Corporate Responsibility Pages

2010 performance against goals

We set five overarching three-year objectives for our businesses in 2007. Each business sets annual goals to meet these objectives. Of the 170 goals set for 2010, 141 are complete and 22 are partially complete.

UK/Group

Group CR commitments	Goals	Progress
To improve the coordination of responsible business initiatives such as TCF and responsible lending, and to improve the efficiency of our programmes by establishing effective global working groups	Run a new initiative under the Excellence in Execution programme to establish what best practice means in achieving excellence in customer service for IPF and embed benchmark customer service standards across Group markets.	COMPLETE: The customer service project has made substantial progress during 2010 under the guidance of the CS steering group. The Customer Service Score is now providing a Group-wide measure of customer service excellence and is part of the suite of non financial metrics which have been assured in 2010 by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Create new teams in every business to carry out improved customer research. Implement branch level monthly customer feedback surveys in every market to: improve visibility of the Customer Charter, feed into branch performance reviews and drive the customer centricity of the business.	COMPLETE: We have created new teams to carry out an in-house telephone satisfaction survey reaching an average of 200 customers in each branch every month (80 in Mexico). This research has taken place throughout 2010 and addresses specific questions to customers according to their 'stage' in the IPF customer lifecycle.
Implement early settlement rebating model across the business, ensuring a consistent approach and that practices are in line with the Customer Principles and the Consumer Credit Directive.	COMPLETE: The early settlement rebating model has been introduced in Hungary, Czech, Slovakia and Romania. We have also completed the work that will allow us to move from partial to full implementation in Poland and Mexico in 2011.
Roll out flexible product, broadening customer repayment options, across Czech Republic, Romania and Mexico.	PARTIALLY COMPLETE: We have rolled out flexible product in Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania during 2010. This allows customers a broader choice of repayment options. We plan to roll out flexible product in Mexico during 2011.
Finalise corporate responsibility sections of the IPF Best Practice Guide and achieve 95% compliance by the end of 2010.	COMPLETE: The Best Practice Guide has been implemented throughout the business ensuring uniform standards throughout businesses and functions. All businesses have now achieved at least 95% at internal audit.
Complete roll out of Group complaints management policy across the Group, harmonising the approach to collecting field complaints, reporting metrics and resolution timing.	PARTIALLY COMPLETE: A group complaints management policy and best practice guide has been completed and implemented in the majority of businesses. In order to implement this fully Group-wide we are investigating in new technical solutions during 2011.
To report in a way that meets the growing expectations of stakeholders	Respond to stakeholder feedback by reporting better the social benefits of home delivered credit in emerging and developed markets. Commission external research to obtain third party view.	COMPLETE: We have commissioned three research houses to complete a study on the impact our loans have on our customers and on wider society. We hope to present the results of this research during 2011.
Local businesses to make substantial progress in local stakeholder identification and engagement to help improve external understanding of the business and obtain input into CR activities. Support all businesses in running local stakeholder roundtable activities.	COMPLETE: All six of our businesses completed local stakeholder roundtables in 2010. These were very well received on a local level and we received feedback that participants appreciated our frank and open dialogue. In some of our businesses we were the first financial services company to ever hold a roundtable of this kind.
Local businesses to make substantial progress in local CR reporting to improve external understanding of the business and promote the wider responsible business agenda. Support at least three of the six businesses in developing local CR reporting.	COMPLETE: A number of our businesses made progress on corporate responsibility reporting in 2010. Our Polish business made a CR video that was shown to a range of stakeholders including employees; our Hungarian business produced a comprehensive review which was presented at a number of conferences; our Czech business produced a direct mail to stakeholders on CR activity; our Romanian business created a review which sits on their corporate website; and our Mexican business introduced a quarterly CR bulletin.
Improve internal communication of responsible business initiatives to help embed company values by developing a company-wide 'Proud to be Provident' campaign directed at employees and agents through a new quarterly Group newsletter.	COMPLETE: Three 'Proud to be Provident' newsletters have been produced and distributed throughout the business on a quarterly basis in 2010. The newsletters engage employees and agents with corporate responsibility activities across the business and help to build a sense of pride and advocacy.
Revise and update the international corporate websites to better communicate the value derived from responsible business activities to investors, employees and other external stakeholders.	COMPLETE: The international corporate website has been revised and updated during 2010 for launch in March 2011. This update means that the website now reflects IPF's status as a successful and sustainable international business that places a high value on communication with stakeholders.
To bring greater focus to financial literacy and develop it as a strategic theme in our community investment activity	Roll out ‘Let's talk money!’ workshops to an additional 250 participants through existing community networks and train an additional 12 organisations to run financial education workshops. Gather feedback from at least 50% of participants.	PARTIALLY COMPLETE: We have made significant progress in delivering the 'Let's talk money!' programme this year and have built significant capacity by training 29 organisations to deliver the workshop and reaching 155 participants. In 2011 we will again set ambitious targets on participant numbers and will concentrate on converting organisational capacity into end user training.
