The Phoenix Software Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy aims to ensure that we conduct our business ethically by considering human rights and taking account of our social, economic, and environmental impact.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promise action on 17 critical social and environmental issues – from ending poverty and homelessness, to protecting the planet and fighting inequality – by 2030.
The 17th goal is a call for businesses and individuals to step up to solve the world’s biggest issues collectively and systematically, and Phoenix is dedicated to contributing to this.
We use these SDGs as the guiding framework for our CSR policy and are proud to be contributing towards meeting these goals by 2030.
We are focusing on the highlighted seven SDGs below as part of our community improvement programme.
Scope
This policy applies to our workforce and operations. Some elements may also refer to suppliers and partners.
Policy elements
Volunteering and Community Outreach
We encourage all of our employees to volunteer, and they are given volunteering days to support charitable causes close to their hearts. In addition to the personal volunteering time, our workforce volunteer to deliver social value initiatives in the communities in which we work across the UK, through our Community Outreach Programme. This includes, educational activities, career talks, digital skills sessions and small business support.
We also support an employee chosen company charity who we fundraise for annually.
UN SDG goal 1: No poverty
Living Wage Employer
We acknowledge that a fair day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. We are proud to be an accredited Living Wage Employer, supporting an important socially responsible policy and investing in our people.
Our Living Wage commitment means that everyone working at Phoenix Software receives the national living wage as a minimum. In addition to this, when establishing partnerships with third-party contractors, sub-contractors, and suppliers, we also check their living wage status to ensure that the message is heard and acted upon by all.
UN SDG goal 2: Zero hunger
Foodbank scheme
We believe that no one should go hungry, and we are actively working to tackle this prevalent UK social issue by working with our employees, customers, and partners to support foodbanks across the country.
Phoenix’s Charity Committee has introduced a food drive to encourage our employees to donate items from the ‘most needed’ list of the selected foodbank. The foodbanks are selected from our local community or the communities of our customers. We also offer employees volunteer time to work in groups to help understaffed foodbanks.
UN SDG goal 3: Good health and wellbeing
We care
The mental wellbeing of our employees is of the utmost importance to us, and we want to raise awareness of this vital issue to ensure our people know the importance of seeking help and showing understanding to others.
Our strategy to provide support to employees around mental health and wellbeing is founded upon our key messages: ‘We are in this together’ and ‘We care’ and in 2020, we signed Mind’s ‘Time to Change Employer Pledge’ to back our commitment.
We ensure that our team are supported, remain in communication with management and each other, and understand that they can speak openly to their managers about their health and wellbeing to encourage discussion about how we can help them. Our programme of activities is run by our internal People Employee Network to help promote positive mental health and embed it into the culture of the organisation.
Our programme of activities to help promote positive mental health include:
- All employees can access Microsoft Viva to manage digital wellbeing, have use of the Headspace app and a free Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) supporting on topics such as finances, career coaching, relationships, and more.
- ‘Tea & Toast’ chats covering various topics such as ‘loneliness’, ‘am I really fine’, and ‘how do we chill’
- St Johns Ambulance Mental Health First Aiders
- We offer flexible working to all employees to help ensure a good work-life balance
- Our Employee Assistance Plan provides all charges fully funded access to mental wellness and support.
- We offer heavily discounted private health insurance which includes mental wellness. Plan members can access a range of health treatments including face to face counselling, cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and eye movement desensitisation processing (EMDR)
- We know that having a healthy, active lifestyle can contribute to good mental wellbeing, so we provide showers and changing facilities for anyone wishing to take part in any sport activities during their lunch breaks. We hold regular tournaments for netball, table tennis and football
UN SDG goal 4: Quality education
Apprenticeships
We believe in the future of our industry, and in investing in the next generation through apprenticeships, and career opportunities are an integral part of that ethos. Through formal training and development, we give people the opportunity to grow and develop a prosperous career in the IT industry.
Career talks
We regularly visit schools and colleges within our community and the communities of our customers to deliver classroom activities and careers talks.
