RBS 2010 Annual Report Download - page 49

47RBS Group 2010
Sustainability
The Prince’s Trust
We sponsored the launch of The Prince’s
Trust’s first start-up guide book – Make It
Happen. Years of expertise and knowledge
have been distilled into this highly practical
book, designed to get young entrepreneurs
started. Our sponsorship will ensure that
The Trust will be able to give a free copy to
every young person they start up in business
for the next three years, around 6,000
copies in total.
Highlights of how we focus action across our businesses
Products
and services
Corporate
partnerships
Employee
contribution
Operations and
supply chain
Fair banking
The Group Customer Charter set
out 14 clear commitments to our
UK retail customers in 2010.
Within these, we set ourselves 25
specific and stretching goals and
we achieved 20 of these outright
in the first 6 months.
The Citizens CollegeSaver
account rewards customers who
save money for a child with a
$1,000 bonus plus the accrued
interest when the child turns 18.
The enrolment age was extended
from 6 to 12 years in 2010.
We work with a range of
Community Development Finance
Institutions and Credit Unions as
part of the Trusted Partner
programme.
We worked with the National
Housing Federation to launch a
new affordable credit provider
pilot, My Home Finance (MHF) in
2010. MHF provides loans to the
financially excluded.
In 2010, 774 employees helped
to deliver our MoneySense
programme throughout the UK
by devoting their time to give
lessons in schools.
We use a number of third-party
organisations to assist with credit
checking, helping to ensure that
we lend responsibly.
Supporting enterprise
RBS supports the Business
Finance Taskforce and its
measures to increase investment,
provide more business mentors
and introduce new lending
principles for SMEs.
Our Technical Assistance
programme in India facilitated
work with 37 MFIs across 13
states in India, increasing the
reach of microfinance to more
than 100,000 additional poor
families.
In order to be able to support
a wide selection of different
business clients, we work with
partners to bridge the gap in
funding for organisations such as
social enterprises and charities.
We support youth enterprise
through sponsoring the Prince’s
Trust Enterprise Programme, the
Prince’s Scottish Youth Business
Trust and Youth Business
International in Hong Kong,
France and Russia.
In 2010, 380 employees
volunteered for The Prince’s Trust,
raising a total of over £250,000.
Through our supply chain we
spend nearly £8.5 billion each
year on goods and services,
of which £6.2 billion is spent in
the UK.
Employee engagement
We provide a suite of competitive
employment policies, training and
development opportunities and a
bespoke benefits package and
provide support when it is needed
through our Employee Assistance
programme.
We measure engagement through
our employee opinion survey and
take action in response to
employee feedback.
We have nine charity partners:
BTCV, Prince's Trust, Oxfam,
Barnardo’s, Fairbridge, Marie
Curie, Macmillan, Help the
Hospices and Cancer Research in
the UK.
We work with partners that
support our Diversity & Inclusion
programme including Stonewall,
Employers Forums on Belief; Age;
and Disability, Opportunity Now,
Working Families and Race for
Opportunity in the UK and Asia
Network (DIAN).
Our Group Employee Volunteering
programme engaged 39,500
employees in 2010 who were
given over 24,000 days off to
make a contribution to the causes
supported by our nine charity
partners.
We aim to extend our employee
engagement activities as far as
possible to temporary employees
and contractors working in our
organisation.
Safety and security
Our free online data protection
software, Rapport, currently
protects 4.6 million online
customers from fraud.
Customers have access to
services such as SMS text alerts
to inform them of any activity on
their accounts, or when there has
been fraudulent activity.
The Security and Risk team work
closely with authorities to share
information and help prevent
financial crime. This includes a
focused intelligence sharing
partnership with Greater
Manchester Police, UK.
During 2010 we developed a
global occupation health
programme in partnership with
International SOS to review the
occupational health service
provision across our international
business.
A number of employees get
involved in Safety, Health and
Wellbeing programmes.
Every year we review our
suppliers to ensure that the
appropriate controls are in place
to ensure customer information is
protected.
Citizenship and environmental
sustainability
Since 2006, we have provided
more finance to wind power
projects than any other type of
energy project.
Our Business Mentor
Environmental scheme continues
to provide expert environmental
advice to customers who need it,
24/7.
BTCV is an environmental charity
and one of our nine charity
partners that provides
volunteering opportunities for
employees to get involved in.
We are actively involved in the
management of the United
Nations Global Compact and
Equator Principles initiatives.
We are sponsoring Climate week
in the UK, a national awareness
raising campaign.
We have over 600 environmental
champions in the Group helping
to engage colleagues and make
a difference to our carbon
footprint at a local level.
Our ethical code for suppliers
sets out our commitments to
working with openness and
integrity, which we also expect
from out suppliers.
The Group Community Cashback scheme allows employees to claim
cash for the charities they support by volunteering or fundraising in their
own time. In 2010, 4,300 awards totalling £1.2 million were given to over
2,500 charities. We continue to match donations our employees make to
charity via their salary, and this year we supported over 3,000 charities
directly in this way.
We also launched a new recognition scheme in 2010 for our employees –
Community Stars. We give £65,500 per year to support the fantastic work
employees do for the causes they are passionate about and to recognise
that they are great ambassadors for the Group. Citizens’ Colleagues
in Action also recognises community involvement and provides the
opportunity for colleagues to take a three month sabbatical to serve
as a volunteer on a longer-term project.
Overall, more than 39,500 employees gave their skills, time and money
to make a difference in the communities that we operate in. The Group
supported those efforts financially and by giving employees almost
170,000 hours off work to volunteer.