Corporate Social Responsibility

ARM considers itself to be a good corporate citizen and continually strives to improve its performance in this area. The Group aims to reduce the impact it makes on the environment and to make positive connections with the communities in which it operates. Considerable efforts are made to communicate effectively with the Group’s shareholders, Partners, suppliers and employees.

Achievements

ARM was techMARK Company of the Year in 2007 where the judges recognised that ARM has “harnessed its technological achievements and produced sound commercial and financial success. The award also acknowledges analyst and investor recognition of ARM as well as its outstanding long-term growth potential and strategy to ensure successful delivery of its commercial advantages and to build shareholder value”.

Chief Executive Officer, Warren East was voted UK Business Leader of the Year at the 2007 National Business Awards, in recognition of being “an outstanding individual who has demonstrated exceptional leadership and vision under whose stewardship the organisation has significantly improved performance for its stakeholders – employees, customers, suppliers and shareholders”.

ARM was named as Business of the Year in 2007 at the European Business Awards. The judges commented that “ARM demonstrated an innovative growth strategy, strong financial performance and sustained market leadership in the industry sector”. They were particularly impressed with ARM’s strong market share in the mobile industry and the partnerships with some of the world’s leading technology companies. The European Business Awards is a completely independent programme designed to recognise and celebrate business excellence across the 25 territories of the EU.

The environment

ARM designs the technology at the heart of low-power products across a whole range of application areas from mobile phones to cars, consumer electronics and toys. Intelligence within its low-power IP cores can be used to measure, manage and control the environmental performance of consumer electronics and IT equipment, while improving their functional performance and reducing their carbon footprint. Additionally, ARM can leverage its Connected Community™ of Partners to provide complete low-power solutions for products based on the ARM architecture.

The Group’s activities do not produce harmful waste or emissions and the Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS) grades ARM as an environmentally “low impact” business. Nevertheless, environmental performance is monitored to enable targets to be set, for example reducing resource usage, increasing the amount recycled and controlling carbon emissions through energy use.

A global environmental impact study of the Group’s operations has been undertaken, covering inputs, processes and outputs. This has provided data upon which to base plans and targeted improvements. For example, electricity supplies for our Cambridge offices are now 100% renewable and the application of a greener policy on energy procurement will be extended to other ARM locations where practicable. In 2007 the Group again demonstrated an increase in paper and packaging recycling and improved facilities to promote recycling of these and other materials, including aluminium cans. Air conditioning systems run on non-ozone-depleting refrigerants.

The environmental impact of travel is carefully considered. The supply of company cars is discouraged and in a Group of more than 1,700 people, there are fewer than 30 company cars. Employees are encouraged to cycle to work through the provision of improved facilities at the Group’s offices, to share car journeys, or to use public transport. Consistent with local custom and practice, we provide bus transport for employees in Bangalore so that we do not add to local traffic problems and the environmental impact of individual travel to work. Business travel is important in maintaining ARM’s very effective partnership network but ways in which it can be reduced are regularly reviewed and, where possible, travel is reduced through the use of video conferencing equipment. Data regarding flights is being benchmarked with a view to reducing business travel, to the extent compatible with ensuring that good business relationships are maintained.

Building upon the work carried out with the British Safety Council and Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA), the Group has developed an internal audit process for all of its offices worldwide with regard to health and safety issues, environmental objectives and performance. ARM continues to work with suppliers and service providers to minimise environmental impact, wherever practicable, in the provision of facilities and infrastructure for ARM’s business operations. ARM has adopted LRQA’s Business Assurance approach involving twice-yearly themed audits which provide an independent assessment of the ARM Management System and the various review procedures in place within the Group. The themed audit approach enables LRQA to verify compliance with ISO9001:2000 and components of other relevant ISO standards.

Connecting with communities

The Group aims to be a good corporate citizen of the communities in which it operates and participates in networking and support initiatives. ARM has established relationships with the local business community in Cambridge and is a founding member of The Learning Collaboration (TLC) within the business community in the UK. The TLC enables member companies to pool resources to collaborate to learn, improving the quality, availability and value of training and related services.

ARM is also a founder member of the Cambridge Network whose aim is “to link like minded people from business and academia to each other and to the global high technology community for the benefit of the Cambridge region”.

ARM is a founding sponsor of the Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network – an organisation which seeks to promote collaboration and the sharing of knowledge throughout the UK electronics industry in order to harness and promote the sector’s global potential.

