Royal Bank of Scotland
| Article Index |
|---|
| Royal Bank of Scotland |
| Royal Bank of Scotland 2004 CSR report |
Our priorities for 2006
- Retain Gold Standard for both 'Race for Opportunity' and 'Opportunity Now' diversity awards.
- Using Work-Out, seek the views of disabled employees about their needs, to include in workplace improvement programmes.
- Introduce 'Make a Difference' - the new diversity awareness training programme - into the Group. [i]
Customers - How do we increase access to our services?
For those with disabilities, we have improved most of our branches to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), including levelling access, improving signs and lighting and installing automatic doors and low-level writing counters.
It is not always possible to make these adjustments - if the branch is a listed building for instance - but around 82% of our branches now have level access, and at the beginning of 2006 more than 93% of our ATMs were at the right height for wheelchair users. [ii]
Employees - How do we create an inclusive working environment? - Diversity
We aim to create a working environment in which all our employees can develop their full potential. Valuing and promoting diversity across all our businesses is an essential part of achieving that goal. Our Managing Diversity Policy ensures that this commitment is reflected throughout the Group.
In 2005 we made important progress in this area. Key accomplishments include launching a groupwide Disability Discrimination Act training programme, developing an online diversity training module. [iii]
Employees - How are we managing Health and Safety at work? - Health, Safety and Wellbeing
All building design work considers ergonomic issues with great care. Our Group Property team includes specialists in health, safety, ergonomics and disability and in 2005, the working conditions for over 9000 employees were improved through our branch improvement programme and new office developments at Norwich, Spinningfields in Manchester, Bromley, Guernsey and Gogarburn, Edinburgh. [iv]
Communities - supporting employee giving
We operate two schemes designed to support our people's contributions and efforts on behalf of community projects and charities.
Under our unique double-matching Give As You Earn programme, for every £1 an employee donates from his or her pay to a UK registered charity, we donate a further £2. In 2005, 14,000 of our employees were regular donors to charities, up from 12,000 in 2004, and we generated £8.5 million for charities, compared with £6.4 million the year before.
Our Community Cashback Awards are designed to recognise and reward the time, skills and commitment that many of our people invest in the community.
These fi nancial awards support the local community organisations and charities that our people are actively involved in. In 2005 we made 6,919 Community Cashback Awards totalling £2.5 million, up from 5,518 awards worth a total of £1.9 million the year before. Additionally we made a £1 million Christmas Donation shared between the top ten Give As You Earn charities nominated by our people. [v]
2005 Highlights from our key partnerships and programmes
Barnardo's
We began supporting Barnado's new project at Gogarburn, Edinburgh, which provides short breaks for children with disabilities in 2005. We made a donation of £250,000 which will go towards creating a special play area and sensory room. Opportunities for employee involvement will be developed in 2006. [vi]
Royal Bank of Scotland CSR Report 2005
Sources
- [i] Royal Bank of Scotland CSR Report 2005, p.8
- [ii] Royal Bank of Scotland CSR Report 2005, p.13
- [iii] Royal Bank of Scotland CSR Report 2005, p.20
- [iv] Royal Bank of Scotland CSR Report 2005, p.22
- [v] Royal Bank of Scotland CSR Report 2005, p.33&34
- [vi] Royal Bank of Scotland CSR Report 2005, p.34