Corporate Social Responsibility Statement

1. Our business

1.1 Ethical conduct

As the global leader in mobile messaging, Acision has a responsibility to act as a good corporate citizen all around the world. At Acision we recognise and perform the obligations we have towards our people, investors, customers, suppliers, competitors and the community as a whole. We believe our reputation, together with the trust and confidence of those with whom we deal, to be one of our most valuable assets. In order to keep this reputation and trust, we demand and maintain the highest ethical standards in carrying out our business activities.

All of our employees are required to abide by our ethical policy, which outlines Acision’s core values and approach to doing business. The protection of our reputation is of fundamental importance, and employees are aware of the disciplinary implications of breaches of policy. The policy helps to uphold the reputation of our company and staff, and maintains public confidence in Acision.

Our people are encouraged to promptly report any potentially illegal, improper and/or unethical conduct that they become aware of at their workplace or in connection with their work. We believe we have an environment that enables our people to raise genuine and legitimate concerns internally. However, in the event that our people believe their reporting to line management may result in harassment, victimisation or undue distress, they may contact HR support to report matters. HR provides an opportunity for concerns to be investigated and ensures appropriate action is taken to resolve the matter effectively.

1.2 Customers

We strongly believe that integrity in dealings with customers is a prerequisite for a successful and sustained business relationship.

We operate a highly effective and efficient organisation, focused on meeting customer objectives. Our aim is to provide products and services which give fair value and consistent quality, reliability and safety in return for fair reward. We operate policies of continual improvement, of both processes and the skills of our staff, to take best advantage of advances in technology. This safeguards our operations for the future, ensuring that we continue to add value to our customers’ businesses.

This is underpinned by a consistent approach to the way we conduct our work. To cater for the wide variety of work we do, we aim for a balance between flexibility in the way we operate and tight control to consistently meet customer expectations.

We have clear and strong lines of communication which allow us to respond quickly and efficiently to customer and market requirements, and our customers receive a consistent service across geographies, industries and technology areas. Our sales effort and delivery capability are aligned in order to ensure that we can successfully and consistently deliver what we promise.

1.3 Business partners and suppliers

As with our relationships with our other stakeholders, we aim to develop relationships and improve networking with business partners and suppliers based on mutual trust. We believe one of our major strengths is our approach to alliances and partnerships with suppliers. Many of our new contracts come through these alliances and our partners’ contributions help us to deliver the solutions required by our customers and the market.

The Acision Innovation Network is a partnership-based ecosystem that enables the global communications community to collaborate on the creation of new applications and services to advance the way the world communicates. Acision has made a long-term commitment to the Acision Innovation Network, building on our market leading position in messaging and to stimulate the creation and implementation of new services. Our clients appreciate the ability to offer, through partnership, the best combination of state-of-the-art technology and world class products, strong customer relations and deep industry knowledge and experience, combined with the capacity to implement and deliver value-added, mission-critical, repeatable global solutions on time and within budget.

1.4 Environment

The company believes that, by their nature, our operations have a minimal impact on the environment. However, we acknowledge that there are inevitable environmental impacts associated with daily operations. We aim to minimise any harmful effects and consider the development and implementation of environmental standards to achieve this to be of great importance. As such, we strongly encourage the internationally established 3 Rs:

• reduce
• re-use
• recycle
  

In the course of our operations we seek to identify opportunities to reduce consumption of energy, water and other natural resources. We also strive to re-use and recycle where possible and dispose of non-recyclable items responsibly, thereby minimising our impact on the environment.

It is anticipated that by adopting simple, environmentally friendly initiatives, the company will raise awareness amongst stakeholders and the wider community.

