Managing corporate responsibility
We work to strict ethical standards supported by a range of group policies, processes and training. To manage our commitment to minimise the negative environmental impacts of our business, we have an environment policy and responsible procurement principles. To ensure we effectively manage our social issues we have a wide range of policies including an equality policy, learning and development policy, health and safety policy and flexible working policy. We play an active role in our communities guided by a community investment policy and are strengthening our approach to how we treat customers starting with our responsible lending principles.
Our group policies, which are monitored and reviewed annually for compliance, are communicated to all employees by country managers and through our HR manuals, inductions, branding sessions and newsletters. They set out the scope of issues of each policy, how they will be implemented and the people with management responsibility.
Clear objectives and targets guide our activities. Also in place is a verification and assurance programme which allows us to report objectively on our progress each year and highlight areas for improvement.
Since the demerger from Provident Financial plc, we have been busy developing a new corporate responsibility management framework and supporting processes. Corporate responsibility governance requires input from a wide range of functions and by building in senior level ownership and responsibility throughout the business; we ensure effectiveness, consistency and integration of our programme. The new corporate responsibility steering committee will guide this process during 2007 and International Personal Finance will commence reporting progress in 2008.
Corporate responsibility steering committee
The corporate responsibility steering committee sets guidance and oversees policies and progress to ensure that we work towards best practice in our approach to corporate responsibility.
Responsible lending group
The responsible lending group was established to deliver clear responsible lending principles and ensure appropriate and fair treatment of customers.
Country level support
In each country, there are a number of employees who are responsible for monitoring corporate responsibility progress, feeding in a local perspective to the programme and ensuring implementation of decisions taken. We also have a number of in-country working groups and we're planning a series of corporate responsibility summits to bring our corporate responsibility colleagues together more regularly to help push forward corporate initiatives.
Consulting with our stakeholders
Talking with our stakeholders provides us with a valuable insight into our business and helps us improve our performance. What they say matters and we believe strongly that by engaging stakeholders in the change process, our programme has the best chance of success. In order to gather feedback on our corporate responsibility programme and reporting processes, our stakeholder consultations include employee surveys and formal, round table workshops with representatives from a range of groups, including our peers in the financial sector.
We also work with a number of organisations in each country to gather input into our corporate responsibility programme.
We work with CSR Europe, the London Benchmarking Group, Race for Opportunity and the Employers' Forum on Disability. Throughout our overseas businesses we also work with a wide range of organisations involved in responsible business initiatives. For example, in Poland, we work with Forum Odpowiedzialnego Biznesu (the Responsible Business Forum), the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum in Hungary, and in the Czech Republic, we are a patron of the British Chamber of Commerce.