“We believe that ‘CSR’ is a journey, not a destination,

so we will always keep striving to be a better business”

Overview Although our firm has always had an explicit commitment to the principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR), this is the first time that we have attempted to capture in writing how these principles shape our thinking and direct our goals. Having become fully paid-up members of Business in the Community in November last year, we are now committed to taking a much more purposeful approach towards our own CSR journey. Over the following pages, we have outlined how we plan to approach the themes of Community, Workplace, Marketplace and Environment. For each theme, we have highlighted some of the recent achievements on our journey, and spelled out some of the commitments to which we aspire in the future. In all four of these areas, our overarching goals for the coming 12 months can be distilled into two bullet points: • Measurement – identifying baselines,

establishing monitoring and data-collecting procedures, and setting specific targets for improvement.

• Governance – embedding responsibility for

specific areas of activity within the firm, so that there are clear lines of accountability for making progress against our targets.

These may not be the sexiest goals, but we feel that they are essential prerequisites for making progress in other areas. Later this year, we will conduct a detailed staff survey to refine and build upon the aspirations contained in this document. In the meantime we would welcome comments and thoughts that you might have about the way in which we are developing our business.

Simon Lucas

Managing Director

“Society aims to be the

retained recruitment partner of

choice for responsible

businesses and purpose-

driven organisations.”

Our Mission Statement

We believe that Society’s key

social impacts are:

• the quality of the

appointments we help our

clients to make, and the

impact those individuals

subsequently have in-post;

• the integrity with which we

help candidates to define

and to attain their career

objectives;

• the way in which we look

after, and develop our

colleagues;

• the extent to which our

business consumes

resources, and the size of

our total carbon footprint;

• the impact and longevity of

our work in the community;

• the leadership we show

within the wider recruitment

industry on issues of

responsibility, ethics and

sustainability.

We believe that Society’s key

stakeholders are:

• our clients;

• our candidates;

• our colleagues;

• our suppliers;

• our wider community;

• the recruitment industry at

large.

Community To date, the primary focus of Society’s community activities has been employee volunteering. This year we are delighted to have joined Lloyd's Banking Group as one of the two main sponsors behind Give & Gain Day - the UK's only national employee volunteering event. Going forward, we will continue to place a lot of emphasis on employee volunteering; however there are two key questions that we plan to tackle in order to enhance the extent and meaningfulness of our activities in this area: 1. How do we make employee volunteering the

cultural norm within our business?

All our colleagues already have a contractual entitlement to three paid volunteering days per year, however the take-up rate is currently less than 40%.

2. How do we maximise the impact of our whole-

company volunteering efforts?

As recruitment professionals, we believe that we can add most value through sharing our knowledge and experience of the labour market with people who are looking to make the transition into work. We hope that we can equip people with the skills needed to craft a well-presented CV and to make a positive impression at interview, as well as the emotional resilience needed to persevere with application processes. What we have yet to decide is whether we should target our input towards a particular group, such as the homeless, ex-offenders, or young people.

We plan to consult with colleagues extensively about these two issues in the coming months.

Recent highlights:

• We have taken part in three

consecutive ‘Give & Gain Days’ and

we are one of the two main sponsors

for Give & Gain Day 2013.

• We have hosted a summer work

experience placement for the past

three years, and now pay each

placement the London Living Wage.

• We have implemented a system of

Payroll Giving with assistance from

the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

• We have rejected the established

convention of sending planed

candidates a congratulatory bottle of

champagne. Instead, we ask them to

pick from a list of charitable

donations that Society could make in

their name.

Future commitments:

• We will appoint an existing colleague

to coordinate and promote

opportunities for individual or small-

group employee volunteering.

• We will work with Business in the

Community to agree an issue area

on which Society will focus its future

whole-company volunteering events,

potentially through developing an

involvement in Business Action on

Homelessness, Business Class or

Client Support Networks.

• We will continue to be prominent and

vocal supporters of Give & Gain Day,

expanding our own involvement

through seeking the participation of

clients and candidates.

• We will continue hosting summer

work experience placements but

seek to recruit someone specifically

from a school in one of London’s

more disadvantaged areas,

potentially through linking up with

Work Inspiration.

• We will increase the number of

colleagues taking advantage of

payroll giving.

• We will encourage charitable

fundraising efforts amongst

colleagues and, where appropriate,

commit the business to match-fund

what colleagues donate.

• We will provide added support and

flexibility for colleagues looking to

take on Trustee or Governor

commitments.

“We believe that investing in our community is

an investment in the future of our business”

“We believe that it is in our company’s self interest to

foster a healthy, diverse, fair, and inclusive workplace”

Workplace Even in our first year of operation, Society was careful to invest heavily in this area of activity. We ensured that from day one, all colleagues were equipped with comprehensive contracts of employment, that our workplace culture was underpinned by clear policies on issues such as health and safety, and acceptable behaviour, and that we were making employer pension contributions for every member of staff. Like most rapidly-growing businesses, our approach to training and development is continuing to evolve, however the past year saw us take a big leap forward with the creation of ‘Delphi’ – an online training portal for colleagues, featuring videos, articles, step-by-step guides, and other interactive content. There are admittedly still many areas in which we can improve. For example, we want to do more to promote healthy lifestyles and ‘wellness’ amongst colleagues, and we are particularly anxious to improve the diversity of our workforce. At present only 37% of Society’s FTE workforce is over the age of 30, only 6% are from a Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds, and only 15% are female. Although our efforts to address this situation will stop short of ‘positive’ discrimination, we are still committed to making proactive efforts to broaden the candidate pool from which we are sourcing new colleagues. Over the following 12 months we plan to continue growing our headcount, and we would hope that some of these appointments will begin to move us towards a healthier mix of colleagues. After all, we passionately believe that a diverse workforce is a source of vitality and strength for any organisation. When the business reaches a certain critical mass, we will also expand our monitoring and improvement efforts to include other strands of diversity, such as disability and sexual orientation.