The company regularly reviews its environmental policy to ensure that it reflects changes in regulations and best practice. We aim to continually to manage the impact of our operations and develop initiatives to improve our environmental footprint. The majority of Acision’s emissions originate from the use of electricity, gas and water supply, business travel/ transport and waste. We are taking steps to roll out a global strategy that will expand on the 3 r’s initiative and will include:

Reduce:

raising awareness through targeted communications and seminars to help our staff, and their families and friends, reduce energy use at home, as well as at work improved powering down of our facilities overnight and at weekends encouraging reduced business travel and use of conferencing technology upgrading of our office equipment to fewer and more energy-efficient devices.

Re-use:

• replacing, where possible, the reliance on disposable items with re-useable items.

Recycle:

• switching to more sustainable sources of electricity to power our offices
• improving our recycling facilities.
• As we work to ensure that our operations will result in a cleaner environment, we intend to maintain the continual improvement of our products, processes and services.

 

2. Our employees

2.1 Realising potential

"The Acision Values" are based upon a number of important principles and capture qualities that each employee is encouraged to embody as an essential part of our success:

Expertise

• Assure quality and drive innovation
• Listen to learn from each other – champion continuous improvement
• Be accountable – keep commitments
• Customer Focus
• Share our vision; share our passion
• Strive for our customers profitability and satisfaction
• Be a trusted global partner

Respect

• Think and act as a team
• Optimise the value of our global community
• Deliver results and celebrate success

The launch of the Acision brand in the market has provided an opportunity to communicate our principles and strategy throughout the organisation as well as being a focal point of communications with our customers.

Developing our capability, delivering value to our customers on a global basis and securing long-term profitable growth is founded on releasing the potential of our employees.

We actively support the development of our staff in a number of ways including formalised employee development discussions and structured programmes for personal and professional development. It is linked to the transfer, exchange and creation of knowledge to our strategic corporate objectives and thus be the power behind ongoing innovation of Acision products, services and processes globally.

2.2 Communications and employee satisfaction

Acision recognises that, as a rapidly changing, knowledge-based business, communication is a critical ingredient for success. We place emphasis on both formal and informal communication. The manager has a key role to play in communication. Managers are accessible, encourage collaboration and the development of ideas that contribute to business performance and continuous improvement.

In addition to face-to-face meetings, we encourage the use of “Live Internet Meetings” which allow business management to talk frequently to employees, without the need to bring them together in one place. We have an active programme to ensure communication from Executive Team through a variety of media and encourage employee feedback and comment though methods including group discussions, employee surveys and email dialogue.

2.3 A meritocracy

As a global company we embrace diversity and respect for different cultures and local requirements. Employees of both genders, from different nations, cultures, ethnic groups, generations and backgrounds contribute their skills and different perspectives to improving our solutions and delivering to our customers.

It is a cornerstone of our ethos that Acision is a meritocracy, where all employees are recognised and rewarded on the basis of their performance, effort, contribution and achievements.

The company’s performance management and personal development processes are being rolled out through the extended group. They are based on the following principles:

that employees have a clear understanding of how they contribute to the business and have clear personal objectives, aligned to the business strategy and objectives
career pathways that identify key capabilities and behaviours at different competency levels across core career paths
personal development, training and succession planning to support personal growth
an annual review of performance that drives decisions about pay and career progression.

2.4 Health and safety

We aim to ensure a safe and healthy working environment for all our employees, outside contractors and visitors, not only on Acision premises, but also for those staff and contractors working on client sites. The company aims to comply with all relevant local legislation or regulations, and best practice guidelines recommended by national health and safety authorities. We also liaise with staff regarding our policies and practices so that we can continue to maintain a healthy, safe and enjoyable environment.

Due to increasing global security concerns, we continue to upgrade our policies to ensure our people are able to operate safely in all countries. Where appropriate, employees have access to online information regarding international safety and security provided by an expert security company. This security company is also used to vet travel arrangements and provide safeguards as required. As well as this, guidance issued by organisations such as the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office is taken into account.

All accidents, and incidents are reviewed at the quarterly health and safety meeting, along with lost time incidents, accident forms, RIDDOR reportable occurrences, health and safety trends etc.