Experian 2008 Annual Report Download - page 30

28 Experian Annual Report 2008
Experian already delivers many
benefits to society. On a macro scale
it helps fuel the world’s economies,
including those in emerging markets,
and at an individual level, it provides
consumers with information to
enable them to make better financial
decisions.
Experian is a business with skilled
people at its core and with many
different external stakeholders that
make success possible, from clients to
the general public, regulatory bodies
to NGOs. Aware of its wider social
responsibilities and taking these
stakeholders’ views into account,
Experian plays its part in helping to
provide solutions to some of society’s
problems and not only because of
a sense of altruism. Many of these
problems, when looked at with the
insight Experian can provide, create
new opportunities as well as mitigating
risks.
Seeing things from a social,
environmental and ethical stance, with
many different stakeholders’ interests
in mind, has enabled the Group to
successfully revise its approach to
CR in its first year of independent
trading. Experian has updated its
reporting, added depth to the role of
its CR management team and created
a forward-looking CR strategy. This
strategy is helping the company
embed CR principles in the way it does
business and is creating innovative
opportunities to address social needs.
Updated reporting
At the beginning of the year Experian had
established six strong responsibilities.
Use and protect data properly,
l
respecting all the relevant laws,
helping evolve industry guidelines
and new legislation, and ensuring
a culture of compliance with the
highest standards of integrity.
Create social and economic benefit
l
through our products, services and
capabilities, balancing commercial
benefit with consumers’ rights and
needs.
Inform and empower consumers,
l
and ensure that those who interact
directly with our company receive
fair and honest treatment.
Be a good employer to all,
l
establishing a set of expected
behaviours and values, ensuring
that everyone working for us is
treated fairly, given the maximum
opportunity to fulfil their potential
and that all our workplaces are safe
and healthy.
Minimise as far as possible the
l
environmental impacts associated
with our business and enable
employee participation, with a
particular concentration on the
reduction of energy use and its
effect on global warming.
Play an active part in social and
l
economic regeneration in our
communities, be they local, national
or global.
Experian sees these as the main
indicators that society should use to
hold the company to account. Three
relate to what it does in the marketplace
and three cover its approach to
environment, community and the
workplace.
The Group reported openly on these six
elements in its first year and has again,
for consistency and comparability,
reported on the same elements this
year, but with greater transparency and
clarity. The full online report provides
both an overview of the Group’s CR
performance and a fully substantiated
and verified data section. For the first
time Experian has also created an
eight-page summary report aimed at
key stakeholders which, we hope, will
encourage engagement and initiate
discussion about the Group’s approach
to CR.
The role of the management team
The governance structure created in
March 2007 remains in place; a cross-
regional CR Management Group has
been strengthened with the addition
of Victor Nichols, responsible for
the global Interactive and Marketing
Services business lines and now
CEO of UK and EMEA, and Tomas
Carmona, an experienced CR manager
from Serasa in Brazil.
Report on corporate
responsibilities
Corporate responsibility (CR) is increasingly seen as
a way to define how organisations operate with due
regard for the future of both their business and the
society and environment they operate in. In its first full
year of trading as an independent company, Experian
has made some significant advances in its approach to
CR and the sustainability of its operations.