Communication on Progress

Participant
Published
  • 27-Mar-2014
Time period
  • March 2013  –  March 2014
Format
  • Stand alone document – Basic COP Template
Differentiation Level
  • This COP qualifies for the Global Compact Active level
Self-assessment
  • Includes a CEO statement of continued support for the UN Global Compact and its ten principles
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Human Rights
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Labour
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Environment
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Anti-Corruption
  • Includes a measurement of outcomes
 
  • Statement of continued support by the Chief Executive Officer
  • Statement of the company's chief executive (CEO or equivalent) expressing continued support for the Global Compact and renewing the company's ongoing commitment to the initiative and its principles.

  • To our stakeholders:

    I am pleased to confirm that Firefly Konsulting reaffirms its support of the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption.

    In this annual Communication on Progress, we describe our actions to continually improve the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into our business strategy, culture and daily operations. We also commit to share this information with our stakeholders using our primary channels of communication.

    Sincerely yours,

    
Mamur Mustapha
    
Managing Director

Human Rights
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of human rights for the company (i.e. human rights risk-assessment). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on Human Rights.

  • At Firefly Konsulting, we fully endorse the clauses and principles defined and described in the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights".

    We have been encouraging (and educating) all our vendors, suppliers and clients to support the same values as described by the above stated document.

  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions to implement Human Rights policies, address Human Rights risks and respond to Human Rights violations.

  • At Firefly Konsulting we;

    * Encourage our employees, third-party consultants, vendors, suppliers and clients to report either verbally or in writing any and all violation/s, however minor, directly to the Managing Director or Project Leads without fail.

    * We have made it compulsory for all our talents i.e. employees and consultants and for our vendors and suppliers to ensure that they are not in violation of any of the clauses as described in the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

    * We already have in place an in-house, brief / guideline code for our consultants and employees which can be shared with all our present and future vendors, suppliers and clients.

    * In the previous year, we held 3 conference call sessions within the circle of our employees and consultants to get their feedback on the subject of Human Rights and how it relates to them and what their perceptions are about the subject.

    * At Firefly Konsulting, we encourage all parties that interact with us on a day-to-day basis to be the whistle-blowers should they come across any human rights violation.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates performance.

  • Our efforts towards creating the awareness of human rights within the company and with our vendors, suppliers and clients have had a positive effect on all parties concerned.

    * We don't deal with any vendors, suppliers or clients which do not share our common vision and stance about the human rights issue.

    * We have had a random audit / survey done in the last year to see if there were any reports of misconduct or something similar which were in violation of the human rights declaration.

    * We have also put in place a mechanism to report any / all human rights violations across to our legal advisers (a division of which also deals with labor laws and human rights) for taking suitable action according to the law against any violators.

    * To date no untoward incident of human rights violation has been reported. We take it as a good sign and attribute it to our efforts to educate all parties and players that we interact with.

    * We have an in-house consultant and with an assigned duty of convening bi-annually meetings to discuss the state of human rights within and outside the company and reviewing the in-house policy document on human rights.

Labour
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of labour rights for the company (i.e. labour rights-related risks and opportunities). Description of written policies, public commitments and company goals on labour rights.

  • At Firefly Konsulting, we look to the "ILO Core Conventions" as the guiding document for all the labor orientated issues and principles.

    * A brief in-house guidelines have also been developed to guide our employees, consultants, vendors, suppliers and clients.

    * Our work, project and employment contracts typically carry information which clearly defines and states the rights of the employees or consultants, their compensation plans and other benefits (if applicable).

    * We always encourage all our clients, vendors and suppliers to conform to the same principles of labor rights and laws that we do.

    * Our work typically involves white-collar operations and thus, risk very minimal labor-related risks. However, we have convene a monthly meeting with all our talents and suppliers to gauge the state of their work satisfaction and assess their needs.

    * The effort to create awareness about the labor rights is a work-in-progress at our firm, as we deal with new consultants very frequently. We aim to create a core team of in-house enablers in the coming year which can educate more people who work for us in the coming year.

  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions taken by the company to implement labour policies, address labour risks and respond to labour violations.

  • At Firefly Konsulting;

    * We have a policy of reporting any labor rights / law violation to our Project Leads and the Managing Director.

    * We continuously educate or current and new employees / consultants about the labor laws and rights and encourage them to adhere to the same.

    * All of our permanent employees have substantial health coverage / insurance and are provided healthy, clean and smoke-free environment to work in.

    * Our employee compensation plans are very competitive with the prevalent market and get revised twice a year. Our consultants too get compensated as per the existing pay-scale consume-rate with their professional experience.

    * We encourage discussions pertaining to the labor rights and laws within the community that we operate in and are always open to new / better ideas that we can implement in this regard.

    * Currently we have deputed a single in-house talent to over-see the labor law / rights education and implementation within the company.

    * A brief guidelines document (developed in-house) for labor laws and rights already exists for all the company's employees and consultants.

