Overview
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the way in which businesses regulate themselves in order to ensure that all of their activities positively affect society as a whole. CSR therefore aims to guarantee that companies work ethically by considering the social, economic and environmental impacts of business practices. Maxwell Hodge is committed to ensuring that all business practices and procedures are conducted as ethically as possible. We summarise our CSR Policy below.
Looking after Employees
One of the company’s main priorities is to retain loyal and productive staff, which is achieved through maintaining a good working environment by:
- Being an Equal Opportunities Employer
- Having adequate health and safety policies and procedures in place
- Conducting annual formal appraisals and performance reviews
- Providing training and development opportunities
- Regularly communicating with staff
- Annually reviewing salaries
- Having teambuilding exercises
- Supporting employee wellbeing
Looking after Clients
Looking after clients is vital to ensure that they have a positive and lasting impression of the company. We are committed to assessing whether there are any gaps between customer expectation and experience, focusing on making improvements to continue meeting client demands and needs.
Suppliers’ Standards
It is vital to ensure that we use good suppliers and maintain a good working relationship with them. This means only working with suppliers that adhere to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and operate in line with the Bribery Act 2010. In addition, it is preferable to use local suppliers, as and when, and to use suppliers that operate with similar business practices to ourselves to protect the environment, for example, reducing waste as much as possible and using recycled items. Suppliers and contracts are regularly reviewed by the Business Support Team to ensure that we continue to be efficient and cost-effective.
Protecting the Environment
We are committed to reducing the environmental impact that our business activities may have. This includes reducing waste consumption, particularly through recycling and reusing office supplies, where possible, for example, reducing our use of single use plastic. All offices have their rubbish collected and recycled, through either B&M Waste Services or Sefton Council.
Protection of the environment is also achieved by encouraging staff to walk, cycle, car share or use public transport as much as possible.
All our Teams are “paper light”, which has not only reduced the amount that we print but also significantly reduced the time input for filing documents as well as supporting us to continue with homeworking long term.
Community Engagement
Due to the geographical location of our offices, we sit squarely within the communities within which we practice. Our clients largely emanate from those communities. One of the messages that we promote is “in the heart of the community”. It has long been our practice to give back to our local community, via a number of initiatives.
Employer Supported Volunteering
We provide opportunities for employees to volunteer and support charitable organisations during work time, through volunteering leave as employees can use 2 days each year for volunteering. Employees may already engage in volunteering, so can support their organisation more often or can look at other charities to support.
Legal Advice Clinics
We offer the community advice and support, on a pro bono basis. The advice clinics are being offered at Liverpool John Moores University and Edge Hill University providing advice and assistance within the Civil Litigation legal clinics that they host. By nurturing the next generation of lawyers, we can offer the community access to legal advice and access to justice.
School and College Initiatives
We offer local schools and colleges support by participating in practice interviews, meet the professionals and career fairs. This support is invaluable to students as many will have never experienced attending an interview.
Charity of the Year
Each year we nominate a charity to work with, and support, not only arranging fund raising events but also working with members, using our skills to assist, including providing seminars and training.
Community Projects
Whenever we can, we support local projects, for example, donating food to local animal shelters, and by making donations of money, food and toiletry items to foodbanks. We have supported schools by providing raffle prizes and have also participated in the Liverpool Legal Walk, helping raise funds for the Access to Justice Foundation. In addition to donating items, we try to put businesses in touch with one another to provide services either free of charge or cheaper.
Team Sponsorship
We have sponsored a number of teams across the Liverpool region by providing kits and trophies, and attending awards events. We are currently supporting ESC Barca, an U8’s football team. We have recently provided kits for the team. We continue to consider opportunities for sponsorship which sits with the ethos of Maxwell Hodge.
Networking Events
We host a business networking event “Simply Castle Street”. These events are held at a wide and varied selection of businesses, allowing them to showcase themselves. Events remain free of charge. We have developed close working relationships with a number of those who regularly attend. See our Networking page for upcoming events.
Dream High Network
Dream High is an organisation whose goal is to support and promote growth in small businesses local to our offices. We are part of the Dream High Business Panel, who meet monthly to discuss new businesses, which are in need of feedback, constructive advice and connections. Our Civil Litigation Team volunteer their time to attend these meetings.