Supporting education

ARM’s support for education stretches to financial sponsorship of science/IT-related education initiatives, donations of redundant computer equipment to schools and education charities, working on extra-curricular engineering projects with school and college students and working on specific projects with students at management schools.

The Group supports the Engineering Education Scheme, Young Engineers and Young Enterprise. ARM’s University Programme directly engages with universities worldwide, designing course material, providing technical seminars, donating equipment and software and offering assistance to students. ARM has now engaged with universities in nearly every region of the world, including the EU, North and South America, Australia, China and Japan. With a growing demand in India for engineers, ARM has recently hired a university programme manager for the region. This reflects ARM’s commitment to help universities produce graduates with the necessary skills that its Partners need.

Supporting good causes

ARM encourages employees to support their local communities. Some are school governors, some mentor young people, some organise events to raise money, others support charities directly. In India, ARM employees have organised blood donor sessions. In the US, ARM employees have supported a variety of charitable organisations including those supporting sufferers of leukaemia and lymphoma, cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and AIDS. The Group “doubles the efforts” of employees who raise money for approved charities by matching the funds they raise (with the exception of political donations or other non-approved causes). Charities supporting sufferers of heart disease, Alzheimers, colitis and Crohn’s disease, the Air Ambulance and the Samaritans have been some of the beneficiaries of this scheme.

Connecting with employees

ARM’s aim is to attract and retain the best people available by being a good and ethical employer. The skills, knowledge and motivation of employees are crucial to ARM’s success. The Group promotes and supports individuals and teams through on-the-job and formal training, coaching and mentoring. A comprehensive portfolio of learning and development opportunities is available to all employees, depending upon their needs and career aspirations. Every effort is made to keep employees well informed about the Group and matters that affect them. This is achieved through both formal and informal communication methods across all offices worldwide and includes employee consultation groups in regions where they are culturally appropriate. The Group also carries out a regular, comprehensive global opinion survey to monitor employee views and to provide valuable input on how the Group operates. The Employee Assistance Programme helps staff and their families with issues such as care for children or elderly relatives, legal and health advice and stress or other counselling.

Equal opportunities

The Group needs highly-qualified staff and does not see age, colour, disability, ethnic origin, gender, political or other opinion, religion or sexual orientation as a barrier to employment. If any member of staff becomes disabled, their needs and abilities are assessed with a view to them continuing in their current role. If this is impossible, every effort is made to offer them alternative employment.

Benefits

Employees receive benefits including private medical/healthcare; health, travel and life insurance; pensions/401k plan; sabbaticals; flexible working; restricted shares under the employee equity plan and the opportunity to buy shares through savings schemes. The Group supports family-friendly initiatives and offers a child care voucher scheme for UK tax payers. Flexible working arrangements are available for all employees, regardless of whether they have children. Understanding and acceptance of national and cultural diversity is encouraged by giving employees the opportunity to work in offices other than in their home country, where appropriate.

Accessibility

The Group endeavours to provide access to all whether through building design to allow easy disabled access or through improving access to our website for those with visual impairments.

Health and safety

The safety and welfare of employees, contractors and visitors is a priority. ARM measures and analyses all accidents and “near misses” as part of its continuous improvement in this area. This data, along with sickness data, is monitored to ensure trends are understood and action taken to reduce these occurrences. To date ARM has had no serious issues and retains a very low accident rate. Despite the low-risk nature of its operations, ARM aims to provide a safe, secure and sustainable working environment for all employees and stakeholders.

The Group’s UK offices are audited by the British Safety Council and, as the UK legislative framework is seen as one of the most developed in the world, ARM has adopted this as a corporate standard in health and safety provision to all sites worldwide. To this end, the British Safety Council was engaged to audit its two largest sites outside the UK in 2006; Sunnyvale, California and Bangalore, India. Building on the results of this, ARM has now developed a global internal audit system, which enables the implementation of a consistent programme of health and safety provision worldwide. In the UK, there is a health and safety committee and all other ARM offices have fire wardens and first aiders. Health and safety is high on the agenda and there has been an increase in the amount of communication with employees particularly on occupational health matters. Health and safety issues are communicated through different media including the intranet and an extensive health and safety workshop is run as part of the Group’s induction process.

Business continuity planning

The Group has developed disaster recovery plans for all of its operations worldwide, regardless of their size, to enablebusiness to continue should a serious event or incident occur. These plans are designed to protect the interests of ARM’s stakeholders – people, property and other assets – and to provide facilities and infrastructure to reinstate business operations as quickly as possible after the event.

Patricia Alsop
Company Secretary