Corporate Responsibility
By Corporate Responsibility we mean living out our Governing Principles in the way we do business. This requires us to maintain a safety culture, impact positively on our people, the communities we work in and the environment, and earn the trust and respect of customers and stakeholders.
At the heart of our Corporate Responsibility model are Serco’s Governing Principles. They are the basis for all our behaviour and underpin our ethics and responsibilities. This is then supported by our vision and strategy, policy and governance structure and operating and business development processes. Based on this the model then identifies four commitments all interlinked in our day to day business activity:
- Safety: commitment to our staff and others
- People: commitment to people inside our operations
- Community: commitment to people outside our operations
- Environment: commitment to the environment, involving both the direct impact of our operations and our willingness to influence factors outside our operations.
This gives us a balanced vision of our responsibilities, which now forms part of our whole business strategy and planning process. It will help to shape not only our existing business but the way we partner and bid for new business.
Assuring our commitment
All elements of our corporate responsibility model are important to us. Our commitment to safety, our people, the community and the environment starts at the top with the group directors. While these four areas are championed by our Chief Executive all are ultimately responsible for policy and strategy and ensuring their effective implementation across the organisation.
Our policy standards and systems form an integral part of the Serco Management System. Each business division is required to include information on corporate responsibility objectives, initiatives and incidents in its quarterly assurance report to its board. This information is consolidated into a quarterly report for the group board.
The Corporate Assurance Group is responsible for assuring the application of company standards, legal compliance and continual improvement in relation to safety, the environment and community involvement. Its team includes full-time senior managers responsible for health and safety (Company Safety Adviser), the environment and corporate social responsibility. Progress against its agreed strategic plan is reviewed quarterly by its board, the Assurance Network made up of representatives from each business division, and safety oversight groups that focus on specific issues such as rail and aviation safety.
The people aspects of our corporate responsibility model are overseen by the Group HR Director, who ensures that policy is implemented and the board is kept informed. A network of HR professionals across the group reviews performance with the aim of making our processes more effective.
Our Corporate Responsibility Steering Group enables best practice to be spread across the group and ensures that all communities – both internal and external – are considered as we develop and deliver our strategy. It brings together representatives from each business division.
All our divisions, operating companies and contracts are required to develop their own CR programmes, supported by a network of Champions. These Champions are an integral part of the management team at business and contract level. They focus on building awareness and involvement, plan activities, review progress and report on activities and commitments.
We maintain a deepening partnership with Business in the Community (BITC) in the UK. We are members of BITC’s Regeneration Leadership Team, the Engage International Business Leadership Team and the Opportunity Now Leadership Team.
In Hong Kong we have joined the Citizenship and Leadership Team of Community Business, an associate of BITC. We have also joined the Corporate Responsibility Group, the membership organisation of CR practitioners from the UK’s major companies.
In reviewing our internal audit process, undertaken by Grant Thornton, we have included the core process elements of our CR model to assure that they are applied in each division. Audit reports are reviewed by the group board’s Audit Committee. Further details are detailed in the governance report within our annual accounts. In 2006 they found no material weaknesses with corrective action taken where deficiencies were found.
Our approach to Corporate Responsibility is summarised in our Corporate Responsibility Policy Standard [pdf] (23Kb) (please note this link will open in a new browser window).