To build on success of environmental management system and bring all businesses up to a consistently high standard
To reduce IPF's impact on climate change (energy)	Maintain electricity usage 20% below benchmark.	COMPLETE: We remained substantially below this benchmark with an energy usage of 134kWh per square metre for the year.
To reduce IPF's impact on climate change (transport)	Maintain total km travelled by air at 2009 levels (by customer numbers)	PARTIALLY COMPLETE: We succeeded in reducing business travel by air (by customers) in normal business operations by 10% in 2010. However we held a one-off senior management conference in Mexico which meant that overall our total km travelled did increase.
Investigate the use of webcams on laptops.	COMPLETE: We have trialled two new video conferencing tools and have adopted these on a permanent basis. The increased ease and quality of conferencing should help to reduce the need for air travel.
To reduce IPF's use of natural resources (paper)	Run a pilot using new technology to reduce paper use.	COMPLETE: We have implemented a number of communications channels in 2010 to encourage employees to cut down on paper use. We produced an article on our intranet for tips on reducing usage, placed posters near printers to explain the environmental and financial costs of printing and targeted paper use at our 'Wear it Green' Day in the Leeds Office.
Run a communications campaign to target paper use and printing	COMPLETE: We have completed a trial of Webex technology which was used by our senior management team to communicate ahead of our conference in Mexico. This has now been adopted permanently and we will explore further roll out options in 2011.
To improve IPF's resource efficiency (recycling)	Recycle 80% of paper purchased throughout the year.	COMPLETE: We have succeeded in recycling 100% of paper purchased in 2010.
Recycle 60% of all waste produced.	COMPLETE: We have recycled 68% of all waste produced in 2010.
To develop a best practice approach to measuring and reporting environmental impacts	Develop a system to monitor conference call and video conferencing use	COMPLETE: From the second quarter of 2010 data has been collected to assess the level of use of video-conferencing equipment. This has allowed us to set a baseline with which to measure the impact of future communications initiatives.
To embed social and environmental considerations in procurement activities	Send a letter detailing our responsible supply chain management policy to all suppliers who spent over £10,000 in 2009.	COMPLETE: All of our suppliers with whom we spend over £10,000 pa were contacted by e-mail to inform them about our responsible supply chain management policy. This was well received and some of our suppliers responded with their own policies or to inform us about their environmental management systems.
To develop effective communication mechanisms to engage employees in environmental initiatives and raise the profile of our CR programme	Maintain levels of environmental communication - at least one communication every 2 months	COMPLETE: We sent out a number of communications throughout the year, many of them articles or news stories on our company intranet. We also organised a 'Wear it Green' Day which encouraged employees to undertake 'green' activities such as walking, cycling or taking public transport to work, environmental volunteering, working out their carbon footprints and eating environmentally friendly food.
To build on responsible workplace initiatives, and to develop the talent pool by recruiting, coaching and developing new and existing talent to meet the current and future needs of the business	Drive the development and implementation of reward strategies for agents and employees with the overall aim of continuously improving individual, team and business performance.	COMPLETE: We have improved capability and bench strength within the HR reward team to support our business development and transformation goals. We have begun the process of developing consistent reward principles and strategies that will have sufficient flexibility to meet demands in each market and will drive performance, motivation and engagement. Work in progress includes; a review of reward structures in all markets to identify and promote best practice and consistency, and development of our field incentive plans to reward performance across a broad range of appropriate performance metrics aligned to business goals.
Drive the development and implementation of resourcing and development (including talent management) strategies for agents and employees with the overall aim of continuously improving individual, team and business performance.	COMPLETE: Throughout 2010 significant work has been done across the markets to enhance their approach towards resourcing and development. This has involved varying strategies to look at areas such as development programmes, succession planning at different levels, different methods and initiatives to assess and measure potential, intruducing development roles such as Senior DM's and many more. Some markets are further advanced in terms of their progress in this area but all have driven strategies in this area throughout the year. In addition, a number of activities and projects have started to be driven through the People Roadmap Programme. These have included development activities surrounding Gateway, Executive Development and supporting Field Operations of the Future, designing future role profiles across Operations and designing a framework for Succession planning, Resourcing Planning and Assessing talent across Operations. This work is designed to provide a consistent groupwide framework in these areas and in most cases builds upon the best practice that has been tried and tested in certain markets. In 2010 the only projects under the People Roadmap that have progressed to implementation are Competency frameworks and Gateway. However, further implementation will follow in 2011. These projects are all aimed to improve individual, team and business performance. All markets have had project team members or representatives involved in the key projects within the People Roadmap. This has involved activities such as, regular project updates, focus groups and sharing of best practice.
Improve employee engagement scores against 2008 levels.	PARTIALLY COMPLETE: An employee engagement survey was not carried out in 2010. The activities carried out in 2009 to improve the level of engagement have now developed into part of business as usual. During 2010 a huge amount of work was carried out to develop the engagement programme which will help support the delivery of the behavioural change programme.