Our objective is to inspire and educate the next generation, while informing them about the thriving, ever-growing IT industry and demonstrating the benefits of education and digital literacy.
Careers guidance
We engage with local schools, colleges, and universities to offer career guidance to inspire and educate the next generation. In partnership with our suppliers and eco-system, we assist with mock interviews, CV writing guidance, and provide pre-recorded careers guidance.
Retaining talent
Phoenix believes in investing in our people. Our training and development programme enables individuals to realise their full potential and get the best out of their career.
In a competitive environment, it is essential that our employees continually replenish their knowledge and acquire new skills to perform their job better and drive their personal development.
We aim to help them feel confident in their roles, improve the efficiency and productivity of the company, and find new ways to achieve personal development and success.
All our employees benefit from a comprehensive induction programme when they start their role with us. This includes a detailed introduction to Phoenix, our history and objectives, our ethos, and policies and processes – plus, a thorough overview of our services.
A key member of the team from each department delivers an overview of their department to allow inductees to develop a complete understanding of our services.
Inductees then receive further training from their manager on their specific responsibilities and their department.
Every employee has a fully tailored training and development plan put in place within their first month.
This is a continuously evolving plan of objectives and achievements, created by the employee and their manager and reviewed monthly. This includes regular product training and internal specialist training to ensure all employees are fully trained in our products and services and have the knowledge and skills they need to succeed.
In addition, all employees have access to an online repository of training materials, including access to online training.
UN SDG goal 5: Gender equality
While gender equality is a high priority for Phoenix, we also look at the wider equality issues facing society, which include race, disability, accessibility, and inclusion.
We have an internal staff network dedicated to Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion to ensure all of our employees are represented fairly. Recent actions from the network have included the implementation of:
- Gender neutral toilets
- Breastfeeding room
- Menopause Policy
- Transitioning at Work Policy
Women in IT
We are passionate about helping women to advance in the IT industry by providing them with access to, and support from, other women working within the industry. This commitment has proved hugely successful with 35% of positions at Phoenix held by women – well above the 20% industry average.
Diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI)
Race at Work
We are a proud signatory on the Race at Work Charter. The Charter comprises of five principal calls to action for leaders and organisations across all sectors.
Signing it means that your company is committing to taking practical steps to ensure that workplaces are tackling barriers that ethnic minority people face in recruitment and progression, and that organisations are representative of British society today.
Armed Forces Covenant
The Armed Forces Covenant is a pledge that acknowledges and understands that those who serve or have served in the armed forces, and their families, deserve respect and fair treatment. By signing this covenant, we have committed to support the armed forces community in various ways, recognising their sacrifices and ensuring that they are not disadvantaged in their daily lives.
Accessible tech
We work with our customers and employees to ensure that they can utilise the accessibility options available to them within the technology, apps, and services we all use daily. Whether this is the device they use, the accessibility checker within Outlook or Word, or live captions that can be added to all Microsoft Teams meetings, we ensure that how we work is as inclusive as possible.
Disability Confident Committed Employer
We are a Disability Confident Committed employer. The Disability Confident scheme supports organisations like Phoenix to make the most of the talents people with disabilities bring to the workplace.
The scheme aims to help successfully recruit and retain people with disabilities and health conditions. It was developed by employers and representatives of people with disabilities to make it rigorous but easily accessible – and is one that we fully embrace.
We have furthered this by building our Accessibility Centre of Excellence (ACE) within our Pocklington office where we can showcase our services and solutions to both our employees and customers.
UN SDG goal 8: Decent work and economic growth
Secure work
We provide our employees with secure work via permanent contracts and fair pay and conditions. We do not believe in zero hours contracts because we believe a happy workforce is one that feels secure in their job and financially rewarded.
We go above and beyond international labour standards set by the European Union and the International Labour Organisation, and hold official company policies in equality and diversity, equal opportunities, health and safety, fair working practices, and human slavery, which we review and update on an annual basis. We also review the working practices and standards of all sub-contractors prior to the establishment of new partnerships.
