CSR at Legal & General is about the management of our relationships with customers, suppliers, shareholders, employees and the wider community, as well as the Company’s impact on society and the environment. Our Guiding Principles set out our specific responsibilities in each of these areas. We consider adherence to CSR values to be a key factor in our long term success, not least because of the growing importance attached to responsible business practices by key groups, such as our customers CSR needs to be integral to our business and this is increasingly the case, although the challenge remains for us to embed CSR principles even further into our business activities.
Back to topCentral to the embedding of CSR principles is fostering a culture of ethical behaviour in the Company. Ethical conduct is vital in earning and retaining the trust of our customers and other stakeholders and ensuring the sustainability of our business. For this reason, we expect all employees to operate to the highest ethical standards in all aspects of their work and business relationships.
As part of our commitment to ethical practice, some years ago we established a Business Ethics Working Group, which reports to the CSR Committee and is tasked with developing and maintaining a Business Ethics Framework to be applied across the Company. This Framework covers the ethical standards expected of employees, in order to support them in ‘doing the right thing’ in their business dealings. It also provides a means of clarification and escalation of issues.
Last year we reported that we were designing a series of communications and training initiatives to encourage employees to identify with, and commit to, ethical conduct and Company values. During 2006 an Ethics Awareness Day took place at our Kingswood office to raise employee awareness of the Framework, and events will take place at other locations during 2007. The Awareness Day included the launch of a computer-based training module, entitled ‘What would you do?’. This was designed in the format of a questionnaire and was aimed at measuring employee attitudes towards various decisions that had an ethical dimension. Once events have taken place at our other offices, the results will help us to identify areas that we need to address going forward.
Ethics awareness was also raised during 2006 by a Gazette (Legal & General’s employee magazine) article in which Tim Breedon gave employees his view on the importance of ethical behaviour in the Company.
Please visit our Ethics section on our corporate website for further information about our approach to Integrity in Business, and an explanation of our Company values.
Back to topAnyone who has a relationship with Legal & General is a stakeholder. Each group and individual has expectations of how the Company should behave and how we should demonstrate good corporate citizenship, and it’s important that we listen and respond to their concerns. Over the years we have developed a comprehensive engagement programme to ensure that we understand and address stakeholders’ evolving concerns, and examples of the dialogue we’ve had in 2006 with key groups are given in the relevant section of this Report.
Back to topLegal & General’s CSR Committee meets four times a year. It is responsible for developing the Company’s CSR strategy, overseeing its implementation and monitoring how we’re performing against our targets.
Tim Breedon, Group Chief Executive since January 2006, took over the chairmanship of the CSR Committee on the retirement of his predecessor, Sir David Prosser. The Group Board as a whole reviews the minutes of the Committee, receives an annual presentation on the CSR programme and conducts an annual review of the Committee and programme, as well as considering specific aspects of CSR as appropriate throughout the year.
As well as Board involvement in the CSR programme, we consider it beneficial to include on the CSR Committee a representative from Amicus, our recognised trade union. During 2006, we were praised by People Management magazine for this practice, and we’ve found it valuable in ensuring that the views of our employees are heard and considered.
The members of the CSR Committee during 2006 are listed below:
| Name | Title | Specific area of responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| Tim Breedon |
Group Chief Executive | Chair of Committee |
| Jane Boswell | CSR Manager | Co-ordination and reporting of CSR programme, Community Involvement |
| Caroline Fawcett | Customer Strategy Director | Customer-focused and brand issues |
| Gareth Hoskin | Resources and International Director | Human Resource management, Environment, overseas operations |
| Elaine MacLean | Head of HR, UK Operations | Human Resource management |
| Nick Manns | Amicus National Health and Safety Officer | Representing the views of our employees |
The Group’s overall Corporate Governance framework, which demonstrates the positioning of the CSR Committee and its sub-committees, is as follows:
The CSR Guiding Principles help to set the tone for the work of the Committee and its members. In addition, the CSR Committee undertakes an annual review of risks and opportunities associated with our social, environmental and ethical impacts and activities. Responsibility for reviewing each area, and for assessing the likelihood and impact of identified risks, is delegated to the relevant Committee member, their management teams, or the appropriate sub-committee.
Back to topOnce identified, the ongoing management of these risks and opportunities is assigned to the appropriate CSR Committee member or sub-committee. The next step is the establishment, where appropriate, of targets to ensure that the various impact areas are properly managed and reported. We recognise the importance of setting targets that are relevant, timely, measurable and directional, and we’ve sought to ensure that the 2007 targets meet these criteria (see ‘2007 Targets’).
Back to topCSR issues are also reported on an ongoing basis to our employees via global emails, the intranet, the Gazette and eGazette (online staff magazine), and other mechanisms as appropriate.
Back to topFeedback on Legal & General’s CSR performance is obtained through stakeholder engagement, as mentioned above, and external rating agency surveys. If you have any comments on how our Report or CSR programme could be improved, please address them to Jane Boswell at jane.boswell@group.landg.com.
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