Group CR commitments

Goals

Progress

To improve the coordination of responsible business initiatives such as TCF and responsible lending, and to improve the efficiency of our programmes by establishing effective global working groups

Run a new initiative under the Excellence in Execution programme to establish what best practice means in achieving excellence in customer service for IPF and embed benchmark customer service standards across Group markets.

COMPLETE: The customer service project has made substantial progress during 2010 under the guidance of the CS steering group. The Customer Service Score is now providing a Group-wide measure of customer service excellence and is part of the suite of non financial metrics which have been assured in 2010 by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Create new teams in every business to carry out improved customer research. Implement branch level monthly customer feedback surveys in every market to: improve visibility of the Customer Charter, feed into branch performance reviews and drive the customer centricity of the business.

COMPLETE: We have created new teams to carry out an in-house telephone satisfaction survey reaching an average of 200 customers in each branch every month (80 in Mexico). This research has taken place throughout 2010 and addresses specific questions to customers according to their 'stage' in the IPF customer lifecycle.

Implement early settlement rebating model across the business, ensuring a consistent approach and that practices are in line with the Customer Principles and the Consumer Credit Directive.

COMPLETE: The early settlement rebating model has been introduced in Hungary, Czech, Slovakia and Romania. We have also completed the work that will allow us to move from partial to full implementation in Poland and Mexico in 2011.

Roll out flexible product, broadening customer repayment options, across Czech Republic, Romania and Mexico.

PARTIALLY COMPLETE: We have rolled out flexible product in Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania during 2010. This allows customers a broader choice of repayment options. We plan to roll out flexible product in Mexico during 2011.

Finalise corporate responsibility sections of the IPF Best Practice Guide and achieve 95% compliance by the end of 2010.

COMPLETE: The Best Practice Guide has been implemented throughout the business ensuring uniform standards throughout businesses and functions. All businesses have now achieved at least 95% at internal audit.

