Stakeholder engagement activity

Transcription

1 Regular engagement and dialogue are integral to doing business responsibly. Our stakeholders include: customers, colleagues, government (central, local and regional), regulatory bodies, investors, suppliers, trade unions, NGOs and opinion formers. Our Code of Business Responsibility sets out our approach to engaging and working with our stakeholders. The Group Board, Group Executive Committee and divisional leaders, discuss our stakeholder relationships as necessary, although these relationships are generally managed on a day-to-day basis by those colleagues best placed to do so. The Board-level Responsible Business Committee have an on-going dialogue with key stakeholders with an interest in the Committee s activities. And, we have an Independent Stakeholder Advisory Panel in place to provide input on the Group s Responsible business strategy and Helping Britain Prosper Plan. The eight members of the Panel in 2015 reflected a breadth of stakeholder interests, including customers, communities, the supply chain, and the investment community. More information is available here. In addition to the specific engagement detailed in this table, we also engage with all stakeholder groups annually through our materiality process where we ask participants to identify and rank the issues that are important to them. An overview of the key issues covered in our stakeholder engagement, by responsible business pillar: Customers Customer experience and satisfaction Customer privacy and data security Affordable and responsible financial services Financial inclusion and access to products SME, business and entrepreneur support Homebuyer We work to enhance customer experience and satisfaction. Our 24-hour, 7-days a week complaints handling operation provides a phone a friend escalation service for front line colleagues, helping them to deal with complaints fairly and quickly. This year our Net Promoter Score (the industry standard for measuring customer satisfaction) improved to 59.3 (from 59.2 in 2014), with complaints about our digital services falling almost 14% from 2014, to Over the past two years we have made significant improvements to the way we communicate with our customers, to enable better outcomes: We have used behavioural economic techniques to make marketing materials more concise and clear, and to create simpler terms and conditions. In 2016, we are planning an end-to-end review of communications for two of our key products. We are enhancing our engagement at important moments working with charity Grief Encounters to train colleagues to deal with bereavement issues sensitively and efficiently; and, as a responsible lender, saying no to a mortgage applications when we do not believe them to be in the customer s interest. In line with customer feedback, this year we have also established a Customer Vulnerability Framework and Customer Vulnerability Working group, to ensure our products and services are accessible to all customers. In addition to the 750 million invested in our digital banking services between 2012 and 2014, we have committed 1 billion up to This investment will continue to enhance our digital communications and our customers digital experience. Key improvements include a dramatic reduction in the time it takes to get a standard mortgage lending decision from 35 minutes in person, to just 12 minutes online. Since 2011, we have invested 157 million to improve security and provide protection for our customers. In 2015, we made further revisions to our Anti- Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Policy and launched relevant specialist training across the Group. We support business customers through our extensive network of customer facing staff. We work with partners, including Go ON UK, the Tinder Foundation and the Government to improve digital skills for individuals, small businesses and charities. 1

2 Colleagues Building a responsible culture Engaging with colleagues Inclusion and diversity Learning and development Remuneration and reward In 2015, we launched a Group-wide Culture Framework to help create and embed a customer-centric culture, along with a Culture Dashboard to measure our progress. We also formed a Group Customer First Committee to oversee our work on culture, customers and conduct. We encourage and enable colleagues to speak out if they suspect inappropriate behaviour that violates our cultural standards and Codes of Responsibility. In 2015, 153 allegations were received through our Speak Up line, of which 63% were upheld and appropriate remedial action taken. Our two independently conducted annual colleague surveys Best Bank for Customers and Building the Best Team provide rich data and a clear picture of colleague opinion on the Group. This year saw an 85% participation rate and an Employee Engagement Index score of 71% (up 11 points since 2014 and 8 points above the UK Norm). 81% also confirmed that I understand how my team is supporting the Group s purpose Helping Britain Prosper. We are working hard to build an inclusive bank that reflects the diversity of modern Britain. This approach is led from the top steered by our Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) Operational Committee and championed by Group Executive Committee members. In 2015, all of our line managers completed I&D capability training. To support our investment in agile working opportunities, we launched a new Getting Smarter about Agile Working colleague campaign. We also ran career development programmes for ethnic minority colleagues; and, through our four colleague networks engaged female, disabled, LBGT and ethnic minority colleagues across many of regular events. All colleagues, including the Group Chief Executive, complete two performance reviews a year and are assessed against their set objectives, plus our values, codes of responsibility and required behaviours. All colleagues access learning and development resources through our online Discover Learning management system. In 2015, colleagues logged-in more than 10 million times, and more than 96% undertook formal training an average of 5.7 days each. This year we have invested in senior management training launching our Line Manager Academy in 2015 and our Strategic Leaders Programme in early in Other training initiatives this year included: adding a driving for business element to our mandatory colleague H&S training; and continued online and printed resources to support colleagues health and wellbeing. During 2015, the Responsible Business Committee invited a representative of the Group s Stakeholder Advisory Panel to provide feedback on the 2015 HBPP and recommendations for areas of focus in the 2016 Plan. 2

