Responsible Business Report 2022

OUR BETTER PLACE COMMITMENT

As a Firm, we believe in pushing the boundaries to develop our team, act sustainably, and ultimately grow our business responsibly.

Our ‘Better Place’ commitment is an ethos embedded in our culture. Our purpose is to make a difference and delight our clients. By actively nurturing a resilient and innovative workforce, an empowered community, a healthy planet, and the delivery of #BrighterThinking advice to our clients we are more than just a business, we are a responsible business.

The framework through which we drive these commitments is cemented within two of our key goals which are:

  • To delight our clients
  • To inspire our people

It is also reflected through our core values of INSPIRE, INNOVATE, COLLABORATE and EMPATHISE underpinned by our bedrock of integrity.

These are supplemented with our four ‘Better Place’ pillars:

  • Be Yourself
  • Be Healthy
  • Be Inclusive
  • Be Green

We are proud to be on a pathway towards becoming a more responsible business with plans in place that centre around DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and becoming carbon neutral. We are advancing these strategies to fully support our entire network, starting with our people, and extending to our clients, suppliers, and communities – achieving this whilst supporting and preserving our natural environment.

OUR PEOPLE

We recognise that a happy workforce, working authentically as themselves, delivers the best service to our clients.

Our goal: #inspire our people

BE YOURSELF – Celebrating individuality at work

Our people are our most valued asset, and each person plays a fundamental part to deliver our overall success. We believe that individual engagement and job satisfaction are essential drivers, and our philosophy is backed by robust policy. After all, a business flourishes because of its people, so it is essential that every member of our team can be their true self at work.

BE INCLUSIVE – Recognising the value of inclusion amongst communities

Inclusion is a key ingredient for maintaining a successful and future-proof business. A diverse workforce is culturally aware, skilled at people management, adaptable and innovative. Besides the obvious fact that diversity and inclusion create fair opportunities for everyone, it also makes economic sense to protect and promote these values within the workplace and the wider environment.

We encourage our people to be their best selves at work. We challenge them to look after their personal wellbeing, to improve and develop themselves and to collaborate for the good of their colleagues. We insist that our leaders challenge themselves to put inclusion at the heart of every decision they make affecting the people in our Firm.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION (DEI)

DEI is one of the foundations of our people strategy as we move forward. We have included the term ‘equity’ into our diversity and inclusion plan as we recognise the importance of individuals having the same opportunities as each other.

At the start of 2021 we embarked upon a 10-year DEI strategy which is focused on the following areas, which we call the 5 R’s:

  • Recognise – We have undertaken surveys to measure and understand who we are and where we are as a business. It is imperative to understand this information to develop trust across the Firm and to optimise how we manage difference, helping us on the path to making Menzies a better place to work. It will also enable us to demonstrate and measure our progress.
  • Recruit – We are revisiting our Visa schemes and working with specialist recruitment agencies to ensure we are recruiting fairly and inclusively and accessing new or less represented talent pools.
  • Retain – We are delivering education for our partners and employees across many areas within DEI, including matters relating to unconscious bias, anti-racism, gender acumen, social mobility, and people with disability, which will contribute to making Menzies a place where all can thrive. We are also commissioning a full accessibility review, including scrutinising our digital resources, to ensure that no one is disadvantaged at work.
  • Reward – Periodic reporting and evidence of resultant action is also key. Therefore, we will continue our focus on diversity and inclusion data and tools such as gender pay gap reporting so that all employees are rewarded fairly.
  • Relate – We are actively encouraging discussion amongst our communities, reflecting on the importance of different voices being listened to and understood.

BE HEALTHY – Fostering physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing

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The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us all that health is fragile and we realise that we must take effective action to maintain a healthy mind and body. As an employer, it is essential for us to contribute what we can to ensure that we have a healthy, energised, and resilient team.

We take a holistic view of health and offer programmes to support physical, mental, and emotional health, whilst continuously looking at new initiatives to enhance these programmes. Currently we have qualified mental health first aiders in every office. We regularly share information and guidance on a variety of health topics, including managing stress, mental health awareness and how to support carers. We offer the flu jab to all employees and have a voluntary health check programme, offering employees a health MOT including physical checks, diet and exercise review and mental and wellbeing health check.

We continue to look at ways to both support and incentivise our employees. We offer a flexible and agile working policy as standard. We are conscious that we have an active community of parents and caregivers, and we are regularly reviewing our benefits to ensure that everyone has the support and peace of mind they need to enjoy their work-life at Menzies.