Complete roll out of Group complaints management policy across the Group, harmonising the approach to collecting field complaints, reporting metrics and resolution timing.

PARTIALLY COMPLETE: A group complaints management policy and best practice guide has been completed and implemented in the majority of businesses. In order to implement this fully Group-wide we are investigating in new technical solutions during 2011.

To report in a way that meets the growing expectations of stakeholders

Respond to stakeholder feedback by reporting better the social benefits of home delivered credit in emerging and developed markets. Commission external research to obtain third party view.

COMPLETE: We have commissioned three research houses to complete a study on the impact our loans have on our customers and on wider society. We hope to present the results of this research during 2011.

Local businesses to make substantial progress in local stakeholder identification and engagement to help improve external understanding of the business and obtain input into CR activities. Support all businesses in running local stakeholder roundtable activities.

COMPLETE: All six of our businesses completed local stakeholder roundtables in 2010. These were very well received on a local level and we received feedback that participants appreciated our frank and open dialogue. In some of our businesses we were the first financial services company to ever hold a roundtable of this kind.

Local businesses to make substantial progress in local CR reporting to improve external understanding of the business and promote the wider responsible business agenda. Support at least three of the six businesses in developing local CR reporting.

COMPLETE: A number of our businesses made progress on corporate responsibility reporting in 2010. Our Polish business made a CR video that was shown to a range of stakeholders including employees; our Hungarian business produced a comprehensive review which was presented at a number of conferences; our Czech business produced a direct mail to stakeholders on CR activity; our Romanian business created a review which sits on their corporate website; and our Mexican business introduced a quarterly CR bulletin.

Improve internal communication of responsible business initiatives to help embed company values by developing a company-wide 'Proud to be Provident' campaign directed at employees and agents through a new quarterly Group newsletter.

COMPLETE: Three 'Proud to be Provident' newsletters have been produced and distributed throughout the business on a quarterly basis in 2010. The newsletters engage employees and agents with corporate responsibility activities across the business and help to build a sense of pride and advocacy.

Revise and update the international corporate websites to better communicate the value derived from responsible business activities to investors, employees and other external stakeholders.

COMPLETE: The international corporate website has been revised and updated during 2010 for launch in March 2011. This update means that the website now reflects IPF's status as a successful and sustainable international business that places a high value on communication with stakeholders.

To bring greater focus to financial literacy and develop it as a strategic theme in our community investment activity

Roll out ‘Let's talk money!’ workshops to an additional 250 participants through existing community networks and train an additional 12 organisations to run financial education workshops. Gather feedback from at least 50% of participants.

PARTIALLY COMPLETE: We have made significant progress in delivering the 'Let's talk money!' programme this year and have built significant capacity by training 29 organisations to deliver the workshop and reaching 155 participants. In 2011 we will again set ambitious targets on participant numbers and will concentrate on converting organisational capacity into end user training.

To build on success of environmental management system and bring all businesses up to a consistently high standard

To reduce IPF's impact on climate change (energy)

Maintain electricity usage 20% below benchmark.

COMPLETE: We remained substantially below this benchmark with an energy usage of 134kWh per square metre for the year.

To reduce IPF's impact on climate change (transport)

Maintain total km travelled by air at 2009 levels (by customer numbers)

PARTIALLY COMPLETE: We succeeded in reducing business travel by air (by customers) in normal business operations by 10% in 2010. However we held a one-off senior management conference in Mexico which meant that overall our total km travelled did increase.

Investigate the use of webcams on laptops.

COMPLETE: We have trialled two new video conferencing tools and have adopted these on a permanent basis. The increased ease and quality of conferencing should help to reduce the need for air travel.

To reduce IPF's use of natural resources (paper)

Run a pilot using new technology to reduce paper use.

COMPLETE: We have implemented a number of communications channels in 2010 to encourage employees to cut down on paper use. We produced an article on our intranet for tips on reducing usage, placed posters near printers to explain the environmental and financial costs of printing and targeted paper use at our 'Wear it Green' Day in the Leeds Office.

