Verizon communicates clearly but doesn’t complete the picture By Kristina Babbitt
As a broadband and telecoms company, Verizon should communicate effectively and clearly – and its most recent corporate responsibility report does not disappoint.
It is available as web pages and as a 64-page downloadable PDF. Both versions, although substantial, manage to tell Verizon’s story in a refreshingly straightforward and clear way, and the volume of information is never overwhelming. The main weaknesses are in the data and performance sections.
The report starts with a strong section called Holding Ourselves Accountable. This summarises progress in each of the company’s five corporate responsibility principles: ethics and governance, partnering with communities, empowering employees, service and innovation, and protecting the environment.
In the same style as Vodafone’s report, the information is broken down into three columns, “What we said we would do”, “What we did” and “What we will do” and gets straight to the facts. You could read this section alone and get a solid understanding of the company’s corporate responsibility efforts.
The stakeholder engagement section also impresses, with charts and graphs depicting the findings from interviews with 75 external stakeholders. Integrating this feedback throughout the rest of the report would have been even more compelling.
Verizon has a good reputation for its community involvement and the report does a nice job of illustrating its work. This includes anti-domestic-violence efforts, which the company has supported since an employee was murdered by her husband in 2001.
Admirable, but curious
In the section titled Keeping Pace with the Challenges, Verizon identifies three emerging issues for the company.
The first two – keeping the network and their customers secure, and managing electronic waste – are straightforward. More curious is “closing the ethnic healthcare gap”, which means that ethnic minorities are in “poorer health, suffer worse health outcomes and have higher morbidity and mortality rates than Caucasians”.
This feels like a catch-all section for issues that don’t fit neatly under Verizon’s five core principles. This is slightly concerning in the case of network security, which most stakeholders would consider to be a priority issue for a company like Verizon. On the other hand, while ethnic healthcare is undoubtedly an important and worthy cause, it’s not really clear why it should be a priority for the company.
Verizon shows a steadfast commitment to its employees and conducted an impressive four “pulse” surveys of employees’ views during 2009. Unfortunately it has only published results to two questions, both of which were extremely favourable to the company. This selective reporting suggests a lack of transparency and undermines the credibility of this section.
More analysis
Verizon’s reporting on safety data would have been stronger with more analysis of the numbers, particularly for those metrics where the company’s performance has declined.
For example, the occupational injuries and illness rate has jumped from 1.69 per 100 employees in 2008 to 2.20 in 2009 – but we’re not told why. There were two fatalities in 2009 but again no information is given on the causes. Verizon deserves kudos for publishing difficult data, but by failing to discuss causes or explain what it plans in response, the report leaves readers guessing.
The company doesn’t stretch itself in its environmental reporting either. CO2 emissions data doesn’t include emissions from base stations. For a typical mobile company, most energy is used in the network, so this is a big omission. Verizon Wireless accounts for a large portion of the business.
There is good data on the amount of telecommunications equipment recycled and on how many mobile phone batteries have been reclaimed, but nothing on the environmental impacts of Verizon’s supply chain.
Verizon displays a solid understanding of how it can use its technology to help customers reduce their own environmental impact. The report includes some good examples of this, including Verizon’s involvement in smart grid pilot projects to improve the efficiency of the electricity system. It would be great to see some of the results in future reports.
The report’s photography is honest and truly reflects the content in the document. There are multiple images of actual Verizon employees, a practice which, these days, amid mass redundancies, seems to be less popular. Using these photos adds both confidence and charm.
Kristina Babbitt is a consultant for Context America
kristina@contextamerica.com
www.contextamerica.com