CSR Policy
Corporate and social responsibility
In continuing to build Beazley as a premier risk-taking business, we take our corporate, social and environmental responsibility seriously. We constantly consider the ethical implications of how we operate in our day-to-day business and put policies and procedures in place that reflect our commitment. We also recognise the regulatory and reputational risks associated with ethical practice and adhere closely to the Association of British Insurers (ABI) guidelines published in October 2001 on the disclosure of listed companies’ social responsibility policies and endeavours.
Intrinsic to our culture is an ethical approach to business conducted by and towards all our stakeholders, including management, staff, clients, suppliers and shareholders. The values that form the essence of our brand and our working culture are professionalism, integrity, effectiveness and dynamism. We have appointed Nicholas Furlonge as the group sponsor of our corporate and social responsibility programme.
Our code of ethics comprises the staff handbook, the handling of personal data, whistle blowing and financial crime policies.We have a conflicts of interest policy which provides clear guidance to staff on areas such as inducements and handling sensitive data.
Corporate responsibility
We are an equal opportunities employer and make it our policy to offer equal treatment to employees and prospective employees, ensuring that all are treated fairly and with dignity and respect. We do not permit unlawful discrimination of any kind against any person on the grounds of gender, race, nationality or ethnic origin, age, disability, religious beliefs, sexuality, marital status, working patterns or pregnancy.
We are committed to taking positive action to ensure that all employees, whether full-time or part-time, receive equality of opportunity in recruitment, training, development, promotion and remuneration.
We strive to ensure the health, safety and welfare of our employees and anyone else who may be affected by our operations. Employees are expected to take reasonable care for their own health and safety at work as well as those of others, and to co-operate with management to create a safe and healthy working environment. All employees and contractors are subject to induction, training and supervision in aspects of health and safety and additional training in ergonomics and fire safety awareness is provided to all employees. All health and safety matters are communicated via notice boards, email memos, the intranet and via safety representatives. Overall responsibility for health and safety at Beazley rests with the chief operating officer of the group, David Marock.
We believe that the knowledge and skills of our employees are a key element of organisational success and therefore invest in training and development. We ensure that this is accessible by everyone and recognised as a shared responsibility between individual employees and the organisation. Responsibility for the provision of training and development at Beazley sits with the head of talent management, Penny Malik.
Employees are kept informed of developments in business through our internal communications including formal company-wide briefings that occur twice a month, team meetings and an information-rich intranet.
We are proud of our working culture that ensures we achieve our aim to attract, reward and retain talented staff in competitive markets and support and develop them as they strive to perform to an excellent standard.
Social responsibility
We encourage employee involvement in a range of community programmes. Nicholas Furlonge is the chairman of the Lloyd’s Community Programme (LCP) Management Board in London, and encourages staff to involve themselves in helping pupils in schools in the Tower Hamlets area, one of the most deprived areas in the country. Beazley is involved in two schemes on a weekly basis – Reading and Number partners. Currently we have 12 volunteers participating in total in what is proving to be a very successful scheme.
In addition to the Reading and Number Partner schemes in 2009, as part of the LCP we participated in the Lloyd’s Games at Mile End stadium, facilitating a day of sporting activities attended by 500 pupils from the Tower Hamlets area and a number of individuals were involved in cricket and football coaching.
We also sent volunteers to a school in Hackney to participate in the Inspire scheme, to help students develop a variety of skills such as teamwork, communication and problem solving, what it means to write a CV, a covering letter and the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of interviews.
Charity
The group made charitable donations during the year ended 31 December 2009 of £53,017 (2008: £67,112). The group’s charity budget is managed by a charity committee chaired by Jonathan Gray and consideration is given to a wide range of activities, particularly where members of staff are engaged in fund raising activities. For example, several members of our staff raised over £5,000 competing in the London Marathon, and over £1,500 in the annual JP Morgan Chase Challenge. Also, our annual Christmas card is distributed electronically to over 20,000 key clients and contacts, giving them the opportunity to indicate the charity that they wish us to support
As previously reported, we run a payroll-giving scheme in the UK in association with the Charities Aid Foundation. By the end of December 2009, 8% of staff had joined the scheme, donating £34k annually to approximately 30 different charities.
No political donations were made by the group in either the current or prior reporting period.
Environmental responsibility
In 2009 Beazley created a consolidated global facilities and procurement team to bring focus and consistency to the way we source goods and services and manage our global facilities. Beazley is committed to achieving best practices in all of the areas of our business and where there may be an impact on the environment we strive to make environmentally responsible choices, whenever possible.
In the procurement area we have adopted the following best practices:
- In all requests for proposals (RFP) over $25K for the procurement of commodities we request and evaluate as part of the proposal information on each supplier’s “green” and environmentally responsible initiatives in the manufacture and delivery of their products;
- We carefully evaluate and compare each supplier’s “green” initiatives and will give appropriate weighting to the quality and consistency of a supplier’s programs when making an award;
- Once a supplier has been awarded a contract, we track and monitor the supplier’s green initiatives to ensure that they are maintaining the standards and programs represented in the RFP; and
- In 2010 we will begin to track and report on the percentage of Beazley spend that is attributable to green/ sustainable commodities.
In the facilities area we actively promote, support and encourage environmentally aware behaviour, including:
- Use of video conferencing versus flying or driving to meetings;
- Use of recycled paper supplies;
- Use of glass versus paper products;
- Use of recycling bins;
- Motion detectors are fitted in the London office and will be fitted in all new offices to ensure electricity usage is kept to a minimum; and
- All new offices are designed to ensure that environmentally friendly materials and products are utilised, whenever feasible.
We understand that it is important to set targets, measure and report progress against these and in 2010 Beazley will be establishing appropriate goals regarding usage of recycled and sustainably grown paper designed to further demonstrate our commitment to the environment and we will be reporting on these goals in 2010.
The 2008 carbon footprint for Beazley’s London office was measured by Scott Wilson in April 2009. A greenhouse gas (GhG) protocol was applied and data collected on the GhG scopes. Beazley’s emissions are: scope 1 (vehicles and buildings) 5%; scope 3 (business travel and commuting) 76% and 18% respectively. The total emissions for the Beazley London office for 2008 were 2,043.84 kgCo2 representing a per capita head amount of 5.86 kgCo2. A baseline for carbon emissions has now been established. A second GhG report will be commissioned in April 2010 and we will then look at appropriate ways of reducing and offsetting our carbon footprint which we will be tracking and reporting on during 2010.
In 2007, we signed up to the ClimateWise principles and we continue to monitor our progress against these. The principles are: lead in risk analysis; inform public policy making; support climate awareness amongst our customers; incorporate climate change into our investment strategies; reduce the environmental impact of our business; report and be accountable. Where more appropriate (for example, informing public policy and incorporating climate change into our investment strategies) we will be placing reliance on the activities of Lloyd’s ClimateWise team. This team has worked with us to enhance the measurement and reporting of our activities during 2009. Our focus in 2009 has been towards our own environmental impact and in measuring our London carbon footprint. Compliance with the ClimateWise principles is subject to annual independent review, which in 2009 was conducted by Forum for the Future.
