Missive ESG Charter:
We do the right thing
Missive’s philosophy is We Do The Right Thing. We aspire to be a consultancy that makes an impact for all its stakeholders and, in recognition of that, our company values are EPIC: Empowered, Purposeful, Impactful and Compassionate. This ethos governs everything we do and gives us a clear sense of our commitments when it comes to ESG.
We are a compassionately led consultancy on a mission to positively impact the lives of our people, clients and communities. We care deeply about people and planet and are passionate about building a progressive and dynamic team, delivering work that drives inclusion, and influencing the world positively.
We want to demonstrate real impact wherever we operate and have created this charter as we audit our ESG performance and make commitments to hit impactful strategic targets. We commit to re-running the audit each year, so we stay on track as we grow.
We welcome conversations about our performance and targets, and we would love to hear about what others are doing. If you would like to be a part of Missive’s ESG journey, please get in touch.
We aim to have a proactive, positive impact on our planet. We have been long-term champions of the triple bottom line and recognise that you can be both profitable and mindful of the planet. However, without a healthy planet, we would have no business at all – a fact that drives our commitment.
Founded in 2015 with a work from anywhere principle, we uphold this practice today to reduce commuting
We support our staff to commute via the Cycle to Work Scheme
We are located at London Bridge and walk to local meetings, wherever possible.
We discourage unnecessary business flights, and hold meetings online wherever possible
Our office is new, makes use of natural light, and has efficient air conditioning facilities
We encourage being paperless and only print when absolutely necessary
We have strict office recycling and limit single use plastic wherever possible
We have collected benchmark data from our team through Pawprint’s calculator
Help our people reduce their individual energy use by 10% through Pawprint (or an equivalent calculator e.g., WWF Footprint)
Work with our landlord to reduce energy use and increase recycling
Work with our landlord to monitor and record energy usage
Strengthen our in-office recovery and recycling programme and give our people guidance for recycling and composting at home
Engage our international network, Missive Global, in conversations about sustainability guidelines and sharing Footprint scores and suggestions
Share best practice content on sustainability with our network, inspired by global events like COP and local ambassadors and influencers we work with e.g. VMO2’s Youth Advisory Council
Train clients in triple bottom line reporting and sharing best practice with them
Be a net zero consultancy, tracking targets at agency (rather than individual) level
Be a paperless office
Become B Corp certified to show we are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy, with the highest environmental standards
Launch a Missive Global sustainability charter, building on shared knowledge with our partner network and international offices, to ensure global enforcement of environmental best practice.
We want to have a lasting positive impact on our people; now and in the future. We aspire to be an inspiring and compassionate place to work, full of reward and satisfaction, challenge, learning and opportunities to make the world a better place than we found it. We work hard to be truly inclusive, flexible and accommodating of individual situations, skills and ambitions. We might not get it right all of the time, but we strive to take the time and effort to continuously learn and grow purposefully, as individuals and as a business.
We have a Chief People Officer and Head of HR and we run two staff surveys every year to understand how we are doing and what we could do to best support the experience of working with us
We track diversity and protected characteristics within our team to better understand how we can be as inclusive as possible. We know that:
Missive is majority owned by women
85% of our team is female (vs. CIPR average of 66%), as is 100% of our Board
22% of our team is from an ethnic minority background (non-white) (vs. CIPR average of 10%) and we actively recruit from organisations that actively support those from diverse backgrounds
11% of our team identifies as LGBT+ (vs. CIPR average of 14%)
15% of our team consider themselves to have a disability or health condition
We offer diversity training and run an internal initiative called Seat at the Table that gives our staff a forum to talk about their lived experiences of race, gender, sexuality, mental health, disability, and more
We participate in industry-wide DE&I conversations e.g., 2022 PRovoke EMEA summit in London, as part of the The Xec group
Men are paid 98p for every £1 a woman earns at Missive and the Board reviews of pay within levels to ensure parity is maintained
We provide support to employees through our EAP with Vitality Health, and we have a Mental Health first aid champion in the management team
We actively encourage annual leave to be spread out across the year to protect wellbeing and offer a sabbatical to team members who have been with us for four years
Every member of staff has a minimum of two hours per day unallocated to client work to spend on personal development
We offer three months’ full pay for everyone on parental leave
We offer a £500 wellbeing allowance each year for our staff to spend on something that improves their wellbeing
We run a PRCA endorsed virtual internship programme called Missive Academy Rising Stars (MARS). To date, we have had 60 graduates, 45% of which come from under-represented groups, and 52% have told us they have secured roles in the PR industry within 6 months.
