PHOENIX GROUP HOLDINGS/media/Files/P/Phoenix... · 2014. 3. 26. · Group Chief Executive Officer...

PHOENIX GROUP HOLDINGSCORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY 2013

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITYIN ACTION 2013

PHOENIX GROUP HOLDINGS CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY 2013

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

Corporate Responsibility (‘CR’) continues to be embedded within Phoenix Group. Since joining Business in the Community (‘BITC’) in 2010, the CR programme has grown in maturity, is better aligned to the business model and has increased commitment from staff. This is best exampled through the number of initiatives the Group is involved with and the results from the employee engagement survey. The Group welcomes the tangible and intangible benefits that CR brings for all stakeholders – staff, suppliers, customers, shareholders, investors and the communities in which we are based. Together we can make a difference and improve the Group’s long‑term sustainability.

72% of staff Group‑wide said they believe the Company places an appropriate level of importance on Corporate Responsibility and 78% believe the Company actively promotes Corporate Responsibility.

GOVERNANCEStaff actively embrace CR activity across the Group and are made aware of the CR Policy and accompanying Code of Business Ethics and Ethical Conduct annually. The CR programme is sponsored at the highest level by the Group Chief Executive Officer, and two members from the Executive Committee sit on the Group’s CR working group. This forum meets quarterly to determine CR strategy and oversee the agreed programme of activity. The Executive Committee as a whole is updated on progress against the CR plan on a bi‑annual basis.

HIGHLIGHTS The aim for 2013 was to raise awareness of the Group’s CR programme and to achieve greater staff involvement in company‑led initiatives. Highlights include:

– Increased score of 12 points in BITC’s Responsible Business Check‑Up.

– Included CR questions in the Group’s employee engagement survey.

– Fundraised approximately £200,000 for local charities.

– Donated over 800 hours to staff volunteering programmes.

– Participated in two CR related benchmarks, providing external assurance and industry comparisons.

– Launched a ‘Health and Wellbeing’ statement, as part of our workplace wellbeing agenda.

– Signed up to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment.

2013 was all about ‘making a difference’, whether that be to the lives of our staff, the communities in which we are based, or the charities we have partnered with during the year.

LUCY SYMONDSCorporate Responsibility Manager

It’s about doing the right thing and acting responsibly in everything we do.

CLIVE BANNISTERGroup Chief Executive Officer

BITC is a business-led charity offering advice and support to its members promoting the importance of future sustainability.

01 PHOENIX GROUP HOLDINGS CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY 2013

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITYCONTINUED

CR within the Group is reported in four areas which are similar categories to those championed by BITC.

I would like to congratulate the Phoenix Group on the progress you have made.

KATE TURNERSenior Corporate Adviser, Business in the Community

ENVIRONMENTOur commitment to monitoring and reducing our environmental footprint.

WORKPLACEHow we treat employees, including how we attract, develop and retain the best talent.

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERSOur relationships with customers, investors, lenders, outsourced and other business partners, suppliers, regulators, Government and the media.

COMMUNITYThe contribution we make to the communities in which we operate and our obligations to the broader society.


ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT – REDUCING OUR IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENTAs a responsible business, the Group has launched several initiatives to lessen or counteract the impact it is making on the environment. The focus has been on educating staff and helping them understand how their actions can make a difference.

At the Wythall site, a ‘lunchtime landfill’ initiative reduced restaurant service waste by over a tonne, saving the business resources, effort and money, in addition to providing environmental benefits. Following a review of waste management suppliers, two of the Group’s sites now generate no waste to landfill and a third site review is planned for 2014.

Phoenix Life and Group offices have moved to a single IT provider, bringing a number of environmental benefits including eco‑friendly printing equipment, double‑sided printing by default, enhanced remote working capability, instant messaging facility and ‘free’ telephone conferencing. TV screens have been installed in meeting rooms encouraging more online or paper‑free meetings. All paper within the Group is sourced from sustainable managed forests, and payslips are now online.

At the end of 2013, the Group commenced a one‑year partnership with the Heart of England Forest Limited, whose aim is to ‘conserve and establish trees for the benefit of the public’. 1000 oak saplings were planted in an area close to the Wythall site named ‘The Phoenix Way’. During 2014, the Group will work with local schools to arrange educational nature visits to the woodland and staff will have the opportunity to learn outdoor skills such as coppicing. This partnership will provide a lasting legacy for future generations.