We work with partners and customers to build out social value initiatives to tackle inequalities in digital skills and help increase employability. We have created ‘how to’ films and have access to a variety of fully funded skills.
Employee engagement
We send regular surveys to measure staff satisfaction and ensure that we analyse and act on suggestions.
In addition to these surveys, staff are encouraged to share their suggestions for change or improvement. As a result of this initiative, we have implemented lots of staff suggestions, such as creating our own allotment to be more sustainable and purchasing a defibrillator for the office and neighbouring businesses and community.
To ensure we have our finger on the pulse, we ask all staff to complete a short weekly survey with questions relating to their career and wellbeing. They also have the opportunity to give recognition to a colleague who has gone the extra mile that week, creating a culture of appreciation.
Great Place to Work
We are proud to be certified as Great Place to Work 2024 and to be listed as a Great Place to Work for Women, Great Place to Work for Tech and a Great Place to Work for Wellbeing.
These certifications demonstrate our exceptionally high levels of employee engagement across the organisation.
UN SDG goal 13: Climate action
We take our responsibilities for the environment very seriously, which are reflected in the goals that we have set ourselves.
We partner with Ecologi to invest gold standard, certified, carbon project credits against our business activity emissions to support impactful climate solutions. For FY 23/24 we invested in carbon removal credits to offset customer and partner travel to our events, ensuring that these emissions have been removed for true offsetting.
Our long-term and short-term net zero targets have been validated by SBTi for Bytes Technology Group, for Phoenix this means:
We aim to maintain 100% operational scope 1, and 2
We are committed to using renewable energy sources, but also invest in energy efficient heating and lighting.
We are targeting to reduce our Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2030 (from 2022/23 baseline)*
We will reduce our emissions by embedding circular economy procurement, minimising business travel, and employee commute, and influencing others in our supply chain to change behaviours to minimise their impact on the environment.
We aim to be Net Zero by 2040.
To achieve these goals, it’s essential to monitor and track our progress and set improvement targets to drive continuous development. We have developed a bespoke Carbon Accounting System where we record, report, and track the reduction of carbon emissions.
ISO14001 Certified
Our ISO 14001 driven Environmental Management System complies with all the relevant requirements of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and drives environmental best practice throughout our supply chain and operations.
Our business model is designed to meet the following environmental criteria:
- Comply with the relevant requirements of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and all other domestic legislation concerned with the protection of human and natural resources
- Minimise the risk to the environment and public from any acts of pollution or emissions during our operations
- Have the necessary control measures in place to protect the natural environment and conserve resources
- Minimise emissions of noise, air pollution, and waste products
- Ensure all employees have suitable and enough information, instruction, training, and supervision to act with due consideration towards the environment
- Require all contractors working on our behalf to meet with an equal standard of care for the environment
- Ensure our suppliers meet our standard of care for the environment
- Assess the environmental impact of any new developments/ actions
- Liaise with any relevant parties regarding new developments/ projects
- Continually monitor the environmental impact of our operations
Our Employee Environmental Network drives ideas and behaviour change through the organisation. Our actions include:
Energy
- 100% renewable energy purchased for our office
- All offices fitted with motion sensor PIR LED lighting
Physical Waste
- We have multiple recycling options, paper, plastics, glass, crisps/ confectionary wrappers, coffee cups, batteries and tea bags composted
- No single use bottles, replaced with canned water and all staff have a reusable water bottle
Travel
- EV charging points for personal and business use
- EV salary-sacrifice scheme
- Car Share programme
- Flexible working for public transport
- Free bus passes for travel to and from the office
Water
- Reuse rainwater for our ponds/ gardens
* Including other Scope 3 emissions for Purchased Goods, Capital Goods, Fuel and Energy related activities (Electricity T&D), Upstream T&D, Business Travel, Employee Commuting, Use of sold products, End of life treatment of sold products.