Corporate Social Responsibility Policy (CSR)

At The Learning Syndicate we define CSR as follows

• Conducting business in a socially responsible, ethical, and transparent manner
• Protecting the environment 
• Being strict on health and safety
• Supporting human rights
• Engaging, learning from, respecting, and supporting all communities and cultures 
• Being proactive in the above

All employees will adopt the CSR considerations described in this policy into their day-to-day work activities. Our leaders will act as role models by incorporating those considerations into decision-making in all business activities. They will ensure that appropriate organizational structures are in place to effectively identify and manage CSR issues.  

We are committed to ensuring that any business undertakings are conducted as ethically as possible by following the practices below.

Business ethics and transparency

We aim to build long term and meaningful relationships with our customers and stakeholders, ensuring that we listen, and fully understand objectives, meet requirements, and exceed expectations. We aim to give fair value, consistent quality, and reliability. We aim to have the highest professional and ethical standards, and pledge to be honest, open, and transparent in all our interactions with our customers.

We conduct our business in a transparent, open, honest, and ethical manner. 

We recognize the importance of protecting all our human, financial, physical, informational, social, environmental, and reputational assets. We advise our partners and suppliers of our CSR Policy, and work with them to achieve consistency with this policy.

Protecting the environment

We are aware of our environmental impact as a business and have taken, and will continue to take, appropriate steps to mitigate this impact. This includes setting up environmental objectives, employing procedures, and providing training to ensure our employees understand their environmental responsibilities and can seek to improve our environmental performance.

We are committed to reducing our environmental impact by limiting commuting, encouraging recycling, working with suppliers who share the same environmental values as ourselves, and by ensuring compliance with all appropriate legislation.

Strict on Health and Safety

We are committed to protecting the health and safety of all individuals affected by our activities, including our employees and the public. We will provide a safe and healthy working environment and will not compromise the health and safety of any individual. 

Supporting Human Rights

We recognize that governments have the primary responsibility to promote and protect human rights. We will work with governments and agencies to support and respect human rights within our sphere of influence. 

We will not tolerate human rights abuses and will not engage or be complicit in any activity that solicits or encourages human rights abuse. 

We will always strive to build trust, deliver mutual advantage, and demonstrate respect for human dignity and rights in all relationships it enters, including respect for cultures, customs and values of individuals and groups.

Engaging and Learning from all Communities

We recognize and understand the significance of the local communities within which we operate. We aim to enhance our contribution to them by being sensitive to the needs of local people and groups, and by promoting ethical and socially responsible trading.

Since the world we live in has become a global village and our employees and customers are located around the world, we see it as our local community. We do not want to limit our activities to support only communities that are close geographically, we are also open to provide help to people around the world.

Being Proactive: A mentality that starts at the top

Our leadership team is actively involved in supporting community organizations and charities. This is encouraged in every employee and is seen as highly beneficial to their own well-being. We want rounded individuals who understand that we are part of a wider society. 

Examples of the support currently being undertaken include

• Running a Family Foster Care unit
• Helping disabled people get into the workplace
• Supporting mental health and wellbeing through an App based project
• Volunteering at a homeless shelter
• Volunteering at animal shelter
• Running events for a charity offering animal therapy to disturbed teenagers
• Donating blood on a regular basis (honorary blood donor)
• Regular charitable contributions to: World Wildlife Fund, Royal National Lifeboat Institute, Szlachetna paczka, Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, Unaweneza, Rak’n’roll, and many others.

Looking after employees

We are committed to the well-being and continual development of our people, to continue cultivating and sustaining a workplace where employees are appreciated and valued, where each employee has a clear understanding of their role and how they contribute to the business.

We ensure that all employees are offered the opportunity for development based on their interests and talents within the business, a clear and focused personal development plan is implemented which includes relevant training and consistent touchpoints, offering tangible progression targets.

We operate a meritocracy, where all employees are recognized and rewarded based on their performance, effort, contribution, and achievements.

We expect our employees to act with integrity towards one another and exercise a high standard of business practice and workmanship. We support diversity, fairness and equal opportunities and aim to involve and consult regularly with employees as to the direction of the business.

We introduced the following policies to support all the principles described above.

a) Age discrimination policy
We value all the staff equally, regardless of their age. We aim to create an environment in which all staff, whatever their age, feel equally welcomed and valued, and in which ageist behavior is not tolerated. Promotion and career development opportunities are provided equally for all staff, whatever their age, procedures relating to appraisals, training, and development are applied to all staff.

b) Anti-Discrimination Policy
Members of staff are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect whilst at work, and not subjected to any form of undignified, embarrassing, humiliating, offensive or intimidating behavior. The   organizational culture is one where any forms of these types of behaviors, which can be evidenced through harassment, victimization, bullying will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

c) Fair and equal pay policy
Employees have equal rights due to equal performance of the same duties; this applies to equal treatment of women and men in employment.

d) Equal Opportunities Policy
We are committed to treat all employees, potential employees, customers, and other stakeholders fairly and equally always. 

No employee, or potential employee, shall be treated less favorably on the grounds of race, color, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sex, marital status, age, or sexual orientation, nor to be disadvantaged by the imposition of qualifications or requirements which cannot be reasonably justified as necessary on operational or business grounds.

e) Disability policy
We are committed to ensuring equal access and participation for people with disabilities. We are committed to treating people with disabilities in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and independence. We believe in integration and are committed to meeting the needs of people with disabilities in a timely manner. We will do so by removing and preventing barriers to accessibility and by meeting our accessibility requirements under company’s accessibility laws.

f) Health and safety policy
We believe that consideration of the health, safety and welfare of staff is an integral part of the management process. The Company requires managers to approach health and safety in a systematic way, by identifying hazards and problems, planning improvements, taking executive action, and monitoring results so that majority of the health and safety needs will be met.

g) IT Security policy

This policy applies to all our employees, remote or onsite, and anyone who has permanent or temporary access to our systems and hardware. The goals and objectives followed of this policy are protect information from unauthorized access, ensure the confidentiality of information, maintain the integrity of information, maintain the availability of information systems and information for service delivery, maintain logical, physical, environmental and communications security, dispose of information in an appropriate and secure manner when it is no longer in use.

h) Parental Leave policy
We are giving parents additional flexibility and time to bond with their new child and adjust to their new family situation. Flexibility and family-friendly policies are essential to cultivating an atmosphere where employees can thrive professionally without sacrificing essential family obligations.

i) Recruitment and Selection Policy
We recognize that we rely on the skills, competencies, and contribution of all our employees to deliver high quality services to all our customers.  The overall aim of this policy, therefore, is to recruit and retain high quality employees to meet the needs of our corporate and HR strategies and service plans

j) Security of information policy
We are to ensure that information held on the Company’s records is valid, used properly and is not disclosed when it should not be. In addition, an individual is also entitled to know what information is held and to have this corrected should it be wrong. Individuals can now claim compensation from the Company for any damage caused by unauthorized disclosure; this emphasizes the importance of ensuring that information is only disclosed in accordance with Company policy.

k) Social media policy
We recognize and embrace online social media and encourage employees to participate in online communities of shared interest and create, share, and consume content.  We respect the right of our employees to use blogs and other social media tools not only as a form of self-expression, but also sometimes to conduct business activities.