Corporate responsibility
Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme is integral to our day-to-day
operations, since responsible business practice is our licence to operate. It means
we conduct our business in a professional, ethical and fair manner with all our
stakeholders, including employees, customers, Business Partners and suppliers.
While CPP actively supports good local causes through our Community Foundation programme,
and last year directly funded 25 local groups with grants of up to £750, our CSR
programme also plays an important part in supporting our business ambitions and
building relationships with key stakeholders.
The community
We understand employee engagement goes hand-in-hand with personal and professional
development and our UK business supports CPP volunteers in the community.
Today, team-building days invariably take the form of working at a children's hospice,
school or elderly care home helping to improve the immediate environment.
Building links with education and young people is at the heart of our community
outreach programme. Our initiatives include delivering specialist workshops, providing
classroom volunteers and supporting disadvantaged children. In the UK our support
for York City's Community Football programme has seen more than 60 state schools benefit
from professional coaching, while in Tamworth we worked with the Schools Sports Partnership
to establish a brand new athletics academy.
In North America, we have built on our excellent partnership with The Fraser Centre,
a Minnesota-based non-profit organisation that helps people with special needs,
primarily autism by supporting its annual fundraising activities.
Employees and workplace
In recent years CPP has placed an increasing focus on ensuring that the engagement and motivation
levels of our employees are sustained at a high level. To
achieve this we introduced a new Employee Engagement survey in 2008, and in 2009
the survey was rolled out across all countries in the CPP Group.
The survey provides us with an insight into how people feel about working for CPP,
their relationship with their manager and critical data on our commitment to Treating
Customers Fairly.
2009 also saw the continuation of our 360-degree feedback process - the SBI (Success
Behaviour Index) - across the Group. The SBI gives employees the opportunity to improve
their performance and develop stronger working relationships through questions based
on their performance and values behaviours. This tool has proved hugely beneficial
in helping us target areas for improvement, development and training.
At CPP we are also committed to rewarding those who contribute to the success of
the organisation, with core bonus plans and other incentive schemes that have seen
the best performers enjoy recent trips to Barcelona and Salzburg.
Marketplace
Treating Customers Fairly lies at the heart of what we do. We have five clearly
communicated and understood promises that influence every area of our business.
Treating Customers Fairly is critical for CPP, not only because we are a regulated
business, but because it makes good business sense, helping to retain satisfied
customers for longer. It also ensures that we deliver positive results for our Business
Partners through incremental revenue generation and improved customer loyalty.
This philosophy also applies to our suppliers. Our Supplier of the Year award publicly
recognises the contribution that suppliers make to our business.
Environment
CPP seeks to develop an ethos of environmental responsibility across the Group.
Initiatives include energy efficiency, recycling, minimising the use of paper and
reducing waste.
We are working hard to meet the standards set out under Carbon Reduction Commitment
regulations. We work closely with The Carbon Trust to ensure that our plant, energy-management
and monitoring systems are effective and efficient. Year-on-year energy usage is
falling in spite of business growth.
All CPP employees are encouraged to reduce their own carbon footprint. In the UK,
we are incentivising employees to use public transport, cycle, walk or car-share
instead of using their own vehicles.
Enhancing our reputation
Our commitment to CSR runs throughout the business and has been recognised externally.
While we want to put something back into the communities where we operate, our CSR
programme is also motivated by a desire to attract and retain talented employees,
manage risk, differentiate our brand and, ultimately, protect our reputation.