Sustainability Performance: At a glance (31 March 2012) - Safaricom

Executive summary
Message
From Our CEO
Mr Robert Collymore
Identifying our baseline and delivering on our pledges
It gives me great personal satisfaction to
welcome the publication of this report.
Sustainability is an ongoing process
for Safaricom, and this report marks an
important benchmark for us as a company.
The Future Generation is part of the
Safaricom 2.0 ecosystem charters, and
the imperative exists to bring our holistic
performance into focus and transparently
benchmark ourselves. We wanted to
do this to start an honest conversation
about sustainability with our community of
stakeholders.
As a company with a reputation for
enthusiastically leading the way, it also
seems appropriate that we are one of the few
Kenyan companies to report on sustainability
using the rigorous Global Reporting Initiative
guidelines and the United Nations Global
Compact Communication on Progress.
Our sustainability reporting and our
sustainability actions will not be one-off
events or events in isolation, since setting
sustainability targets, benchmarking our
progress and reporting back on improvements
is now an ongoing activity that is central to
our operational culture.
We recognise
that our business
practices today
must be designed
to create and shape
a sustainable
tomorrow
We are our people
The openness and transparency reflected in this report is
manifested internally, as well as externally. We recognise
that sustainability is driven by a shared set of values across
the organisation and within our ecosystems, and it is made
tangible in the daily actions and decisions of every employee,
business partner and community partner. Accordingly, we
have made candid, sincere and open internal and external
discussions a fundamental part of our sustainability strategy.
We have made a number of innovations in the way that we
listen to, and communicate with, our customers, including
our on-line customer care, upgrades to our customer care
platforms and continuous training of our call centre and retail
centre staff. This year, we held an “in your shoes” programme,
through which all staff in the company spent a day at the call
centre and at a retail centre to understand our drive towards
customer - centricity.
We are also passionate about creating a working environment
that supports our staff so that they are free to concentrate on
their work and enjoy their achievements. We take a holistic
approach and offer employees a wellness programme, crèche
facilities, access to subsidised gym facilities, leisure amenities,
regular social events, as well as competitive salaries and
career opportunities.
Improving gender ratios is something about which I
feel strongly. As we document in this report, the overall
gender ratio across all job grades within the company is
approaching 1:1, but there is still room for improvement,
particularly at the higher grades. We are committed to
employing women with the right skills in top positions
and have introduced specific initiatives to help female
employees successfully maximise their career opportunities.
Broadening our ethical commitment
We have signed onto the code of ethics for business in Kenya
and made a public commitment to adhere to ethical business
practices at every level of the company. We are tough on
internal corruption and fraud, but we also recognise that we
can only be as successful as our environment allows, and that
our suppliers and business partners also have an important
role to play.
Mitigating our environmental
footprint
We recognise that our business practices today must be
designed to create and shape a sustainable tomorrow.
We have undertaken our carbon footprint analysis and
identified key actions that we need to take to manage our
carbon footprint. We are proactively deploying ‘green’
solutions in our operations and facilities, and we mitigate
our impacts on the environment through voluntary
initiatives, such as community power projects, recycling
and re-use activities and reforestation programmes.
Future outlook
In April this year, I was appointed to the Board of the
United Nations (UN) Global Compact. This is a voluntary
initiative that encourages businesses globally to adopt
sustainable and socially responsible policies, to support
the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, and to adhere
to human rights, good labour practices and support
for the environment and anti-corruption. The Board is
chaired by the UN Secretary General and provides high
level, strategic advice relating to the UN Global Compact
and, at a more general level, the evolving United
Nations-Business relationship.
This brings Safaricom’s work into greater focus and I am
committed to ensuring that we continue to assess and
report on our operations from a holistic perspective. My
priorities for the year ahead are to:
• continue to improve the working conditions for our
employees so that Safaricom becomes the employer
of choice within the region;
• improve accessibility to our products and services
for our customers with special needs;
• ensure that we, and our business partners, operate
to the highest level of corporate governance and
ethical standards;
• develop a robust portfolio of products and services
to address some of the challenges we face as
a nation in the areas of health, education and
agriculture, and to
• continue to minimise the impact our operations have
on the environment.
18 Safaricom Sustainability Report 2012 Safaricom Sustainability Report 2012 19
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Executive summary
Want to get up close and personal?
Use this QR code to watch a short video
clip of Chief Executive Officer, Bob
Collymore, presenting his message.