haysmacintyre understands the environmental, social and ethical aspects of business performance which are critical for the success and reputation of the firm for now and the future.
Development of CSR Strategies which focus on important issues are key to the Firm’s agenda. We understand the importance of CSR to our clients and suppliers and want to build confidence that their and our activities help drive out risk and build values.
We recognise the positive effects a good CSR policy can have on our Firm and our clients. We have recently joined the CSR Midtown Sub Group Committee which launched in September 2010. We hope this will promote more ideas and enable haysmacintyre to learn from other CSR experts whilst sharing our positive progress to date.
An important objective of the firm is to develop closer relationships with clients, suppliers and people, to help embed CSR into the way of life at haysmacintyre. Our secret to success is to start small with CSR, we are building on our policies all the time.
We outline below a summary of the key achievements to date and look forward to achieving more.
Supporting our people
- Introduction of a formal appraisal process for all partners, not just staff.
- Peer Networking Programme. haysmacintyre has ten partners under the age of 40. The Peer Networking Programme aims to ease the step up from manager to partner level.
- With the promotion of two more female partners in 2009, the Firm now has a strong female presence in the partnership, 22%, compared to an average of 13% across the other top 50 accountancy firms (Source: Accountancy Age Top 50 Survey, 17 June 2010)
- Develop clear policies and targets in place to support CSR and train staff where required.
- Set up a CSR steering group which meets regularly to discuss and review issues.
- From an internal point of view the formation of the 'Social Hub' the haysmacintyre social committee is dedicated to improving the interaction between staff members and rewarding hard work and dedication with activities outside the workplace subsidised by the Firm.
Distribution of wealth in the local community
- Our charity trustee programme continues to train on average 500 trustees per annum and we encourage our staff to take on charity trusteeships. Between us we assist approximately 20 charities in this capacity.
- All profits from our Annual Schools’ Conference are donated to Student Partnership Worldwide, I.P.S.E.T and Joint Educational Trust (JET)
- Donation of Firm’s computer equipment to schools in St Lucia.
- For the last three years we have sponsored an award for young entrepreneurs.
- As a Firm we have supported a number of charitable events such as Jeans for Genes Day, Wear it Pink and purchase Charity Xmas cards for the Firm to send to clients.
Protection of the environment
- Printer toners are manufactured from organically grown material which work at lower temperatures which results in less power consumption.
- Switched to vegetable based inks in the printing process.
- All components of our copiers are recycled.
- Printing marketing literature (e.g. brochures etc) on 80% recycled paper stock using an FSC registered print company.
- Where we print promotional materials in-house we only use paper from sustainable forests.
- We have moved to using recycling of all printer, fax, and copier toner cartridges.
- Encouragement of staff to only print documents which are absolutely necessary and printers set up to print double sided and black and white.
- Energy efficient office lighting and the utilisation of individual air conditioning and heating devices in offices.
- A provision in place to enable staff to cycle to and from work and store their bicycles.
- Moving towards a paperless office. Reduction of paper filing and archiving - encourage all filing to be electronic.
- Securely shred 500 sacks of paper and in accordance with the "Box-it-Plant-A-Tree-Pledge" Box-It has donated a sum of £200 to the Castle Howard Arboretum.
- Switching to fair-trade products.
- Introduced new policy to encourage employees to use public transport rather than taxis and car share where possible.
- Building is closed down in the evenings including lights and computer equipments. Printers are set to power save mode.
Relations with clients & suppliers
- We have regularly provided meeting room facilities pro bono to a variety of NFP organisations such as CFDG and ACEVO as well as to a number of our clients.
- Establishing clients and suppliers CSR policies, working towards building relationships with suppliers.
- Establishing third suppliers are using environmental friendly products such as cleaning agents.
- We hold many technical seminars and training sessions, many of which are free to attend. As much as our staff are happy to contribute this service, what really matters is the positive impact our actions have in the local business community and how much our clients and contacts appreciate and value the additional help.
Future Goals
- Take time to educate Partners and Employees to reduce waste and improve levels of recycling on key waste materials including paper.
- Discuss with suppliers the potential for using 100% recycled paper stock rather than paper from a sustainable source.
- Produce haysmacintyre promotional material sourced from recyclable or environmentally friendly products.
- Using organic food for catering events.
- Further work with Camden Council to ensure we minimise sending waste to landfill.
- The Firm aims to review both its CSR and Environment and Sustainability policies on a regular basis and encourages forward thinking.
- One of our objectives is to 'give something back' and staff have reacted positively towards this.
We offer work experience opportunities for those that would like a taste of what it's like to work for haysmacintyre. We understand the responsibility to invest in the next generation and invest heavily in training graduates through our Training Programme to become ACA qualified.
haysmacintyre recognises that our business activities impact upon the environment both through routine internal and external operations.
One of the main environmental challenges the Firm faces is how we can deliver our services and grow as a business whilst reducing our carbon footprint and other environmental impacts.