Orange commits to society: 2nd Corporate Social Responsibility report
Lausanne (ots)
Orange Communications SA, Lausanne, has published its second Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report and presents the first concrete results of its comprehensive CSR programme. Orange measures the success of its programme on the basis of performance indicators, such as customer and employee satisfaction, social commitment, donations and environment protection initiatives. As part of its long-standing partnership with UNICEF, Orange also commits itself in favour of children at home and abroad.
The six most important countries in the Orange Group have published their own CSR reports. Aside from Switzerland, these are France, Romania, Slovakia, Holland and Great Britain. The report, produced for the second time this year, examines the impact of Orange business activities in the social, ecological and ethical fields.
The Orange Group has defined a series of compulsory service performance indicators. Corporate philosophy and concrete projects combine with these indicators to round off the CSR programme. As a result, all countries running a CSR programme are required to implement equivalent measurement systems.
Key facts and figures for Orange Switzerland:
- Customer satisfaction: 68.9% of Orange customers are satisfied with the service, 79.4% find the Customer Care staff friendly and 73% are convinced of their competence.
- Customer calls: over 70% of calls are answered within the first 20 seconds, 65% of all customer complaints are solved in the first call.
- Employee satisfaction: Customer Care staff satisfaction scored 83.7%.
- Employee forum: An additional link between staff and management was founded in 2003 in the form of an employee forum consisting of 15 staff representatives elected by the employees. The Employee forum is involved with the management in discussions in regard to organisational and personal political decisions. The Employee forum brings the employee's point of view closer to the management.
- Initial and continual training: Orange Switzerland has invested a total of CHF 3.31 million in initial and continuing training, which means the equivalent of CHF 2,000 per employee. Roughly 80% of employees completed at least one training day in 2003. A more important step was the creation of the Orange Academy, a management development programme open to all managers with staff responsibilities. The Orange Academy became fully operational in the first half of 2004.
- Environment protection initiatives: Orange has conducted around 190 information events on the theme of mobile telephony and the environment. Orange also supports the Swiss Ombudsman for mobile telephony and the Research Foundation on Mobile communication at the ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). Orange takes back all old mobile phones free of charge and disposes of them in an environmentally friendly way, or processes them for recycling. The returns rates for the year 2003 stood at around 16%. In 2004 Orange Switzerland will also be implementing projects and studies in the areas of energy consumption, waste and mobility, which help towards reducing ecological damage.
"With our activities and this report, we want to show that we have an influence in society and that we take our responsibility towards our employees and all other pressure groups very seriously", claims Andreas S. Wetter, CEO Orange Switzerland. "We constantly review the way in which we reconcile our company goals with social and ecological growth. In this way we can ensure that the CSR programme becomes part of our day-to-day business."
Community Futures - partnership with UNICEF
As part of its comprehensive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, which has been in operation in Switzerland for three years, Orange supports various projects in the field of training and intercultural dialogue. In this respect, its partnership with UNICEF is a key component. It includes such projects as the recently launched Orange Award for the promotion of intercultural dialogue in Switzerland. The Award offers prize money of over CHF 50,000.-. Thanks to this partnership, Orange has also been able to implement projects in India, Guatemala, Iraq and Vietnam. In this way, it has helped dramatically improve the lives of several thousand disadvantaged children and young people and given them access to education. Orange also launched an SMS donation campaign in favour of children in post-war Iraq, as well as organising an "Orange for UNICEF" night at every OrangeCinema and holds a UNICEF day every year together with UNICEF.
Contact:
Orange Communications SA
World Trade Center
Av. de Gratta-Paille 2
Case postale 455
CH-1000 Lausanne 30 Grey
Therese Wenger, Director Media & PR
Mobile: +41/78/787'10'16
Phone: +41/21/216'10'16
Fax +41/21/216'10'15
E-Mail: therese.wenger@orange.ch
Internet: www.orange.ch