3 Communities Community groups Charities Supporting local communities Education, employability and enterprise Community investment Fundraising and colleague volunteering Community engagement Financial inclusion and access to products Job creation Stimulating trade We directly engage with and support many different community organisations. Volunteering is important to our business. It enables us to form strong bonds with local communities and to develop our people. Our Volunteering Programme gives colleagues the opportunity to spend eight paid hours supporting a charity of their choice. In 2015, colleagues delivered more than 40,000 volunteering days, of which 20% were skills-based projects. In 2015 we invested 64 million in the community, which included 20 million in volunteered colleague time. We donated more than 17 million to our four Foundations, which are increasingly utilising the talents of our colleagues as volunteers and Charity Mentors. Our community programmes focus on supporting education, employability and enterprise in local communities. In 2015 these included: Money for Life programme helping young people to acquire money management skills to transform their lives; Lloyds Scholars Programme helping graduates from low-income families to attend top universities; Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs programmes helping social enterprises to start up or scale up businesses that support enterprise, create new jobs, or have a positive social impact. 3

4 Stakeholders Investors Government and regulators Suppliers Trade unions NGOs Industry bodies Opinion formers Legal and regulatory compliance Robust governance structure and accountability Affordable and responsible financial services Job creation Stimulating trade Building a responsible culture Engagement on public policy Responsible Investment Investors and rating agencies We held more than 1,000 meetings with investors in 2015; regularly engaging SRI/ESG investors as well as investment analysts and providing information on our responsible business and financial performance and strategic plans. In addition, this year, we also held a number of responsible business webinars and roadshows. We continue to regularly brief ratings agencies about our performance against our Conduct Risk Appetite Metrics Government and legislators We engage regularly with the UK government, the European institutions and other bodies, to assist in the formulation of public policy. This includes our work to help improve ethical and quality standards in banking. We engage regularly with the following UK government and parliamentary bodies: HM Treasury on Basic Bank Accounts and the Access to Banking Protocol; Financial Inclusion Commission on our support for Credit Unions and vulnerably customers; and the European Commission on a range of proposed legislation. In November, senior leaders from our Insurance division launched the 11th annual Scottish Widows Women and Retirement Report at Westminster. Earlier in 2015 we launched the wider Retirement Report at the same location. We have also worked with the UK government, Money Advice Service, TPAS, Age UK and others throughout the year to help shape a new pensions landscape for the benefit of our customers. During 2016 representatives of the Financial Conduct Authority were invited to attend a meeting to observe the Responsible Business Committee at work. Suppliers During 2015, we appointed a Responsible Sourcing Manager to advise and coordinate activities in our Sourcing and Supplier Management teams. In May we launched our Code of Supplier Responsibility, setting out the clear standards we require from suppliers. We continue to rollout our Group-wide Supplier Qualification System a single, unified assessment, making it easier to do business with us. In line with our aim to increase the amount of SMEs and social enterprises in our supply chain, we invited a number to attend one of our Meet the Buyer events in November. The impact was immediate, and we now use Evenbreak one of the social enterprises that attended to provide an online jobs board to help recruit disabled people. Trade unions Throughout 2015, we engaged with Accord and Unite, with which we have recognition agreements. Together they collectively negotiate and consult on behalf of around 95% of our colleagues. We involved them in discussions about planned changes to our business and about many other topics, for example our annual Colleague surveys. NGOs and industry bodies We continued to work with NGOs and industry bodies to understand how we can best support our customers in facing and mitigating a range of social challenges. To guide our engagement and work in this space, we are a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and to the Equator Principles. We are also represented on a number of organisations, including the Association of British Insurers Board and committees whose events we attend. 4

5 Environment Government and regulators Investors NGOs Industry bodies Opinion formers Greenhouse gas emissions Supporting the low carbon economy Managing environmental impacts Engagement on environmental issues Responsible Investment Environmental issues are among those discussed with key stakeholder during our annual materiality process where we ask participants to identify and rank the issues that are important to them. We continue to regularly brief and feedback to ratings agencies on our environmental performance and progress. NGOs and industry bodies We continued to work with NGOs and industry bodies to understand how we can best support our customers in facing and mitigating a range of environmental challenges, including the impacts of climate change. To guide our engagement and work in this space, we are a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and to the Equator Principles. We are also represented on a number of organisations, including: The Association of British Insurers Board and committees whose events we attend. The Confederation of British Industry Energy and Climate Change Board. The Business in the Community Environmental Leadership team, for which we hosted a meeting on the circular economy during Responsible Business Week in The Prince of Wales s Corporate Leaders Group, working to advocate climate change solutions. 5