The T-Mobile telecoms company is setting up a board-level corporate
responsibility steering group to develop a more coherent strategy on
responsible business.
The group, which should be in place by late autumn and fully
functioning by the beginning of 2008, will consist of senior managers
and board directors.
Allison Murray, who recently filled the newly created post of corporate
responsibility manager, said that the group would provide ‘a future
vision for corporate responsibility and an overall strategy’. The
frequency of the meetings is yet to be decided.
A unit of Deutsche Telekom, UK-based T-Mobile has more than 109 million
customers worldwide. With Murray’s appointment and the formation of the
steering group, the company hopes to create a more structured
management framework. T-Mobile does not feature in Business in the
Community’s CR Index, although its parent company has a good ranking in
the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
Murray said: ‘We’ve had various managers across the company who’ve been
involved in managing corporate responsibility, and there’s quite a long
track record of work on these issues. But there has never been a
dedicated manager or much of an internal profile for CSR. My role is to
bring together all the activities, get them aligned under one banner,
and promote new initiatives.’
Murray, who has joined from DHL, where she was also corporate
responsibility manager, has begun a gap analysis to identify T-Mobile’s
strengths and weaknesses on environmental and social issues, and to
benchmark the company ‘against international best practice’.
Initial results suggest that environmental management and the safety
implications of children using mobile phones will be two areas for
early attention.
Since Murray arrived, T-Mobile has added a section on its website
covering children and mobile phone safety, with advice from the
children’s charity NSPCC.
Take-up of the company’s employee volunteering scheme has increased
from 1.5 to ten per cent of its UK workforce since January, following
promotion.
