Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

We are an international business operating in the global community – we take our responsibility to be a good corporate Citizen seriously. We try to direct our CSR programme to the areas where we might have a real impact. We want our CSR programme to be a dynamic one that develops with the company; we want it to become part of what makes us who we are, part of our DNA if you like.

We have defined four key areas on which to focus and have then added a fifth which measures our performance in those four key areas.

• Our Communities >
• Our People >
• The Environment >
• Leadership & Influence >

Tangents Internal Vision

We, the management team, value and respect one another and recognise that the Tangent’s success depends on each and every one of us.

Vision

• We are committed to the realisation of our goals.
• We will direct our efforts towards the goals and objectives of Tangent.
• We will plan and conduct our work with a clear understanding of the needs of the business.
• We will be proactive rather than reactive at all times.
• We will strive for optimum performance and interdependence.

Learning and Development

• We are an organisation that values learning and development.
• We recognise the need for people to learn, and innovate. We will enhance our future through continuous improvement and transformation.
• We will constantly search for new ways to function better.

Engagement

• We will endeavour to engage our staff at all times.
• We will manage and lead with passion and by personal example. We will strive to engage our staff at all times.
• We will delegate responsibility with accountability.

Communication

• We recognise that engaging in communication and dialogue are the cornerstones of our work.
• We will communicate in ways that foster cooperation, clarity and committed action.
• We will ensure that relevant information is fully shared with and disseminated to all who need it in a timely fashion.

Excellence

• We are committed to excellence.
• We are committed to being leaders in our field.
• We are committed to quality and efficiency in all we do, even under adverse circumstances.
• We constantly strive to improve everything we do, we want to be ‘best in class’.

Our Communities

Community Involvement

Little Havens Children’s Hospice;

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Children’s sporting teams in the UK Ghana, Togo, Malawi, and Dubai 

Kindness Sharing Fridges Dubai;

Interact;

 

Aspire;

East Africa Crisis;

Our People 

Our business succeeds because of the commitment, enthusiasm and energy of our staff. We aim to promote and maintain a happy and healthy workplace and staff well-being is a fundamental part of everything we do.

Culture

As mentioned, Tangent's success is because of the devotion to duty of its staff. Our culture is one of ‘can do’ and when we decide on a strategy our staff help us to implement with diligence and all due care. We believe in training and developing our people, and always encourage them to take on additional responsibilities as soon as they feel able. We want everyone associated with Tangent to be ‘the best they can possibly be’ and our programmes are focused on personal as well as corporate goals.

Learning & Development

We run staff development programmes that encourage people to take responsibility for themselves, their colleagues, their family and their communities. We offer training to all our staff and career reviews are held annually. We encourage our staff to become involved with our ‘global community’ and have recently seen members of our finance team in Sweden, Brazil and Vietnam. 

Instant Feedback/Consultation

We encourage and promote ‘daily 360 reviews’. We believe that team development is something that needs to be worked on every day, not something that is only confined to a yearly appraisal. We want our staff to receive instant feedback on everything they do. We also promote openness within the organisation - company financial performance and strategy are discussed on a bi-monthly basis. 

Pastoral Care

We provide numbers of consulting staff to customers all over the world. (137 countries to date). We take great care in the selection of these consultants and in their pastoral care once on-site. We do not believe in 'parachuting' people to the ground, but prefer to provide 24-hour helplines and a global network of support. Our programme extends to health, financial and interpersonal support and our Accounts teams are focused on the well-being of our people in the field. Our care programme is constantly being updated and as always we take input from staff, consultants and our client community.

The Environment 

As an office-based company providing services that are centred around information systems our environmental footprint is low – certainly when compared to manufacturing companies. Nevertheless, we take environmental stewardship very seriously and strive through a number of initiatives to minimise the environmental impact we have on our business activities.

Initiatives we have already introduced are detailed below and have aggregated to allow Tangent to become a Zero Landfill Company. They have also substantially reduced the volume of greenhouse gas emissions in our Head Office processes.

The steps we have already introduced include:

• Recycling of dry & general waste. This is sorted offsite with recyclable material extracted and the remaining waste sent to a plant that generates energy from waste.
• Recycling of confidential waste which is shredded & recycled. 
• Adoption of an energy tariff neutral to the environment with electricity generation fuelled completely by biomass. (CLICK TO SEE CERTIFICATE)
• Under our rolling replacement programme, we have just converted the first batch of light fittings to take LED bulbs - thus enjoying the benefits of longer-lasting, more efficient and more environmentally friendly lighting. 
• Redesign of our meeting room suite to maximise the benefit of natural lighting.
• Recycling of redundant office IT equipment & telephones.
• Recycling of toner cartridges. 
• Responsible disposal of used batteries & redundant lighting tubes & bulbs in accordance with WEEE regulations.
• Introduction of warm air hand dryers in the building removing accumulations of paper waste with additional hygiene benefits.
• Replacement of bottled water units, previously replenished regularly by an external provider, with a chilling system plumbed into the mains supply. 
• Daily deliveries of milk to the office in glass bottles that once empty are washed and returned to the dairy for recycling.
• Computers, printers & photocopiers power-down after a period of inactivity to conserve power usage.
• Paper-based office consumables are required to be either made from recycled paper or sourced from suppliers that work to best practice industry sector environmental standards in their manufacturing processes.
• Staff encouraged to use car-sharing opportunities, cycling or public transport for journeys to/from work, and public transport for client visits in the UK where feasible.
• Video conferencing and web delivered training.

• Our Environmental Management System has been established within the framework of ISO 14001 and we conduct an Environmental Impact Analysis on a regular basis with targets that strive for continuous improvement. As well as any opportunities for reducing our environmental footprint identified under the EMS Tangent staff are encouraged to suggest ways where we could make a further environmental improvement.

Initiatives under consideration include:-

• The adoption of carbon off-setting for business air travel
• Reducing waste paper produced in company operations.
• Passive infra-red switches for lighting in rooms that are not in regular use.

Leadership and Influence

We want to be leaders in CSR and CSR communications, and aim to use our Management team's expertise, combined with our staff's enthusiasm, to raise awareness. We hope to do this throughout our company, within the ICT community and, most importantly, with our supplier base.

Research & Debate

We want to highlight current issues in corporate responsibility, both internally and externally. We have a committee that focuses on research, influencing actions and the implementation of key ideas – this committee has ‘teeth’ and takes a cradle to grave responsibility. We want to be champions of communications and sustainability and are working on developing a network of interested parties.

Education

We want to educate ourselves, our staff and our ‘community at large'. We want to create links with ICT colleagues and educational institutions to promote CSR issues. We aim to conduct workshops in CSR and welcome input from clients, colleagues and competitors.

Diversity in ICT

We want the ICT industry to encourage and promote diversity and the hiring of disabled workers in its workforce.

Supply Chain/Change

We encourage our colleagues, clients and most importantly our suppliers to run their operations in a responsible way.

The Tangent Charter & Industry Governance

In order to ensure high standards of corporate governance in the areas of human rights, employment law, the environment, anti-corruption and community involvement, Tangent's charter was established in 2009. The idea for the charter came from our many customers who have similar programmes and, like theirs, it is based on the United Nations Global Compact, an international initiative which is supported by companies around the world to provide accountability and transparency. The values and principles embraced within our Charter, together with the standards defined in our Policies & Procedures, ensure that Tangent's operations function within the framework of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation's Code of Professional Practice.