    * Our work does not fall into areas where we have to interact with any labor unions.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates performance.

  • At Firefly Konsulting;

    * We have a healthy mix of both male and female permanent employees i.e. 55 males:45 females. On the other hand, most of our prime consultants have been women in the last year. Both our employees and consultants come together to undertake projects in a very healthy environment, despite their different nationalities, ethnicity and cultural backgrounds. We encourage work-place diversity.

    * We have put in place a 3 step-warning mechanism to deal with any violations of the Global Compact Labor principles. The violators are warned in writing on the first occurrence of any such incident. The second violation leads to a written reprimand and monetary penalty and the third one leads to dismissal from the company.

    * To date we have not have any incident of violation or breach of the labor laws / rights. In any eventuality of such an incident in future, we have a mechanism to investigate such violations in-house and deal with the minor ones in-house through our 3 step mechanism (mentioned earlier) and refer major ones to our legal team.

    * We have had any external audit done and also intend to have one done in the coming year.

    * Our efforts to promote and encourage the labor rights and laws within the company has been positive so far. The employees and consultants enjoy the clarity on the subject of their rights, duties, roles and compensations at all times.

Environment
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of environmental protection for the company (i.e. environmental risks and opportunities). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on environmental protection.

  • At Firefly Konsulting we are very concerned about the environment as a company and as individuals. Our typical operations include very little which does any kind of major harm to the environment, as we operate in the services industry.

    * We have an in-house developed guideline document which pertains to our environment policy. This document provides the basic guidelines for all our employees, consultants, vendors, suppliers and clients.

    * We always ensure that we convey our environmental concerns to all parties that we professionally interact with encourage them to employ our creative solutions which are environment friendly.

    * We aim to get into provision of environment friendly solutions to our clients in the field of renewable energy in the coming year. This would be an extension of our policy on the environment and how we would like to protect it.

  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions to implement environmental policies, address environmental risks and respond to environmental incidents.

  • At Firefly Konsulting;

    * All our employees, consultants, vendors, suppliers and clients are kept updated (verbally or via electronic correspondence) about our stance on environmental issues.

    * We always encourage all parties that we interact with professionally to minimize wastage, practice recycling and cutting back on energy consumption.

    * We have managed to attain a paperless office environment and encourage only digital communications with all parties concerned.

    * We frequently impress upon our vendors and suppliers the need for them to get their environmental footprints assessed and addressed by competent authorities. It has been an uphill task so far but we hope to get there in future.

    * We have an in-house mechanism of conducting an environment audit i.e. by looking at the water, electricity and gas bills and calculating if we have managed to save on them by implementing a no wastage policy.

    * The environment issues are looked after directly by the Managing Director himself in the company.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates environmental performance.

  • To date, Firely Konsulting has had no environmental issues, legal cases or disasters. We have been very fortunate in this area.

    * All affairs pertaining to the environment are looked after by the Managing Director himself.

    * The company has plans to carry out third party audits once it gets into the provision of providing environment friendly solutions in the area of renewable energy.

Anti-Corruption
  • Assessment, policy and goals
  • Description of the relevance of anti-corruption for the company (i.e. anti-corruption risk-assessment). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on anti-corruption.

  • At Firefly Konsulting, we fully understand the value of "UN Convention Against Corruption" and endorse it un-conditionally.

    * The company has a zero-tolerance policy for corruption in all areas of it's operations be it financial, moral or ethical.

    * We refuse to retain any elements within our ranks who indulge in any corrupt practices within and without the company.

    * We always encourage our suppliers, vendors and clients to also adhere to the Global Compact anti-corruption principles.

    * Our aim is to discourage and report any incidents of corruption or malpractice in our dealings both in the private and particularly with the government sector.

  • Implementation
  • Description of concrete actions to implement anti-corruption policies, address anti-corruption risks and respond to incidents.

  • At Firefly Konsulting;

    * We encourage all our employees and consultants to report any incidents where they have been offered to become part of some malpractice or corruption by any other employee/s or third party vendor, supplier or client for that matter.

    * We encourage an in-house lively discussion on the subject twice a year and take feedback.

    * The Managing Director along with a manager are responsible for dealing with any incident/s which even remotely reek of corruption and have been officially reported.

    * The company has, during the last year, been part of both the government and NGOs sponsored campaigns to raise awareness about corruption and intends to participate in more such initiatives in future.

  • Measurement of outcomes
  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates anti-corruption performance.

  • At Firefly Konsulting;

    * We have a zero-tolerance policy and hence, we intend to refer all / any major incidents of our corruption to our legal advisers, if they were to happen.

    * To date we haven't had a single untoward incident which falls in the domain of corruption.

    * We intend to develop a better understanding of corruption with our ranks and amongst those that we deal with professionally through a more comprehensive guideline in future. This guideline will be shared with all our employees, consultants, vendors, suppliers and clients.