The 3 Rs – Reduce, Re‑use and Recycle – have continued to play an important part in the promotion of environmental campaigns across the Group. Following the change of IT provider, mobile phone handsets were refreshed, allowing old devices to be recycled for charity.

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS1

Global GHG emissions data for period: 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2013

Emissions from:Tonnes of

CO2e Combustion of fuel and operation of facilities 3,365Electricity, heat, steam and cooling purchased for own use 11,600Total Carbon Footprint(Tonnes of CO2e) 14,965

Phoenix Group’s chosen intensity measurement:

Emissions reported above normalised to per m2

0.04 tonnesCO2e/m2

Emissions reported above normalised to kgs per m2

34.83 kgs CO2e/m2

Emissions from Group corporate offices normalised per FTE

4.96 tonnesof CO2 FTE

1 We have used the main requirements of ISO14064 Part 1 and the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (revised edition) for our methodology, using energy consumption data from our owned and/or occupied properties. We have established that Fluorinated Gas and owned transport emissions are non‑material. We have used emissions factors from the UK Government conversion factors for Company Reporting.

Plans for 2014 will be to continue to focus on reducing the volume of office consumables, better utilising the new technology available and further minimising the Group’s impact on the environment.



WORKPLACE WORKPLACE – ATTRACTING, DEVELOPING AND RETAINING TALENTED STAFFThe Group continues to be independently recognised as one of ‘Britain’s Top Employers’. Companies awarded this accreditation are considered amongst the best companies to work for in the UK.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT89% of employees participated in the 2013 employee engagement survey, with an overall employee engagement index score (‘EEI’) of 72% (2012:73%). 57 questions were asked, of which 30 were either in line with or above the financial services (‘FS’) and private sector benchmarks.

Health and wellbeingThe Group launched a ‘Health and Wellbeing’ initiative in line with BITC’s ‘Workwell’ model, the aim being to promote the health and lifestyle services available to staff, helping them get the most out of life. Over 200 members of staff took advantage of an on‑site health‑check.

The Group worked with an Interior Design graduate from De Montfort University in Leicester to source fixtures and fittings for a new relaxation room at the Wythall site, and staff based at Glasgow are benefiting from a major refurbishment which had employee health and wellbeing as a core consideration, delivered through an enhanced working environment.

The Group’s commitment to employee wellbeing also included a review of staff salaries to bring all Phoenix colleagues up to the ‘Living Wage’, which is over and above the legislated national minimum wage set by the Government.

Employee benefitsThe Group provides a range of policies and benefits designed to attract, develop and retain talented staff.

The Group’s business ethics and dignity at work principles have regard for and are aligned to relevant Articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In line with the Group’s health and wellbeing offering, the most popular flexible benefit selected during the year by Phoenix Group and Life staff was holiday trading, with 33% buying additional entitlement. The Group supports a range of flexible working arrangements, both formal and informal, including home working, job sharing and part‑time opportunities.

Benefits across the Group include:

Learning and development opportunitiesFlexible benefits schemeShare Save SchemeShare Incentive PlanAnnual Incentive PlanEmployee Assistance ProgrammeOccupational Health ServiceCharitable donations (Give as you Earn)Employee referral schemeSeason ticket loansFamily‑friendly policies

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WORKPLACE CONTINUED

Employee metricsFigures represent Phoenix Group, Phoenix Life and Ignis Asset Management.

2013 2012

Total staff across sites 1,192 1,229Total full time equivalent across all sites 1155 1,191Percentage of part‑time/formal flexible working employees 12.2% NCWorkforce that is of Black, Asian or MinorityEthnic (’BAME‘) background 17.90% 16%Workforce that is female 513 (43%) 541 (44%)Workforce that is male 679 (57%) 688 (56%)Split of Directors (includes Non‑Executive Directors)

F 1 (9%) M 10 (91%)

F 1 (7%) M 13 (93%)

Split of senior managers F 3 (16.7%) M 15 (83.3%)

F 4 (21.1%) M 15 (78.9%)

Staff turnover (employees choosing to leave voluntarily) 7.7% 7.1%New starter retention (permanent employees leaving voluntarily within 12 month’s service)

12% 10%

Percentage of days lost through sickness 1.7% 1.8%Percentage of employees sponsored on a professional qualification

16.6% 25.2%

Total number of external staff training days 823 2,266Total spend on external staff training £0.5m £0.7m



Throughout the course of 2013, over 20 work experience opportunities were offered Group‑wide, ranging from one‑week placements through to summer internships. Individuals participating found the experience useful and enjoyable. The Group is looking to widen the availability of work experience placements in 2014.

