Community

Social and Environment

At ProposalPro, we are committed to making a positive impact on society and fostering a culture of social responsibility. Our social commitment incorporates our dedication to contributing to the well-being of our communities and creating a sustainable future for all.

Employee Well-being: We prioritize the health, safety, and well-being of our employees. We provide a safe and supportive work environment, offer resources and programs to promote physical and mental wellness, and advocate for a healthy work-life balance.

Diversity and Inclusion: We value diversity and foster an inclusive work environment where all individuals are respected, valued, and provided equal opportunities for growth and advancement. We celebrate diversity in all its forms and actively strive to create a workplace that mirrors the diversity of the communities we serve.

Community Engagement: We engage with local communities to understand their needs and concerns. Through support and collaboration, we address community issues and contribute to their growth and prosperity.

Ethical Business Practices: We conduct our business with honesty, integrity, and transparency. We adhere to the highest ethical standards in our operations and interactions, ensuring fairness, respect, and trust in our relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, and stakeholders.

Philanthropy and volunteerism: We believe in giving back to society and supporting charitable causes that make a positive impact. Through philanthropic initiatives and employee volunteer programs, we actively contribute to the welfare of our communities and support organizations working towards social good.

At ProposalPro, our social commitment is integral to who we are and how we do business. By upholding these principles and values, we aim to create lasting positive change and contribute to building a better world for everyone.

Culture

At ProposalPro we prioritise mental health and flexibility as core values. Our team has the option to work part-time and choose flexible hours, promoting a healthy work-life balance. Office attendance is seldom mandatory. This approach has resulted in ProposalPro Managing Director, Roz Misiani being recognised twice as a finalist for the Business Enterprise Centre WA Businesswoman of the Year, positioning ProposalPro as a pioneering and inclusive employer. ProposalPro works with organisations spanning causes including Indigenous, gender, youth, arts, women in tech careers, digital inclusion, housing, and homelessness. Our team is culturally diverse and neurodiverse; inclusivity is at the heart of ProposalPro. We were privileged to share our insights and best practice on Tendering with members of the Business Enterprise Centre, as pictured below:

Mentoring

Principal Roz Misiani is an APMP Certified Practitioner who provides mentoring and advisory to many early-career bidding professionals, and people who work adjacently. While providing pro bono grants support to local schools, she mentored school staff to understand how to write, manage and acquit grants. Roz has mentored Jaye Taylor of Kilmore Group, pictured right, since 2021. They After 17 months, Jaye was promoted from Bid Coordinator to Bid Manager.

Women in the Workplace

ProposalPro is committed to advancing diversity of background, experience and thought in the proposal profession, as well as attracting and retaining qualified, experienced professionals into the bidding workforce. We successfully retain and promote a diverse workforce that has always been at least 75% female; ProposalPro is owned and operated by a woman with primary caregiving responsibilities and is staffed mostly by the same. Women are well-represented in our profession, but a leaky pipeline persists at senior levels; a lack of flexible work in our profession means women with family responsibilities struggle to progress in their careers. The business case for diversity across all industries is clear; in our profession, we cannot understand diverse perspectives or write with empathy unless we ensure meaningful diversity of background, experience and thought. Our industry has a significant gender pay gap, with few women at senior levels, and scant part-time opportunities. The industry is stressful – the APMP Ethics Survey 2018 finds the greatest concerns are “82% overwork and burnout” and “ 72% emotional exhaustion”. We support them to remain in the industry and develop their careers towards eventual leadership roles.

Share the Dignity

In 2021, ProposalPro was a contributor to the Share the Dignity appeal. Over 85,000 Australian women and girls do not have access to sanitary pads or tampons, according to charity organisation to Share the Dignity. Homeless women, women in domestic violence shelters, women, and girls in dire poverty, simply could not afford sanitary products, so they improvised – using paper towels, newspapers, socks even dried leaves to create makeshift sanitary pads. We are passionate about helping vulnerable and at-risk women in Australia have the dignity they deserve.

International Guide Dogs Day

ProposalPro Managing Director Roz Misiani volunteered her time to support the Guide Dogs Day Street Appeal with her Labrador Retriever Monty on St Georges Terrace, pictured below.

Supporting the Community

ProposalPro is passionate about giving back through work and has provided free services to local schools to apply for grant funding. As an example, we provided pro bono services to a primary school who were able to secure $20,000 shade sails and three electronic whiteboards for their classrooms. Responding to social needs is part of ProposalPro’s value system.

Environmental Commitments

Since ProposalPro two decades in the bid management space, we strive to consistently display a commitment to minimising the environmental footprint. ProposalPro has always used carbon-neutral paper, a particularly impactful choice when engaging in bid management in the 1990s as
large amounts of printed matter were required. We invest in a duplex to reduce paper usage and maintain a policy of always submitting online rather than in print to reduce carbon footprint. Our company car is an electric vehicle, reflecting our commitment to sustainability and reducing carbon emissions in our operations. ProposalPro actively seeks energy-saving peripherals and is committed to recycling wherever possible. This year the company has committed to the Containers for Change program. We believe that even as a small business, we can make choices for positive environmental impact and we encourage others to do the same.

Indigenous Advocation

ProposalPro are enthusiastic advocates of the Aboriginal business sector, both from a commercial and values perspective. We are growing upon our solid relationships with Waalitj Hub and the Noongar Cham ber of Commerce and Industry to support Aboriginal businesses to bid with confidence, to minimise risk and to explore diverse market opportunities. This led to ProposalPro becoming a member of the Noongar Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) in 2023 and a preferred supplier to Indigenous entrepreneurship organisation Waalitj Hub. We attend NCCI events to share knowledge. We also received a referral from a Supply Nation employee for an Indigenous (Elder Women-led) NFP to whom we have provided pro bono strategic advice on grant readiness. ProposalPro has also provided strategic tender-readiness advice to an Indigenous construction company with whom a close working relationship has evolved and has supported several companies to liaise with Reconciliation WA to develop Reconciliation Action Plans.

Reply + Donate Initiative

To express gratitude to our clients at the end of the year without costly Christmas gifts, ProposalPro has initiated a charitable reply and donate program. Our staff selects a worthy organization or charity, and for every reply we receive from our clients, we donate $2 to the chosen charity.