We would like to know how you view Experian's approach to CR. Please read through the following sections and provide us with your views. We will use your feedback in evolving our strategy and approach.
1. What we focus on
In an internal and external review process in FY07, as we demerged from GUS, we asked the question: What would citizens be most concerned about regarding our business and its impact on society, locally and globally?
As a result, we identified six key areas where we felt it was most important for us to focus our efforts:
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Data Protection: Use and protect data properly, respecting all the relevant laws, helping evolve industry guidelines and new legislation and ensuring a culture of compliance with the highest standards of integrity.
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Products and Services: Create social and economic benefit through our products services and capabilities, balancing commercial benefit with consumers’ rights and needs.
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Consumers: Inform and empower consumers, and ensure that those who interact directly with our company receive fair and honest treatment.
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Workplace: Be a good employer to all, establishing a set of expected behaviours and values, ensuring that everyone working for us is treated fairly, given the maximum opportunity to fulfil their potential and that all our workplaces are safe and healthy.
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Environment: Minimise as far as possible the environmental impacts associated with our business and enable employee participation, with a particular concentration on the reduction of energy use and its effect on global warming.
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Communities: Play an active part in social and economic regeneration in our communities, be they local, national or global.
Please go the bottom of the page and rank these in order of importance from your perspective and tell us if there is anything else we should be considering or anything we should disregard. Thank you.
2. Our overarching CR strategy
We do not see CR as a separate function within the business, more as a discipline in the way we carry out our business with due regard for social, ethical and environmental issues. As a result, one of the main tenets of our strategy is to embed such considerations into everyday business decisions. Our expertise is in bringing fresh insight to commercial and financial decisions. We feel that if we think a little laterally we could tackle many social and even environmental problems through the unique viewpoint our business affords us. We want to encourage our employees to do this lateral thinking and come up with products and services that can have a strong, life changing, social impact.
We know that giving funds and time to the communities where we live and work in is important. However we want to get the most out of what we give so we have focused this giving on areas where we see the direct results of problems and where we have most expertise.
We have set out a CR strategy with these three elements:
- Business as usual, embedding SEE risks
Further embed CR principles into normal business processes, taking account of the potential social benefits and risks, and the impact on climate change.
- Big Ideas, supporting innovation, seizing SEE opportunities
Use CR to provide a catalyst for entrepreneurial ‘Big Ideas’ - products and services that can have a major social or environmental impact and produce life-changing results.
- Focusing the community programme
Create a focused approach for major projects, funded with central monies but retain local flexibility for regional funds to encourage employee engagement.
Please now answer the questions below and tell us if there is anything we are missing as a result of this focus. Thank you.