Health and safetyAll employees are required to complete annual training on Health and Safety. Line Managers receive extended training to raise awareness of Health and Safety responsibilities. All employees who use Display Screen Equipment undertake annual reviews to ensure they optimise their working environment and select the most suitable set up. The Group had no reportable accidents under the Reporting of Incidents, Disease and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations (‘RIDDOR’) during 2013.

In 2014, the Group will continue to attract, develop and retain the most talented employees from across the industry. Continuing to make Phoenix a special place to work, staff will have a challenging and rewarding environment. Externally the Group will promote its employer brand, utilising benchmarking data to identify areas for improvement and excellence.

During 2013 Phoenix Group and Life participated in a BITC benchmarking survey facilitated by ‘Race for Opportunity’ and ‘Opportunity Now’, the race and gender equality campaigns. 98 companies within the UK participated, representing a combined workforce of nearly 2 million people. Using 2012 data, the Group reported 20.8% of its workforce as being from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (‘BAME’) background (compared to the FS sector average of 11.3%), placing it in the top 40% of participants. Senior Management BAME representation was 14%, which placed the Group in the top 20% of participating companies.

Learning and developmentThe Group continues to place importance on staff development, providing a range of in‑house and externally sourced training programmes, ranging from induction through to coaching and leadership skills.

During 2013, Ignis focussed on refreshing their suite of on‑line training materials, in addition to providing on‑going staff development. Within Phoenix Group and Life, the focus was on providing a range of in‑house leadership development programmes tailored to different levels of management, from ‘aspiring’ to ‘experienced’. A suite of 29 ‘High Impact Training’ sessions are available. These courses support the Group in developing its leaders to meet both current and future challenges.

WORKPLACE CONTINUED


COMMUNITY COMMUNITY – MAKING A DIFFERENCE In 2013, the Group actively engaged in supporting communities local to each site, with the aim of being a responsible member of that community and promoting Phoenix as an employer of choice.

VolunteeringStaff donated over 800 hours of time through volunteering in local community projects. Activities ranged from team events through to adhoc one‑to‑one mentoring. Staff joined 12,000 employees from 300 other companies by participating in BITC’s ‘Give and Gain’ national day of volunteering.

The Group’s partnership with The Money Charity (formerly Credit Action) continued throughout 2013. Phoenix staff delivered 33 financial education sessions to over 800 secondary school pupils, supporting the charity’s aim to empower young people to better manage their money, now and in the future.

Staff in Phoenix Group and Life supported their chosen charities of the year by volunteering their time to a range of activities from car valeting to gardening.

The Ignis link with the Glasgow School of Art was strengthened with the launch of a student mentoring programme. Staff mentors shared a variety of business skills and commercial advice with the students and plan to expand this further in 2014.

Charitable donationsThe Group primarily supports UK registered charities in the local community, and excludes any religious or political causes.

Just under £200,000 was donated to the Group’s chosen charities, generated by staff fundraising on‑site and company matching. Of this, £125,000 was donated to Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice and £48,000 to Trinity Hospice, the two Phoenix Group and Life’s chosen charities of the year.

Funds were also raised for charities such as Movember, Red Nose Day, Children in Need and the Midlands Air Ambulance. Staff in Ignis continued to raise funds for Yorkhill Children’s Charity (formerly Yorkhill Children’s Foundation), as part of Ignis’ plan to raise £10,000 over 2013/2014 for a ‘play and dining room’ within the new children’s hospital.

An additional £15,000 was donated through the staff matched donation scheme, for causes supported by employees outside of work.

Community link-ups£10,000 was donated to community based projects. Employees at Wythall provided support to three local primary schools and a secondary school during the year. Funds were also made available to sponsor Woodrush RFC under‑15’s new season’s kit, and the ‘Wythall and Hollywood Fun Run’, which included a 10km, 5km and 1.5km race in support of the local community.

All sites were involved in assisting those in need in the local communities over the festive period. Ignis staff supported the Whitechapel Mission in London and Glasgow South East food bank, donating food, clothing and domestic goods. Staff from the Wythall site supported the Redditch food bank, with a donation of cash and non‑perishable food items.

