The report says;
“In a way, the fundamentals of CSR are embedded in Zen’s corporate DNA. Its founder Richard Tang named the company Zen Internet to reflect his Chinese ancestry, which goes back 30 generations. While Richard is not a Zen Buddhist, many of his beliefs fall in line with Eastern values.
Recently he felt inspired by a visit to Bhutan, a country whose values most closely match his own for Zen. Just as Bhutan puts Gross National Happiness ahead of Gross National Product, Zen’s most fundamental long term objectives in order of priority, are happy staff, happy customers and happy suppliers. The order of these is very important yet very simple and underpins the company’s mission to provide the best ISP service in the UK.
“For Zen, CSR doesn’t represent a shift in the way we do business. It’s always been at the heart of what we do and how we operate. We are determined to be a good neighbour, work together with our employees, our customers our suppliers and the community around us to ensure that any impact we make on the world is for the better,” said Richard Tang, Managing Director.
“Whether that involves ensuring employees are rewarded for the work they do, providing customers with the highest levels of service, building our relationships with suppliers or supporting charitable events and coming up with new ways to be greener,” added Richard.
Zen has created a working environment where its employees can flourish and fulfil their potential supporting its Happy Staff ethos. In 2009 Zen introduced a scheme to recognise the contribution, effort and loyalty of long term employees and the role this has played in the company’s success.
After 10 years of continuous services employees receive a gift of their choice and are invited to a celebratory lunch with Richard Tang. To date 20 employees have received the award, with five employees reaching the milestone during 2011. Gifts have ranged from flat-screen TVs and dishwashers to a boxed set of Domesday books.
Zen is committed to developing and retaining its employees and has a dedicated in-house Learning and Development team. In the last 12 months, through the development of its employees, 40 (10%) of Zen’s employees have successfully secured a position in another department or moved to a more senior position as a result of internal recruitment.
Zen provides products and services to meet its customers’ requirements now and in the future.
With its 80 strong highly-skilled Technical Support team, customer experience is Zen’s number one priority as it doesn’t operate in a traditional call centre environment. Zen regularly wins independent awards that are voted for by its customers, including Which? Recommended Broadband Provider, Zen’s twelfth Which? endorsement in seven years and this year PC Pro Best ISP for the eighth year running.
Suppliers are chosen that the company believes share its mission and its values. These strategic partnerships play a vital role in its continuing success. Zen’s supplier relationships are built on values of openness, honesty and integrity and include important suppliers like BT.
Zen is committed to its local community. The company was founded in Rochdale and has stayed firmly rooted in Rochdale where its heart lies. It is committed to investing in the future success of the North West, offering opportunities to individuals and supporting charities.
Last Year Zen employees voted for Dr Kershaw’s as the company’s chosen charity and raised nearly £7,000 through its various fundraising activities, this year its charity is Boomerang based in Bury. Zen is also the Hallé orchestra’s technical sponsor for this year. Zen doesn’t just look at ways it can provide financial support or products and services. Zen employees have donated more than 95 pints of blood in the last twelve months alone.
The company has provided assistance with the IT Diploma to both students and teachers of schools in the local Rochdale area, as well as giving work placements to students wanting work experience. Over the past twelve months Zen has offered ten work placements for periods of between one day and six weeks, totalling 116 days helping students get the experience they need.
Zen’s also has a Technical Training Programme aimed at re-training applicants for entry level roles in its Technical Support department. The last programme saw three out of ten attendees offered jobs, with the other seven leaving with new skills and renewed confidence.
Zen understands that its activities affect both the environment and the communities in which it operates. In the past 12 months it has achieved a reduction of 8.5% in paper usage, reduced its CO2 emission by 8.4% and recycled 87.1% of its total waste.
Although this is the first CSR report for Zen, since the company was established in 1995 it has always been at the heart of everything it does and the way it operates. The company credits its employees, customers and suppliers for helping it to be a responsible business.”