Building a stronger community

Our Corporate Social Responsibility

Empowering our community

We’re not only committed to improving how our clients’ businesses operate but also ensuring we helping in the wider community.

Throughout the year our employees thrive upon raising money for our partner charity and other causes.

Our people jump at the opportunity to help our local community. Whether that’s spending a lunchtime litter picking or donating time to empower the next generation of tech talent.

Charity partner

We’ve teamed up with Pete’s Dragons, who provide support to those affected by suicide loss, as our official charity partner for 2023.

Promoting talent

We’re committed to ensuring a diverse pool of STEMM talent in the South West.

Watch the STEMM Q&A with MD, Lindsay Lucas

Sponsorship

We’re proud to be Sponsors of our well renowned local TEDx event.

Our Corporate Social Responsibility Statement

At Software Solved we are committed to ensuring we have a positive impact on our staff, customers, partners, suppliers, community, and environment. Our values inclusive, authentic, creative, and passionate underpin all we do.

Team

We promote equal opportunities and provide a working environment in which individuals can make the best use of their skills, free from discrimination or harassment. We support, develop, and invest in our team creating a culture where staff are rewarded and engaged.

We:
• Ensure compliance with our Equal Opportunities and Dignity at Work policy
• Have fair and standardised recruitment, flexible working, reward, disciplinary, grievance practices and processes
• Focus on equality, diversity, and inclusion; we are a member of the Tech Talent Charter
• Have health and safety policies and first aiders for both physical and mental health; we are a Mindful Employer
• Offer regular learning and development time and training qualifications
• Conduct quarterly independent performance and pay reviews
• Offer a substantial benefits package including being a National Living Wage employer, enhanced pension scheme, enhanced leave, hybrid working, and various life and health insurances
• Promote employee voice through regular staff surveys and employee forum
• Hold regular in-person and remote staff events
• Focus on celebrating and rewarding team success e.g. through our ThreeCheers initiative

Customers

We are mindful that what we deliver to our clients, and the way in which we deliver it, is ethical and provides the best possible customer experience at all stages.

We:
• Are ISO9001 and ISO/IEC 27001 accredited, and a Microsoft Gold Partner
• Have dedicated Account and Project Managers who are in regular communication with clients
• Conduct quarterly business reviews
• Have defined escalation routes internally and externally should they be needed
• Have a customer complaints process to investigate, resolve and identify the root cause
• Run bi-yearly customer satisfaction surveys to stay in touch with our customers’ needs and identify improvements
• Follow clearly defined delivery and development standards to ensure consistency and quality in all we do; all development passes our Quality Assurance checks

Partners and Suppliers

We ensure our suppliers and partners have positively aligned corporate social responsibility practices and can, in turn, help us comply with ours. We: • Look for partners with a focus on people and a positive, ethical business culture • Conduct regular supplier audits including checking financial information, security processes and environmental standards • Monitor supplier/partner performance and compliance • Are committed to paying suppliers within terms, have an excellent creditor days rating and no CCJs

Community

We maintain a positive relationship with our local community and identify local and national initiatives and charities to support.

We:
• Choose a staff-voted charity of the year and donate time and money, fundraise, and support the charity through promotion and attendance at events
• Are a key promoter and supporter of investing in the STEMM talent of the future. We offer year-long paid placements, work experience, work closely with Exeter College, the University of Exeter and the University of Plymouth, are part of the Empowering Girls programme, STEM Ambassador programme, and Professional Mentor Programmes
• Support other organisations working to improve the connection between young people and business, such as Tech Exeter, ExIST, and Tech South West

Environment

We are committed to reducing our impact on the environment and review our ways of working on an on-going basis.

We:
• Have an environmental team who continually educate the team and suggest improvements
• Are a remote first business committed to moving the last of our physically hosted equipment to the cloud by the end of 2022 and releasing our current office in 2023
• Advocate eco-friendly modes of transport, when its required, and have a Cycle to Work scheme
• Hand-pick suppliers based on their environmental impact e.g., we use a zero to landfill recycling company, green electricity supplier, LED lighting, prefer local suppliers and are committed to sourcing sustainable office goods
• Host on Azure, a product by Microsoft who are already carbon neutral with aims to be carbon negative, water-positive, using 100% renewable energy and zero-waste by 2030
• Purchase IT equipment from Dell who are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy intensity of all their products, and to be net zero by 2050
• Have a green hosted website