Fair & ethical conduct

We recognise the importance of always conducting ourselves in a professional manner, acting with honesty and integrity, complying with applicable laws, regulations and appropriate standards in all countries in which we operate.

We work with our clients, suppliers and other third parties to ensure our high ethical standards are maintained.

Focus areas

  • Maintain high standards of professional conduct, legal and regulatory compliance
  • Set high ethical standards for ourselves and across our stakeholder relationships

Targets

  • Drive and execute continuously relevant expectations internally and externally, that support our Mission on a daily basis

FY24 highlights

  • Implemented a new contractor onboarding platform which gives greater control and management against compliance requirements and improved customer experience
  • A brand new Supplier Code of Conduct which proudly sets out our expectations

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­FY25 next steps

  • Develop our onboarding approach to ensure accountability and compliance
  • Deep dive into individual onboarding processes to ensure a feedback loop and excellence of service

Focus areas

  • Maintain high standards of professional conduct, legal and regulatory compliance
  • Set high ethical standards for ourselves and across our stakeholder relationships

Targets

  • Drive and execute continuously relevant expectations internally and externally, that support our Mission on a daily basis

FY24 highlights

  • Implemented a new contractor onboarding platform which gives greater control and management against compliance requirements and improved customer experience
  • A brand new Supplier Code of Conduct which proudly sets out our expectations

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­FY25 next steps

  • Develop our onboarding approach to ensure accountability and compliance
  • Deep dive into individual onboarding processes to ensure a feedback loop and excellence of service

Prioritising high standards & transparency

Our dedicated Legal & Co Sec and Group Compliance teams are focused on ensuring that we deliver our business within all the legal and regulatory parameters relevant to us, as well as contractual and industry requirements. We expect to always achieve high standards, in line with our Mission to deliver a service that is trusted by our customers, colleagues and suppliers.

Furthermore, one of our values outlines that we ‘do the right thing, even when no-one is watching’. To achieve this, we engage experts in their field who are trained and qualified in areas necessary for our business. We are resourced to provide an excellent service to our colleagues. We offer opportunities for development and manage performance productively through our performance management programme. We work closely with the business so we understand what is needed, and support our business, managers and leaders to do it in the right way.

We also drive these high standards across the third parties we work with. We recognise that, as an organisation, we need to communicate clear expectations to our supply chain and ensure we have a strong level of trust from them required for successful execution. Alongside this comes a considerable focus on ensuring we remain effective in our operations and are able to drive process efficiencies that benefit us all. As a critical element of this, we welcome feedback from all parties that we work with and offer clear and transparent lines of communication.

Accountability for our service through data monitoring

We take responsibility towards our candidates and clients seriously and are continuously striving to improve our offering. Our Net Promoter Scores (NPS) have improved since our last report with combined score showing as 119. This and the individual scores below rank us as great and place us significantly higher than the recruitment industry benchmark.

As part of our NPS process we review all feedback and seek to improve our processes. To date this has included a review of all contractor communications issued and timings to ensure all new contractors are fully aware of payment schedules and contact points. In addition we have also reached out to all clients to get more detailed feedback to understand what is important to them.

Candidate:

Client NPS:


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Contents

Our Sustainability Journey

Environment


Achieving our low-carbon commitments

Providing the STEM skills to build a low carbon future

Social


Promoting the health, wellbeing & development of our colleagues

Creating equitable & inclusive workplaces for our colleagues & customers

Positively impacting our communities & philanthropic partnerships

Governance


Governance, management & compliance

Fair & ethical conduct

Appendices

FY23 Highlights

  • Invested in a system driven tool to better manage the robustness of third party screening
  • Introduced and embedded a Balanced Scorecard into our performance management processes, incorporating the management of values and behaviours as well as achievements and skills
  • Enhanced leadership accountability through incorporating relevant scores for their areas from our employee engagement platform (Peakon) into their bonus
  • Senior Leadership team now have a proportion of their bonus based on Group engagement score
  • FY23 LTIP share scheme includes retention as a measurement hurdle to drive accountability at a Leadership level to support, develop, and retain our talent

FY24 Next steps

  • Focus on how we engage with our suppliers on an onboarding level, as well as periodic review
  • Create a Supplier Code of Conduct to share our sustainability standards and expectations with all suppliers
  • Improve experience and efficiency when executing the contractor onboarding process that still maintains legislative compliance