Stakeholder report

Doing more for employees

Our clients choose to work with Xansa because Xansa people enable them to do more. There's a good reason for that. It's because we do more for our people. Xansa recognises that each employee is an individual with individual needs and we treat them accordingly. For instance, instead of a take-it-or-leave-it predetermined benefit package, Xansa offers flexibility. From a fund that covers the cost of contractual benefits, employees can select the options that suit them best. Exceptional bonuses reward outstanding performance.

Xansa's corporate culture is built on the basis of long-term relationships and long-term mutual gain. So we develop and deploy our people in line with business requirements. Xansa's career framework enables a consistent design and approach to people development and performance management. This includes 360-degree performance appraisals and a performance management procedure linked to our behaviour model. Xansa training, whether done internally or via external organisations, encourages and enables people to become experts in their diverse fields. In India we have invested in initiatives to provide ongoing work related education opportunities and have launched a highly successful induction programme to support people through their first seven quarters with Xansa.

Since Xansa people are at the heart of all we do, we are naturally committed to attracting and retaining the best. To ensure we have the right leaders in the right roles with the right skills, we assess all new entrants to leadership roles against a set of benchmarked criteria and have our own Leadership Academy providing a suite of developmental support from external and internal developmental providers. Just as important, we encourage a good work/life balance by providing the opportunity for flexible working times or part time working. And to help keep personal lives running smoothly, Xansa's employee assistance programme is there to give confidential support on important personal or domestic issues to employees and their immediate family.

Effective communication is vital, so we listen and take time to understand. Through eXchange, Xansa's employee consultative body, and our annual employee survey (which again this year showed increasing levels of employee satisfaction), Xansa monitors morale and ensures that employee views and issues are heard at a senior level. Action plans resulting from the surveys are communicated and monitored for progress. We also have a popular, ongoing, programme of quarterly forums for several hundred leaders in both the UK and India which is now in its third year. These gatherings are opportunities to discuss the direction of our business in interactive briefing sessions that encourage debate.

Doing more in the community

People are at the heart of Xansa's business and just as our people and our clients do not exist on an island, neither does our Company. Our people and our clients care about Xansa's impact on the communities in which we operate, and therefore we make it a concern of our business.

When Xansa began its community programme in 1994, we did it because it was the right thing to do. We focus our community programme on the things that we do best which is why we focus on the following areas:

	Education and mentorship;
	Educational infrastructure and IT skills;
	Entrepreneurship skills

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This year has seen a continuation of this commitment. December marked the launch of Do More Day, a new annual event to raise awareness amongst our employees and clients of Xansa's community activities. Do More Day not only involves fundraising and volunteering events, but also re-energises our community work across the UK and India on an annual basis. During Do More Day 2006, we raised £21,000 in 24 hours for educational and charitable organisations.

In India other initiatives this year have included summer camps for schoolchildren in Chennai and Noida, and mentoring and computer literacy programmes for schools and orphanages in Noida and Chennai. In the UK, Xansa people have provided on-going support for charities such as St Basil's in Birmingham and Young Enterprise in Reading and are involved in BEST (Business and Education Succeed Together) in Manchester. More details of our activities can be found in Xansa's Community report which can be requested from the Company Secretary or is available online at www.xansa.com/community.

We continue to run matching funds and enabling grants schemes. Our employees submitted 180 applications over the year, covering fundraising events from cake and book sales to sponsored events like swims, slims, and cycles. Enabling grants have provided support for projects that included the provision of sport and music equipment for children's clubs, production of a charity calendar and funding concerts for a Saturday music school. During 2006 matching funds and enabling grants raised just under £43,000 for charities – in addition to £94,000 raised by Xansa people themselves.

Doing more for the environment

Though the IT industry may not have a large environmental impact, we feel it is important to monitor and manage our activities to minimise our footprint and protect and sustain resources. Xansa continues to regard governmental legislation on environmental issues in the jurisdictions in which it operates as the minimum acceptable standard – and wherever possible, the Company aims to exceed it.

We have a growing range of programmes for minimising environmental impact. Xansa's printer and copy paper is manufactured from recycled materials and, once used, waste paper is recycled. This year alone we have recycled over 25 tonnes of paper equating to over 500 trees.

To reduce CO₂ emissions, we maintain high quality video conferencing facilities with the aim of reducing business travel. In India, carbon filters are fitted to all back-up generators to reduce CO₂ emissions. In addition, in India, our rainwater harvesting systems enables us to maximise the use of this valuable natural resource and substantially reduces the amount of groundwater that we use.

In order to manage energy consumption across our UK and India property estate, we monitor Building Management System settings and adjust them to maintain the working environment at a comfortable level using the minimum of energy. Motion sensors on lighting in areas of minimal usage ensure that lights are on only when required. We also turn off all non-essential equipment when not in use.

To further demonstrate our commitment to the environment we are developing an Environmental Management System and we will seek certification to ISO 14001 (Environmental Management Systems). This will initially cover our office in the heart of Belfast but will have the scope to be rolled out across the Company in the future.

Xansa's commitment to health, safety and the environment can also be seen by the fact that Xansa's Chief Executive chairs our Health, Safety & Environment (HS&E) Steering Board. Xansa has an excellent health and safety track record, our accident and incident rate is well below industry average. However, we are not complacent. As an award winning, long standing member of the British Safety Council we are committed to achieving best practice in all areas of health and safety. As part of this commitment we are further developing our health and safety systems by implementing the principles laid out in the Health & Safety Executives (HSE) guidance HSG65. We anticipate achieving alignment of our systems with this guidance by April 2008.

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