Turn your expertise toward focused sustainability: Teleperformance, ESG, and CSR

• Award Recipient

  Teleperformance

• Accolade

  

  Finalist

• Category

  

  Sustainability

• What put this entry on the shortlist

  More and more of Teleperformance’s clients are enquiring about how they can partner to reduce their collective ESG impact, for example, how to grow and expand a contact center operation while still reducing emissions footprints. The firm works on consortium boards, including those on sourcing with a view to sustainability. The Teleperformance approach of addressing its own sustainability while leveraging its expertise for clients and broader CSR sustainability efforts is something all consulting, technology, and services firms must emulate. Many are well on their way. Our recent Ecosystem Mapping Study found that many aim to embed sustainability “natively” within their portfolios, but it’s a problem that these efforts are still under development rather than being implemented programs. Given the scale and pace of sustainability transition required, all organizations must rapidly roadmap their internal and ecosystem sustainability toward decarbonization and the 17 UN Goals.

The Situation: No one can solve all of sustainability on their own. Every individual, organization, and industry must align under the global context of decarbonization and the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Teleperformance demonstrates how consulting, technology, and service providers must find their role: Know what you do well, and address sustainability internally and with your clients.

Teleperformance (TP) has made its name in business process outsourcing (BPO) developing depth and breadth in customer contact center operations, but its impact is wider. It is winning accolades across the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors comprising sustainability, and it can justify this praise. Quantitative outcomes simultaneously addressing business value and sustainability are matched with validation by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). All consulting, technology, and services firms can and must follow suit. Teleperformance’s sustainability story outlines the technology and services industry’s move from dealing with its organizations’ internal sustainability—hoping to win CDP or Dow Jones accreditation, for example—toward embedding sustainability throughout portfolios, combining it with established expertise, and taking it to existing and new clients (while still hoping for the accolades).

We spoke with the team from Teleperformance, that was selected as a finalist for the Sustainability category of the HFS Research OneOffice™ Awards based on the firm’s internal ESG and corporate social responsibility (CSR) achievements, non-profit work, and journey embedding sustainability in client engagements.

The Solution: The Teleperformance approach to sustainability addresses its organizational sustainability and leverages its scale and expertise for external sustainability

Teleperformance’s CSR and ESG initiatives have been active for more than a decade, and it has embedded sustainability into its employee training efforts. Employee wellbeing and diversity, corporate governance and data security, and positively impacting communities are the three pillars of the strategy that won Teleperformance “best employer” awards in 60 countries (covering 98% of its workforce). It is a top 25 employer globally. An impact sourcing program is a standout highlight (primarily addressing the social element of ESG): It hires refugees and people with disabilities through partnerships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that identify and train candidates. More than 70,000 members of the Teleperformance workforce have come through this program, resulting in a diverse talent pool.

Teleperformance developed an SBTi-validated emissions-reduction target of 49% (which it must underpin with a detailed roadmap as a criterium for validation) per FTE by 2026. It was also the first BPO company to join the Climate Pledge, aiming to reach net-zero emissions by 2040 (10 years before the 2050 Paris Agreement target). A 25% renewable energy sourcing target is in place for 2023. See our separate take on the importance of transition roadmaps in 2022 for the global sustainability effort.

The Results: Transitioning a traditionally brick-and-mortar enterprise to seamless remote operations required a focused view of Teleperformance’s strengths and the global context

Teleperformance’s working from home (WFH) solution TP Cloud Campus allowed employees to operate remotely during the pandemic, with significant impact. TP Cloud Campus covers critical areas like employee training, technology solutions, and data protection. The reduced need to commute and consume onsite energy has led to an average 55% reduction in emissions per employee. Teleperformance has eliminated daily commutes for approximately 70% of its 420,000-strong workforce working remotely. Other standout learnings include how in regulated industries, that saw an average of 1% WFH pre-pandemic, Teleperformance is now seeing clients that want to remain with majority remote outsourced operations having overcome concerns around productivity, safety, and security. Volunteer work also leverages the firm’s expertise, as do its donations of money, time, and technology. Teleperformance has helped countries handle dedicated COVID phone and processing lines on a pro-bono basis.

The Bottom Line: Not everyone will create organizational-level sustainability strategies. What matters, however, is that every organization and leader within knows how to align with the global context

More and more of Teleperformance’s clients are enquiring about how they can partner to reduce their collective ESG impact, for example, how to grow and expand a contact center operation while still reducing emissions footprints. The firm works on consortium boards, including those on sourcing with a view to sustainability. The Teleperformance approach of addressing its own sustainability while leveraging its expertise for clients and broader CSR sustainability efforts is something all consulting, technology, and services firms must emulate. Many are well on their way. Our recent Ecosystem Mapping Study found that many aim to embed sustainability “natively” within their portfolios, but it’s a problem that these efforts are still under development rather than being implemented programs. Given the scale and pace of sustainability transition required, all organizations must rapidly roadmap their internal and ecosystem sustainability toward decarbonization and the 17 UN Goals.