Run a communications campaign to target paper use and printing

COMPLETE: We have completed a trial of Webex technology which was used by our senior management team to communicate ahead of our conference in Mexico. This has now been adopted permanently and we will explore further roll out options in 2011.

To improve IPF's resource efficiency (recycling)

Recycle 80% of paper purchased throughout the year.

COMPLETE: We have succeeded in recycling 100% of paper purchased in 2010.

Recycle 60% of all waste produced.

COMPLETE: We have recycled 68% of all waste produced in 2010.

To develop a best practice approach to measuring and reporting environmental impacts

Develop a system to monitor conference call and video conferencing use

COMPLETE: From the second quarter of 2010 data has been collected to assess the level of use of video-conferencing equipment. This has allowed us to set a baseline with which to measure the impact of future communications initiatives.

To embed social and environmental considerations in procurement activities

Send a letter detailing our responsible supply chain management policy to all suppliers who spent over £10,000 in 2009.

COMPLETE: All of our suppliers with whom we spend over £10,000 pa were contacted by e-mail to inform them about our responsible supply chain management policy. This was well received and some of our suppliers responded with their own policies or to inform us about their environmental management systems.

To develop effective communication mechanisms to engage employees in environmental initiatives and raise the profile of our CR programme

Maintain levels of environmental communication - at least one communication every 2 months

COMPLETE: We sent out a number of communications throughout the year, many of them articles or news stories on our company intranet. We also organised a 'Wear it Green' Day which encouraged employees to undertake 'green' activities such as walking, cycling or taking public transport to work, environmental volunteering, working out their carbon footprints and eating environmentally friendly food.

To build on responsible workplace initiatives, and to develop the talent pool by recruiting, coaching and developing new and existing talent to meet the current and future needs of the business

Drive the development and implementation of reward strategies for agents and employees with the overall aim of continuously improving individual, team and business performance.

COMPLETE: We have improved capability and bench strength within the HR reward team to support our business development and transformation goals. We have begun the process of developing consistent reward principles and strategies that will have sufficient flexibility to meet demands in each market and will drive performance, motivation and engagement. Work in progress includes; a review of reward structures in all markets to identify and promote best practice and consistency, and development of our field incentive plans to reward performance across a broad range of appropriate performance metrics aligned to business goals.

Drive the development and implementation of resourcing and development (including talent management) strategies for agents and employees with the overall aim of continuously improving individual, team and business performance.

COMPLETE: Throughout 2010 significant work has been done across the markets to enhance their approach towards resourcing and development. This has involved varying strategies to look at areas such as development programmes, succession planning at different levels, different methods and initiatives to assess and measure potential, intruducing development roles such as Senior DM's and many more. Some markets are further advanced in terms of their progress in this area but all have driven strategies in this area throughout the year.

In addition, a number of activities and projects have started to be driven through the People Roadmap Programme. These have included development activities surrounding Gateway, Executive Development and supporting Field Operations of the Future, designing future role profiles across Operations and designing a framework for Succession planning, Resourcing Planning and Assessing talent across Operations. This work is designed to provide a consistent groupwide framework in these areas and in most cases builds upon the best practice that has been tried and tested in certain markets. In 2010 the only projects under the People Roadmap that have progressed to implementation are Competency frameworks and Gateway. However, further implementation will follow in 2011. These projects are all aimed to improve individual, team and business performance.

All markets have had project team members or representatives involved in the key projects within the People Roadmap. This has involved activities such as, regular project updates, focus groups and sharing of best practice.

Improve employee engagement scores against 2008 levels.

PARTIALLY COMPLETE: An employee engagement survey was not carried out in 2010. The activities carried out in 2009 to improve the level of engagement have now developed into part of business as usual.

During 2010 a huge amount of work was carried out to develop the engagement programme which will help support the delivery of the behavioural change programme.

Key

UK/Group