The Phoenix Group cricket team won the prestigious Warwickshire Taverners Trophy. The tournament raised more than £2,000 supporting the work of the Lord Taverners in providing more cricketing opportunities to disadvantaged and disabled young people.

The focus for 2014 will be to utilise the skills, knowledge and resources available within the Group to continue to make a positive difference to the communities around us.

It has been a real joy to work with Phoenix and see their commitment to fundraising and the level of engagement from all their staff. All of our corporate partners make a difference through the work they do, but staff at Phoenix have really gone above and beyond to raise this record-breaking amount for us.

THERESA MEEKCorporate Partnerships Officer, Birmingham



EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS – RELATIONSHIPS WITH THIRD PARTIESCustomersThe Group continues to recognise the responsibility it has to its customers and remains committed to providing a fair and helpful environment for their policies and investments.

We continue to undertake regular customer research, with an average of 1,500 participants each month. Results remain positive, with customers scoring all aspects of service highly. This research is invaluable in helping inform our service proposition, putting customers at the heart of the business and highlighting areas for improvement.

Following specific customer feedback on the annual statement mailing, the Group’s ‘point to the web’ strategy now means customers receive less paper by post, but still have the option of visiting the company website for more detailed information. This has reduced the size of annual statements for 1.3 million customers from five pages to one, saving an estimated 5.2 million sheets of paper each year.

Following a change in the law allowing individuals aged 60 and over with pension pots of less than £2,000 to take a one‑off lump sum (rather than receive a small regular income), the Group acted quickly to offer this option to eligible customers. In addition, a pilot was set up to extend this option to those who had annuities already in payment, allowing customers the choice of swapping their future payments for a one‑off lump sum. The Group is one of the first life and pension providers to offer this option to customers.

The Group won the ‘Head of AML and Fraud Prevention of the Year’ award at the Thompson Reuter Compliance Awards. This was in recognition for the work done to protect policyholders from the negative impacts of pension liberation. The Group is tackling the rise of pension liberation fraud by working with its partners to prevent transfers into suspicious schemes and raising awareness of the possible consequences with customers.

The Group is committed to continual improvement and views complaints as an opportunity to better understand customers’ needs.

ProcurementThe Group has continued to embed the UK Government’s Prompt Payment Code to ensure suppliers are paid on time, something the Group takes very seriously. The Procurement Policy has been refreshed, recognising the maturity of the supply chain, ensuring a focus on supplier sustainability.

Supplier management is important to the Group. The Group has invested to ensure the best qualified, capable and competent resources are available to manage the Group’s strategic partnerships. This investment was recognised during 2013 with the Outsource Management Team being short‑listed for the National Outsourcing Association (‘NOA’) Relationship Management Team of the year, whilst the Head of Outsource Management was successful in winning the NOA Academic Achievement Award for papers written as part of the NOA Diploma programme.


Responsible investmentIn 2013 Ignis was accepted as a signatory to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment (‘UNPRI’). This followed extensive research and due diligence into the benefits of becoming a signatory both internally and externally with clients. UNPRI is an international network of investors who work towards incorporating the principles of responsible investment decision making processes, including Environmental & Social Governance (‘ESG’), into investment analysis and policies and practices. Ignis views the UNPRI as setting the global standard for investment managers of all sizes. By becoming one of the signatories, the Group will be playing its part in an initiative which currently involves over 1200 institutions world‑wide.

Plans for 2014 will be to better educate our staff on how CR initiatives are beneficial to all external stakeholders and will look for opportunities to collaborate further with our supply chain providers to share best practice and ideas for inclusion in the wider CR agenda.

CONCLUSIONThe Group remains committed to its CR programme and in 2014 will be driving through initiatives that continue to benefit both the Group and its many stakeholders. In addition, work will continue with staff to ensure the CR programme continues to be embedded into daily working life and that the benefits of CR best practice are continually shared.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE GROUP’S CR PROGRAMME, PLEASE CONTACT

Lucy Symonds, Corporate Responsibility Manager, at [email protected]

TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS CONTINUED


Phoenix Group HoldingsRegistered address: Phoenix Group Holdings PO Box 309 Ugland House Grand Cayman KY1‑1104 Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands Registrar of Companies number 202172

Principal place of business: Phoenix Group Holdings 1st Floor 32 Commercial Street St Helier JE2 3RU Jersey

www.thephoenixgroup.com

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