What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?

A CSR policy defines how a business regulates itself in order to ensure that its activities have an overall positive impact on society. It tries to ensure that a company is working ethically. Businesses should meet and ideally exceed the requirements of any relevant legislation. Should legislation not exist for a company’s sphere of operations, the company should endeavour to follow best practices anyway.

At VOODOO® we believe CSR is not virtue signalling. Instead, we believe it should affect every aspect of our work, forming a social pact with all of our stakeholders, and we are committed to ensuring that all business undertakings are conducted as ethically as is possible. The policy below sets out how we aim to achieve this.

Who we are and what we do

The VOODOO® platform allows you to send and receive SMS (text messages) via our cloud-based portal or via integrating with our API. Our solution is built and managed in-house by an experienced development team. Security is key to the platform and we are accredited to both ISO27001 & ISO9001 (UKAS) standards.

Starting as two guys working in a small, shared office space in 2013, we opened our fourth office in 2020. We currently employ 20 people and are now one of the largest independents in our sector, but have managed to ensure we have retained our core values: passion for customer service, security, and great value.

We serve over 12,000 businesses in the UK, handling tens of millions of SMS each month. Our high Service Level Agreements, competitive pricing and our assurance of direct routes mean that we never compromise on quality.

Looking after Employees

To maintain staff commitment and productivity, a good working environment is essential. We achieve this through:

• a commitment to be an Equal Opportunities Employer as per the Human Rights Act 2010
• undertaking tailored staff training, periodic appraisals, and opportunities for personal development
• sharing commercially sensitive information with all staff, ensuring they know they are the key reason for our successes
• ensuring all of our employees receive more than the National Living Wage, and are automatically enrolled in the company pension scheme regardless of service length
• having extensive procedures in place to ensure that personnel issues are handled sensitively and appropriately
• engagement with an external HR specialist company to ensure we always treat all employees fairly
• being passionate about the power of team building. A company is only as good as its staff, and happy employees make better employees. The entire company socialises together frequently, which can sometimes be a logistical miracle!
  

Looking after Customers

Looking after our customers so they come away with a lasting, positive impression of our business is crucial. It makes good commercial sense too, as it is much easier to retain a happy customer than to attract a new one. So, how do we do this?

• We strive to improve customer satisfaction and retention with internal KPIs measuring complaints and refunds. In fact, these two quality objectives are the cornerstone of our ISO 9001 (UKAS) procedures
• We only use direct connections as a commitment to quality
• We regularly engage with customers when introducing new features. Our platform is built for them, so why wouldn't we ask them what we can improve, or even build next?
  

Suppliers’ Standards

We are all only as strong as our weakest link. We feel a corporate responsibility to ensure, where possible, to engage only with companies that share our ethical values and standards. And we see our supplier relationships as long-term partnerships. In the simplest terms, be good to each other.

• As part of our pre-engagement due diligence, we ensure every potential new supplier adheres to all relevant legislation (e.g. Data Protection Act 2018, Bribery Act 2010, Bribery Act 2010)
• We endeavour to use local suppliers where commercially feasible
• We are committed to paying our suppliers in full and on time
• Where possible, we ensure our suppliers have a CSR policy in place that aligns with our own. This is one of the main criteria used in the supplier evaluation process when tendering new business
• We are committed to clear communication with suppliers
  

Community Engagement

At VOODOO®, we believe that the world is one giant community. As a business, we want to do our bit to support this community, as some members may need more support than others. Examples of our engagement include:

• annual sponsorship of the education of three children in developing countries
• supporting all registered UK charities by assigning them low flat pricing, regardless of volumes
• supporting the surrounding community by employing local people.
  

Protecting the Environment

It is important to commit to reducing the environmental impact that our business activities may have. We promote this by:

• ensuring our employees are aware of and buy into our Sustainability Policy and the objectives laid out within
• ensuring we only use carbon-neutral data centres
• a commitment to reduce year on year energy consumption in our offices
• renting centrally located office space where possible, to encourage staff to walk, cycle, or use public transport to get to work
  

Reporting

We will report publicly on our progress against these goals annually.
We will conduct quarterly internal senior reviews.