Unum UK
Enhancing a well-established CSR programme
UNUM UK
Unum UK, a leading income protection insurance provider, approached Brite Green to review their existing CSR strategy. They had an excellent CSR programme in place, focussed on volunteering and corporate giving, but they wanted to become more strategic.
Brite Green worked with Unum to identify the full range of sustainability issues that were material to their business and developed a sustainability strategy that supported the commercial objectives whilst delivering environmental and social benefits.
Outcomes
- Developed a more comprehensive sustainability strategy: We worked with the Unum team to expand their social impact focused strategy to include key environmental themes.
- Stronger foundation: We completed a robust materiality assessment to ensure that the strategy is focused on the right areas.
- Launched with impact: The new sustainability strategy was launched at an event at the Houses of Parliament.
The situation
Social-impact focused CSR strategy needing a refresh
Unum UK is part of the Unum Group, a US-based fortune 500 insurance company which specialises in income protection insurance. As a large company with a strong sense of social responsibility, Unum UK had an excellent CSR programme in place. The programme focussed on supporting good causes on a local and national level through volunteering and corporate giving and had outstanding support throughout the company. The programme had grown organically and Unum wanted to review their approach to ensure that it was addressing all key areas of risk, impact and opportunity.
In its year-long year review of Unum’s approach to sustainability, Brite Green has demonstrated impeccable diligence and professionalism in all its dealings, ensuring that the final report was delivered on time and on budget. The report’s challenging and constructive recommendations were the result of Brite Green’s exemplary preparatory work and full understanding of the company and its business.
The solution
A strategy refresh
To help the Unum UK team update their sustainability strategy, we completed a strategy refresh project focused on:
- Defining the key sustainability issues
- Assessing the drivers for improving sustainability practices
- Updating the strategy
Our approach
Identifying key sustainability issues
To help Unum develop a new sustainability vision, we started the process with a structured workshop with stakeholders from across the business. We explored the areas the team felt were already excellent and collated the emerging opportunities, and helped build consensus on what the long-term sustainability vision should be.
We also completed a detailed materiality assessment to identify the key sustainability issues for Unum UK, which entailed:
- Identifying all sustainability issues with direct and indirect financial impact
- Engaging with internal and external stakeholders to identify key issues, risks and opportunities
- Benchmarking Unum UK against their peers using Brite Green’s sustainability maturity model
- Reviewing all applicable legislation and contractual requirements
- Reviewing where sustainability issues would impact on Unum’s policies and delivery of the commercial strategy
The outcome was a clear picture of what issues mattered most and a long-term sustainability mission and vision.
Analysing performance drivers
Having identified the material issues for Unum UK, we analysed how these could affect business performance. We defined the commercial drivers, including meeting the growing obligations from customers and regulators and seeking our opportunities for new products and services that help their customers keep their staff health, happy and safe. The assessment also highlighted a number of cost savings and opportunities for Unum UK to further enhance their reputations through positive impact, thought leadership and action.
Designing the enhanced strategy
Building on this analysis, we designed a new strategy for Unum focused on 5 key themes.
- Healthy and happy workplace
- Responsible, transparent business
- Dynamic workplace culture
- Strong communities
- Environmentally sound
The levels of ambition for each area were tailored to match Unum’s scale of impact, ability to influence change and the potential improvements they could deliver. To ensure great visibility of Unum’s expanded strategy with internal and external stakeholders, a launch event was held at the Houses of Parliament. The event proved an excellent opportunity for the senior management team to showcase the enhanced approach and build momentum to deliver the exciting programme.