Recent highlights:

• We have well established policies

on issues such as equality and

diversity, harassment and bullying,

health and safety, alcohol and drug

misuse and whistle-blowing.

• We have implemented a

transparent progression structure,

giving colleagues greater clarity

about development routes, training

opportunities, and salary scales.

• We have made efforts to

encourage healthy eating through

making fresh fruit available in the

office.

• We have implemented a flexible

hours policy, giving colleagues

increased control over their

working day.

• We have created an online portal

called ‘Delhpi’ to provide the spine

of our ongoing training and

development activities.

• We have chosen to move to an

office with improved accessibility

for wheelchair users.

• We have always made employer

pension contributions and we are

currently in the process of setting

up a Group Personal Pension

Scheme for all colleagues in

preparation for auto-enrolment.

Future commitments:

• We will take appropriate steps to

increase the diversity of our

workforce, with a particular focus

on reaching out to potential

colleagues who might be over-30,

female, or of BME extraction.

• We will explore the logistics and

costs of additional schemes such

as buying/selling holiday, season

ticket loans, childcare vouchers,

cycle to work programmes, death

in service, sabbatical breaks, life

assurance and improved

maternity/paternity leave.

• We will take steps to encourage

colleagues to invest in their

pensions.

• We will produce a clearer

statement of the values that we

want to steer our business, and

which we expect colleagues to

adhere to in their work.

Marketplace As a consultancy business, we do not have to deal with a particularly complex or convoluted supply chain. That said, we still want to ensure that all the organisations we partner with share similar values to our own, and will commit to upholding the basic tenets of responsible business practice. Over the coming 12 months we will be reviewing our third party relationships in order to make sure, for example, that all our suppliers are committed to paying a Living Wage, and to reducing their consumption of resources. We also have loftier ambitions in this area. One of Society’s over-arching goals is to help change the norms and perception of the recruitment industry at large. We want to demonstrate that a recruitment firm can be successful whilst still acting with integrity. This goal has four dimensions: 1. We aim to be selective about which clients we

work for – refusing to partner with unethical, reckless or destructive organisations.

2. We aim to build excellent long-term client

relationships with our clients, earning their continued loyalty through consistently going the extra mile.

3. We aim to help our private sector clients to give

something back by encouraging their participation in our unique ‘Society Points’ scheme, whereby they are able to offer free recruitment support to a charity of their choice.

4. We aim to be a thought leader within our sector

about issues of responsibility, ethics, equality of opportunity, sustainability, and integrity.

Recent highlights:

• We have started to seek more

regular feedback from our clients in

the form of Net Promoter Scores

(NPSs) at the end of every

assignment.

• We have begun providing training

ethics to all new staff as part of

their first week induction

programme.

Future commitments:

• We will work with Business in the

Community to develop an ethical

framework for determining which

businesses we will and won’t work

with.

• We will engage with Business in

the Community to write thought

pieces on the issues such as

employment discrimination,

diversity and equality and

opportunities, and career planning.

• We will increase uptake of the

Society Points scheme by 10%

over the next 12 months.

• We will systematically review our

choice of landlord, bank,

accountants, pension provider,

credit cards, telephone operators

(both fixed and mobile), stationery

suppliers, and IT support, in order

to see whether more responsible

and sustainable options are

available.

• We will strive to find ever more

accurate ways of including a

consideration of ‘values’ as part of

how we assess candidates.

• We will investigate the feasibility of

setting up a ‘Society Foundation’ to

provide routes into employment in

the recruitment industry for young

people from difficult backgrounds.

“We believe that our company has a role to

play in transforming the norms of our industry”

“We believe that becoming truly sustainable

is a fundamental duty of our business”

Environment As a small business, our direct impact on the environment is still relatively tiny. We also lack some of the mechanisms needed to reduce our impact further, since we currently occupy serviced offices in which everything from heating and lighting through to cleaning services is provided under a licence by a third party company. Nevertheless, we are committed to finding ways of improving our environmental credentials. We think there are four ways in which we can do this: 1. Formalising policies and procedures on waste,

recycling, and energy usage. 2. Including a consideration for environmental

sustainability in our review of suppliers. 3. Working with other tenants in our serviced

offices to leverage influence over the landlord’s management decisions.

4. Further reducing our use of taxis in favour of

public transport.

Recent highlights:

• We have stopped sending hard copy

(printed) longlist or shortlist

paperwork to clients, furnishing them

instead with PDF documents,

complete with bookmarks for each

candidate. These can easily be

viewed on laptops or tablet devices.

• We have committed to printing all our

stationery and corporate literature on

at least 75% recycled paper stock by

ISO 9001 accredited printers.

•

Future commitments:

• We will reduce the number of our

clients who disregard our guidance

and still print their own hard copies of

the paperwork we send them. In

order to facilitate this we will

investigate the cost and

effectiveness of purchasing a small

number of tablet computers which we

can lend to clients for use during

Longlist or Shortlist Review

Meetings.

• We will introduce a system for

monitoring printing within the office

and then take steps to reduce our

use of paper.

• We will only purchase Fairtrade tea,

coffee and fruit for our offices, and

we will lobby our landlords to do the

same.

• We will lobby our landlords to make

improvements in a number of areas,

including the provision and signing of

recycling facilities, and the use of

more environmentally-friendly

cleaning products.

For more information about our corporate responsibility goals, please contact: Simon Lucas Managing Director simon.lucas@impact-society.com Society Grove House 2 Orange Street London WC2H 7DF Email: mail@impact-society.com Phone: +44 (0)203 178 6091