OUR CLIENTS

Our goal: #delight our clients

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We help clients navigate their personal, business, and financial challenges, helping them meet their goals. Through our teams of highly skilled individuals, we can best meet our clients’ needs and ensure they feel supported and ultimately delighted.

Client relationships are at the heart of everything we do. We are always looking for the next service or innovation that will help our clients. All our clients have their own client relationship team led by an experienced adviser who oversees their affairs. Our relationship teams take responsibility for understanding clients’ needs, bringing the right specialists together and ensuring clients receive a consistently high quality of service.

We really want to know what our clients think, which is why we speak to them regularly to gain their honest feedback. When we learn about things we could do better, we act swiftly to address this. We undertake an annual survey to understand feedback from clients on a central basis, which is then disseminated to each Relationship Partner/Director.

Regarding responsible business practices, we are very keen to talk to our clients and share experiences so that we navigate the journey together towards a more sustainable future. We commit to advancing those conversations and seeing where joint actions could amplify our success and impact.


OUR SUPPLIERS

We are undertaking a process of reviewing our supply chain arrangements. We want to ensure that, in line with our own ESG (“environmental, social and corporate governance”) commitments, our suppliers are committed to similar values and are working towards net carbon zero and adhering to the Modern Slavery Act.


OUR COMMUNITIES

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Our support of local communities and national charities is a core element of our drive to make the world around us more inclusive. After many years of ad hoc fund raising and support, we set up the Menzies Foundation (charity number 1136667) in 2010. Through the Menzies Foundation, we support a variety of local and national organisations. Our staff choose a national charity of the year to focus major fundraising.

There are a variety of ways in which we look to provide support through our Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives:

  • Local office support
    Each office looks to support its local community, helping to fund projects that result in tangible outcomes and real benefits to people in their neighbourhood. We have particularly focussed on individuals and organisations that do not have the profile or resources to attract regular fundraising and sponsorship.
  • Firmwide charity support
    In previous years, our focus was supporting Macmillan and Cancer Research UK. However, we’ve recognised the value of directing our efforts towards local charities to make a more immediate impact within our communities. As such, for the year 2024, we’ve made the decision to shift our attention to local causes again. Each of our eight offices will be actively supporting a charity that operates within their immediate community, enabling us to give back directly to those who need it most.
  • National charitable days
    We also support recognised charitable days every year across all our offices. These include Wear A Hat Day for Brain Tumour Research, Wear It Pink Day for Breast Cancer Care and Christmas Jumper Day for Save the Children.
  • Make A Difference Week
    In July of each year, we hold “Make a Difference Week,” where teams across the firm seek to help and support local organisations in any practical way.
  • Matched funding and volunteering
    Many of our staff and partners contribute personally to causes that are dear to them. We recognise and support their commitment, through our matched time and funding schemes.

OUR ENVIRONMENT

BE GREEN – taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint, moving towards Net Zero

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As a responsible business, we place particular focus on fostering a healthier environment through a reduction in natural-resource consumption.

With climate change, plastic pollution and other environmental threats being of major concern to all of us, we recognise that environmental guardianship is part of our responsibility. The firm wishes to actively contribute to a healthier planet by taking positive action to reduce the impact of climate change and prioritising renewable solutions.

We are committed to making a positive difference to the environment with less reliance on paper and printing, presence in the office and travel between offices and to clients’ premises. We are enthusiastically embracing agile working and hybrid working.

We have a target to measure and reduce carbon emissions across our business operations. We will monitor, record and report on our Scope 1, Scope 2, and applicable Scope 3 carbon emissions. We aim to keep our SECR Intensity metric below our 2019/20 level (0.47 tCO2e/£100,000 revenue), whilst acknowledging we were in lockdown for a quarter of this particular year. It is our aim to:

number 1

Reduce our emissions by 50% over the next 3 years

number 2

Be net carbon zero by 2027

We recognise that, as a significant user of energy, we have an important role to play in helping to tackle issues such as the depletion of natural resources and Climate Change, by significantly reducing our carbon emissions and pollution associated with energy generation. This is an area of continued focus and our next step will be to identify projects where we can proactively give back to the community.


Menzies four responsible business pillars

Be Yourself

Celebrating individuality at work

Brain health icon

Be Healthy

Fostering physical, mental and emotional wellbeing

Be Inclusive

Recognising the value of diversity

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Be Green

Working towards a healthier planet


Supporting the local community – The Menzies Charitable Foundation

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The Menzies Charitable Foundation works with voluntary services groups in the locality of Menzies offices and staff to identify organisations and/or individuals that may be in need of help.