Corporate social responsibility

Responsible business practice is CPP’s licence to operate. It allows us to conduct our business in a professional, ethical and fair manner with our key stakeholders, which include our customers, employees, suppliers and business partners.

Responsible practice means conducting our business in a manner that encourages sustainable growth, while demonstrating a high degree of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

CSR is more than charity
While CPP actively supports good causes through its Community Foundation programme – giving out more than 50 separate grants last year alone – we believe that good corporate citizenship extends far beyond handing out charity cheques. Aligned with the Life Assistance matrix and our Responding to Life promise, we aim not only to help organisations, but also to make a difference through our educational and sponsorship links.

Our CSR framework is based on four key principles: the community, our employees and the workplace; the marketplace, and the environment.

Click on the guiding principles to reveal more information.

The Community At CPP, we support the placement of employee volunteers in local communities, recognising that employee engagement goes hand-in-hand with personal and professional development.

In the UK, where the Group is headquartered, we have worked hard to embed CPP in the social fabric of the communities in which we operate. Building links with education remains at the heart of our award-winning community outreach programme. Whether we are hosting teacher-development days, delivering specialist workshops, organising enterprise competitions or supporting children who are in danger of falling out of mainstream education, our community initiatives touch most children, regardless of their academic ability.

Our partnerships with the North Yorkshire Business Education Partnership and the Staffordshire Partnership are frequently cited as shining examples of the way businesses can make valuable contributions to their communities.

CPP took this link between business and education into the sporting arena in 2007, by sponsoring community football and rugby programmes. Thousands of school children benefited not only from professional coaching, but also diet and exercise instruction.

In North America, CPP continued its excellent partnership with The Fraser Centre, a Minnesota non-profit organisation that helps people with special needs. The Make A Difference committee has incorporated all five CPP core values into its support programme in order to make a lasting difference to the lives of children and adults with learning challenges.

In Hong Kong, we are involved with Mother’s Choice as part of a volunteer programme, assisting single woman and their parents through crisis pregnancies. As well as providing individual support, members of the senior management team assist with business guidance and strategic planning. International Care Ministries is another charity to benefit from our support, helping to address the needs of people living in desperate poverty.

Employees and workplace Our aim is to ensure that our 1,700 employees feel that CPP is a good place to work. Their involvement and engagement is a key factor in employee advocacy – one of the company’s business ambitions.

We were delighted in 2007 to win a Business in the Community award in the ‘Health, Wealth and Well-Being’ category. CPP won the award for having policies and procedures in place that promote health in the workplace. Our training and development is also best-in-class, with the National Training Awards, National Sales Awards and the European Contact Centre Awards recognising our outstanding approach to employee development in our contact centres.

CPP is also keen to reward and recognise employees for good performance. This year we made great strides in rolling out the Success Behaviour Index (SBI), which gives employees the opportunity to improve their performance and develop stronger working relationships. By mid 2008 everyone in the Group will have completed their SBI assessment. In the UK, our commitment to rewarding success is now well established and our meritocratic performance culture has seen bonuses paid out that will ultimately drive business improvements.

Market place Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) lies at the heart of what we do. We have developed six clearly communicated and understood promises that influence every area of our business. These promises ensure that we create appropriate products and services and deliver quality in everything we do. Central to TCF is communicating clearly with our customers, giving them good advice, providing products that perform as expected and meet customer requirements, and eliminating any post-sale barriers. At CPP we always balance our commercial requirements with our customer-focused ethos.

This philosophy also applies to our business partners and suppliers. Last year we launched a Supplier of the Year award to publicly recognise the significant contribution our suppliers make to our business and to enhance positive supplier relationships.

Environment CPP is committed to minimising the impact of its operations on the environment. Our Environmental Policy and environmental impact audit have enhanced our reputation in our communities and with key stakeholders. They enable us to benchmark our current environmental practice framework and ensure that we fulfil all our legal obligations. Already audited by the Carbon Trust, we are now seeing the benefits of its energy-saving recommendations, contributing to a reduction in our environmental impact and expenditure. Our recycling programme continues to expand, with all sites recycling waste paper and aluminium cans.

All CPP employees are encouraged to reduce their own carbon footprint. We offer company-funded bicycle loans and recycling facilities, and offer fair trade and organic food in our on-site restaurants. Our annual Health Week and subsidised gym and sports and leisure clubs also encourage general well-being.

Enhancing our reputation In 2007, our commitment to CSR saw CPP win a number of high-profile awards and secure significant positive media coverage. Although not a primary motivation, the favourable media attention helps to build and protect our reputation in the communities and marketplaces where we operate. Critically, our reputation is a key enabler in attracting the best people to work at CPP, and managing our reputation well aids employee retention – contributing significantly to our bottom line.

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