We have a home charity and work as a team to fundraise for an annual target (we raised £20k for Macmillan between 2020 and 2022)
Our staff can take one day off each quarter to volunteer for a charity of their choosing
Maintain a minimum 50% female to male ratio in management and Board roles
Be official supporters and active members of PRCA Race and Ethnicity Equity Board (REEB)
Have a minimum of 50% of people coming through MARS programme from an ethnic minority/under-represented background
Offer executive coaching for MARS underrepresented groups from Missive team members
Ensure mandatory diversity and inclusivity training for all team members from external organisation
Have management level DE&I mentoring both internally and externally
Run quarterly Seat at the Table sessions and extend the invitation to clients and the Missive network
Refine our onboarding process to ensure it is tailored to individuals where relevant e.g., inclusive of neurodiversity
Review job descriptions to ensure the language is inclusive, re-writing where necessary
Have board level representation in the PR Mental Health and Wellbeing Charter Committee
Ensure mental Health first aiders are personally identified and available to every member of the team
Offer personal finance training and support for all our people
Allow our team to choose a new home charity with relevance to the team and current socio-economic environment
Run an all-team volunteering day with a charitable partner
Look at our achievements at the midpoint of the year and begin to set metrics for our future goals
Track the number of clients and suppliers from companies that are majority-owned by women or individuals from underrepresented populations
Have policies or programs in place to promote diversity within our client and supplier network
Develop set target and commit to increasing the percentage of clients and suppliers from companies that are majority-owned by women or individuals from underrepresented populations
Make external coaching available to every member of staff returning from long term leave e.g. maternity leave or long-term sickness leave
Ensure our office has full disabled access
Have an established apprenticeship programme, fuelled via MARS
Support pro-bono clients regularly
Match charitable donations made by our people
Offer our office space free of charge to charitable organisations on a regular basis
Offer pro-bono support to social engagement organisations
We have always valued ethics and governance to the highest degree, and we promote fair practice, accountability and transparency among our client and supplier base. As we grow, we would like to ask for higher levels of scrutiny from our clients themselves, and of their own networks and supply chains.
We conduct pension scheme and banking reviews to ensure we have the most appropriate schemes for our team and our business
We regularly review our contractual obligations, e.g. office lease, to ensure we have the best services and client terms
Our governance includes regular reviews of any conflict of interests, as well as adequate safeguards to prevent fraud and misuse of company data
We have only and will only ever work with clients whose behaviour we classify as ethical. This means we will not work with clients who exhibit poor behaviour or whose business operates in a sector we deem unethical.
We have fair payment terms with all our suppliers and always pay on time
We have equal employer status and conduct gender pay and race pay audits
Executive pay will never be irresponsible and out of touch
We comply with local laws, including all tax obligations, and we are proud to contribute to UK society through the taxes we pay
We follow all anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws
We have a grievance policy and are clear that people have a legal right to whistleblowing
We are apolitical but are very open to discussions that cover politics or topics that are politicised, provided they do not impact on the work we produce for clients and are always respectful
Update and republish our Staff Handbook to further strengthen discrimination and grievance policies, and include Missive’s Ethical Code of Conduct
Develop a client governance charter where we ask companies to sign up to our ethical code of conduct with regard of how they engage with our staff
Screen and evaluate significant suppliers for their social and environmental impact
Publish specific environmental commitments
Establish an external advisory board that includes stakeholder representation
