The team of 11 has been awarded the accolade based on the company’s commitment to being socially responsible, which reinforces everything that it does. The team has established two community initiatives Cambridge 2030 and FXP Festival, the latter of which is now a registered charity. Alongside this, the team nominates a charity of the year to which pro-bono services are provided to an estimated value of £20,000; charities that have been selected in the past include Wood Green, Red Balloon, Blue Smile and The Cogwheel Trust. Each team member also benefits from the agency’s volunteer programme, where they receive two paid days each year to volunteer at a charity of their choice.
Alison Taylor, Managing Director at Conscious Communications, said: “It is a real honour for Conscious Communications to be externally recognised for its focus on social responsibility. From the moment of start-up, we were determined to prove that a company ‘with a conscience’, that puts people and planet before profit, can thrive commercially. The way our business operates reflects our beliefs and values, while echoing the need for every organisation to maximise its positive contribution to the world. These values have been developed jointly by our team and we all take responsibility for using them as an anchor, ensuring they underpin everything that we do – from our pledge to go above and beyond for our clients to the voluntary work that we undertake.”
Aligning the team’s skills, experience and passions with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, the agency focuses its work primarily in education, charity, health and wellbeing and sustainability, to ensure that the efforts of the agency’s work are being effectively directed into areas where it will have positive impact.
This isn’t the first time that the agency has been recognised by Investors in People. In 2018, the team achieved the Gold accreditation – an accolade not previously awarded to an agency of its size. The agency will be seeking re-accreditation in 2021.
Taylor said: “We have built a growing business that provides clients with value for money, invests in its staff and generates sufficient income to be able to invest time and money in developing community initiatives as well as supporting established charities. While we delight in how well we are doing, it is the doing good that we are really most proud of, and we hope we can influence other small businesses to do the same. We could not be prouder to be named the winner of The Social Responsibility Award by Investors in People - it cements what we already knew but now the world does too - that we put people and planet above all else.”