Worker Expertise Awards, with a Gold Award for our Well being and Wellbeing technique.
Our tradition is pushed by an employee-led method, with a lot of our wellbeing advantages, teams and instruments steered by our folks. We even have a consultant from all areas of the enterprise on our energetic inside Well being, Security and Wellbeing Discussion board and a ready record of individuals wanting to hitch.
We always try to offer an elevated degree of assist to our workforce. Our aim is to make sure that our staff’ expertise at work is a optimistic one, the place they really feel snug bringing their full selves to work and have the assist and instruments they want to achieve their roles.
Is tech taking part in a a lot bigger half in your day-to-day operating of your organization?
Developments in expertise play an enormous function in evolving our practices and permitting us to offer a greater expertise for our prospects. We’re investing in our on-line journey, making our on-line account faster and less complicated to make use of in addition to utilizing new platforms to assist all of our prospects with their Excessive Consumption Alerts. This all permits us to assist companies with their drive to develop into extra sustainable and establish potential value financial savings.
At Wave we’re targeted on information high quality, automation and digitization and we purpose to scale back the extent of repetitious duties through automation and correct information. New tech permits us to digitize and streamline extra of our exercise, as seen via our eBilling choice, which lowers the demand for paper billing, offering a greater expertise for our prospects and supporting our sustainability targets.
What’s your organization’s eco technique?
A key focus of our exercise is formed by our Social and Sustainability Promise which commits to turning into internet zero by 2030 in addition to saving 9.4 million m3 of water by the top of our present enterprise planning interval of 2026. Lots of people and companies don’t realise how scarce a useful resource water is. We wish to assist companies use their water as effectively as potential, which is likely to be by sending out excessive consumption alerts, or for a few of our bigger prospects, encouraging them to consider water as a strategic asset and growing methods and processes to assist them function extra effectively. That is one thing I consider all companies are going to want to deal with extra sooner or later.
Do you have got any recommendation for anybody beginning out in enterprise?
When you work in utilities it’s a must to get pleasure from being targeted on information and processes – it’s an vital talent in quite a lot of sectors however notably inside utilities.
There’s additionally a Richard Branson quote that’s good to bear in mind whenever you’re beginning out: “If someone offers you a really amazing opportunity, say yes and learn to do it later.” I like that perspective as a result of there are quite a lot of alternatives at Wave, giving folks the possibility to take secondments and transfer between groups. Gone are the times that individuals keep in a single function or enterprise without end. You may transfer to a brand new function and hone your expertise by making an attempt out various things till you discover one thing that you simply’re obsessed with and luxuriate in doing.
