Corporate Social Responsibility
Thinking of our impact
TIAA keeps our environmental and social responsibilities at the forefront of our approach to business
At TIAA, we are committed to giving back. We are an employee led company involved with the wider community and all our staff are ethically centred to research new ways of heightening our levels of social responsibility.
Social initiatives
We have held ‘Green Dragon’ accreditation since 2013 and are fully committed to retaining this as part of our sustainable business model, as well as being fully compliant with relevant legislation.
Our Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Policies outline the work we do for the local communities in which we operate, the environment, our approach to recycling, our flexible working policy and work/life balance, the use of electronic communications for 99% of our contact and the initiatives we have in place for energy conservation. For example, we are currently moving our fleet to all electric vehicles further reducing our negative impact on the world around us. One of our most unique aspects is our operating structure. Rather than commuting daily to central offices, our local teams work either from home or at our client’s offices. This allows us to significantly reduce our carbon footprint through reduced fuel based utilities, office based equipment, lighting and heating.
Local communities
We have robust and clear policies on all aspects of equality and diversity, sustainability and ethics and pride ourselves on our fundraising and volunteering work. Our staff individually raise funds for a number of charities throughout the year and we have corporate and local office initiatives in place to support local and national charities. Staff members are also encouraged to volunteer in events across the country from beach cleaning to animal welfare. The proud achievements of TIAA and our staff include fundraising, sponsorship and donations for:
- Red Nose Day;
- MacMillan’s national Coffee Morning event;
- JDRF (The Type 1 Diabetes Charity);
- Teenage Cancer Trust;
- Crofton Saints under 10’s football team;
- Gosport and Fareham food bank;
- Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital in Cardiff;
- Christmas gift appeals and donations;
- National Childbirth Trust.
In addition, our staff work extensively with local food banks and volunteer with local organisations such as veterinary clinics, community clean-up activities, fun days, amateur theatre groups and sports teams, as well as undertaking marathons, cyclothons and other sporting events to raise funds.
Employment opportunities
We are committed to providing real social value for developing local people and students into careers at TIAA by recruiting and developing people from the local community. Our goal is primarily about the betterment of opportunity for persons, of any age, who are making best endeavours to achieve personal advancement and we are particularly committed to investing in the next generation of auditors through our Graduate Auditor and Trainee Auditor programmes. Young auditors have the opportunity to work with experienced staff and take advantage of the many years these staff members have spent in perfecting their audit skills. We deliver training to many clients on a range of skills from accounting practices to risk management to help grow their expertise.
We also provide workshops for people in our local areas in a number of fields including online scam awareness/protection, financial advice and cybersecurity, how to use Microsoft Word and Excel and CV writing workshops for people trying to get back into work.
We are unique in our ability to do this as the majority of our staff are already DBS checked and security vetted by the Police and local and central Governments and therefore able to work with the young or vulnerable people of the community.
Slavery and human trafficking
As part of our due diligence processes, we ensure that all new clients and suppliers have mechanisms in place to combat slavery and human trafficking and comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015. One of the tests we undertake during governance audits is whether our clients have policies in place relating to anti-slavery and human trafficking and we include research into prospective client’s behaviour in our tenders and due diligence when we enter into a relationship with a new client.
Ethical approach
The success of TIAA is built on our ethical approach to everything we do. We have robust and clear policies on all aspects of equality and diversity, sustainability and ethics. This is more than just a ‘tick-box’ activity, our clear commitment is expressed through:
- Ethical business practices
- Transparency in corporate operations and governance
- Philanthropy to support important causes
Encouragement and support of active involvement in charitable programmes, professional societies and other community groups.
Gender Pay Gap
We are committed to providing equal pay and conditions to all staff regardless of who they are. We have used the ‘Close Your Gap’ tool to calculate and monitor our gender pay gap. We undertake an annual assessment every October and set a plan of action for the coming 12 months and monitor the successfulness of its implementation. Our latest assessment came out at 16%.