DEVELOPING FTSE INTERNATIONAL'S COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDER STRATEGY

FTSE International may be best known for its FTSE 100 and FTSE-AllShare indices, reflecting the market for UK-listed stocks. However, the organisation has grown exponentially since its inception in 1995, building an enviable reputation for the reliability of its indices and related data services. Today, FTSE calculates and manages over 150,000 indices, serves clients in 77 countries worldwide and spans across global equity, fixed income, commodity, currency, real estate, infrastructure and non-market cap indices.

FTSE also delivers one of the most influential tools to support sustainability practices in the financial industry: the FTSE4Good Index Series. Launched in 2001, the FTSE4Good comprises a series of indices helping asset owners and fund managers amongst others, to identify, assess and create responsible investment products by tracking the performance of companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards. This represents just one layer of FTSE International’s community stakeholder strategy which also includes donating a portion of the group’s profits to its charity partner UNICEF and appointing a staff-led Charity Committee to oversee its programme.

In 2010, the Charity Committee put forward a proposal to introduce payroll giving to its staff. After careful consideration and internal discussion, FTSE International approached Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), based on positive feedback from parent company Pearson – themselves a CAF Give As You Earn customer since 1990.

HOW WE HELPED

With nearly 25 years experience and over 3,200 employers using CAF Give As You Earn to process over £80m of donations per year, the CAF Customer Service team were able to advise FTSE International’s HR and Payroll teams on the various options available to them, and put the back-end processes in place, so that FTSE International could focus on the all important task of launching to UK staff. CAF also put Melanie Homes, Senior HR Officer responsible for the launch, in touch with colleagues at the professional fundraising organisation Sharing the Caring, who were able to support in the staff communications.

“Time was a key consideration from the outset and with the support of senior management we felt it was important to make the scheme available to UK staff as soon as possible” explains Melanie. “Thankfully, CAF were able to turn everything around super-quick, going from meeting in March 2011, to launching the scheme in April 2011 and running our first payroll in May 2011”.

The scheme launched on 6 April 2011 via promotions run by  the organisation’s internal communications and an all-day drop-in session, enabling staff to pick up information on the scheme and put their questions to an expert from Sharing the Caring. Since this date, the scheme has featured in the monthly staff e-newsletter and also forms part of the induction process for new staff, ensuring that all new recruits are aware of this staff benefit from day one.

THE OUTCOME

The structured planning and communications campaign meant FTSE International achieved rapid and positive response from staff, with more than 5% of employees signing up to the scheme by the end of the first day. This proportion already qualifies them for the silver award in the Payroll Giving Quality Mark – the government’s scheme designed to reward employers for enabling staff to give through their pay.

In the company’s first CAF Give As You Earn payroll run in May 2011, staff donations went to a total of 18 different charities, with all payments taken automatically and tax-efficiently from pre-tax pay.

“We are quite simply overwhelmed with the response. The next step will be applying for the Payroll Giving Quality Mark to get external recognition of our staff’s contribution to good causes, and we are already talking to CAF about how we can extend the scheme to our staff across the globe.”

Joanne Roberts, FTSE International’s Global Head of HR

If your company would benefit from CAF Give As You Earn, please call us on 03000 123 000 or contact us.

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