We are incredibly proud of our policies around business ethics, social welfare, privacy, and security. We have these in place to ensure that all our business dealings are conducted appropriately, and work to guarantee a high level of service, while sticking to industry standards and expectations, and cultivating a positive work ethos and culture.
We understand that these are things we are constantly working on, and are actively updating and improving as to ensure the best service and experience for those we work with, and those who work for us.
Our Code of Business Ethics
While adhering to separate regularity and voluntary policies, a tailored Code of Business Ethics fundamentally informs how we function as a company.
We are entirely staffed by independent consultants, and thus afford an ultimate respect for that person’s time. Consistently aiming to provide a flexibility that functions to avoid some of the stresses of more typical working environments, is core to our ethos. We are incredibly conscious of everyones complex lives, connections and obligations outside of work and the company aims to always accommodate that. This ultimately constitutes a company and working environment predicated on trust, integrity, compassion, and collaboration.
We operate on an innate professionalism and a fundamental pride in our work to ensure high quality services are always provided to our clients.
Voluntary work, pro bono work and discounted charity work is a key facet of what we do. We do not view this as something that happens to occur on the side of our main mission, but an intrinsic detail of our ethos. The majority of our consultants engage in some sort of social welfare work and there are and always have been various projects and initiatives completed company-wide in aid of social responsibility and raising social consciousness.
Our Anti-Bribery and Ant-Corruption policy
At The Comms Crowd it is our policy to conduct all of our business in an honest and ethical manner. We take a zero-tolerance approach to bribery and corruption and are committed to acting professionally, fairly and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships, from clients to suppliers. All consultants must comply with the UK Bribery Act 2010 and other applicable laws in all jurisdictions in which we operate.
All members of our team are strongly encouraged to report and discuss any instances that may violate the above, from gifts, hospitality, facilitation payments, donations, to sponsorships, and are acutely aware that disciplinary action will be taken if there is any violation of the policy.
Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy
At The Comms Crowd, we believe that when people feel respected and heard, not only do they work best, but produce results they are proud of. Prioritising this in the work environment, enables us to continue to execute on this belief, improve upon and further inform our current standards, and ensure we continue to contribute to ensuring the industry becomes increasingly more diverse and inclusive.
We are aware of the status quo as it pertains to diversity and inclusion across the FinTech and marketing industries and thus consciously work to do far better with our own diversity goals.
Currently we out-perform all key industry metrics on gender, race, minimum wage and pay gap by some considerable margin, and it is central to our ethos to continue to do so.
Our Information Security policy
At The Comms Crowd it is our policy to protect the company’s information assets, ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, and comply with relevant legal and regulatory requirements, such as the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This policy applies to all those who access or manage The Comms Crowd’s information systems and data.
We operate a system where access to any given document is authorised based on relevant seniority and need. Given, again, our work is done by consultants it is not up to The Comms Crowd to dictate how individuals manage their devices and property. However, all those who work on our accounts, are not only experienced professionals, but are aware and understand how serious we take Information Security. There is a company wide understanding that a failure to work to these standards will result in disciplinary action.
Our Privacy policy
This privacy policy is intended to explain how we gather, store and use your information.
Business and media
Our website does not collect or compile any personal information. As appropriate to a comms agency we securely source (via Response Source and Roxhill) and hold basic contact information (name, work email, work telephone number, job title, desk, publication) for those media and analysts relevant to our clients, whom we contact when we have stories we believe to be of interest. We try very hard to ensure all our media outreach is accurately targeted and make it a matter of pride to never spam journalists with irrelevant stories.
When a business or client contacts us they may choose to provide us with relevant information (name, work email, work telephone number, job title and company). And we may gather this same information from appropriate trade shows etc. if we come across a business that we think is a good fit for our services. The information is used for the purposes for which it was provided at the point of submission / collection and is not shared or sold beyond our company.
The legal basis for processing this information is based on our legitimate interest to do so in accordance with the context of our work and in which it was provided.
Excluding outreach to media, we do not send any form of widespread marketing communication on our own behalf or of that of our clients. However, should any business or media not want to hear from us or our clients we can be contacted via sam@commscrowd.com and we will immediately remove your data from our system.
Job applications
Should you want to work with The Crowd you are invited to provide us with information about yourself, including educational and employment background; job or career interest data; and other information relevant to a potential role within the company. But we ask that you do not send us or disclose any sensitive personal information.
Security
To prevent unauthorised access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the correct use of information, we have implemented generally accepted standards of physical, electronic and operational procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
Disclosure
The Comms Crowd will not sell or share your information with any third party. But we may disclose information to government bodies and law enforcement agencies where this is necessary to meet the purpose for which you submitted the information, or where we are required to do so by law.
Storage
The personal information you submit to us will only be retained for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected as outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is permitted or required by law.
Data controller details
The Comms Crowd is registered at 49 Birchen Grove Wembley London NW9 8RY, Company Number 08153306 and holds appropriate business insurance. We have a legal obligation to ensure that your information is kept accurate and up to date. So please inform us of any changes. You have the right to request details of the information we hold about you and to delete or rectify any inaccurate information by sending a written request to sam@commscrowd.com.
If you have a serious concern about how we handle your information, or you would like to lodge a complaint, you may do so by contacting The Information Commissioner’s Office.
Our Sustainability policy
At The Comms Crowd we recognise our responsibility to operate in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner. This policy outlines our commitment to reducing our environmental impact, contributing positively to the communities we serve, and promoting sustainable business practices.
We have never had an office, as a result, we are intrinsically sustainable. We do not have jurisdiction over the places our independent consultants work (this is their prerogative as people who work for themselves). Our very business model founded in 2012, was formulated with the positives of its sustainability in mind, and we are intent for this to continue to be the case.
Given we are cloud-based, this works to decrease wastage drastically. There are no commuting costs to the environment, there is little to no paper trail, let alone energy consumption on heating an office etc. We are always working to improve our individual supplier selection and ethical sourcing processes, and we actively contribute to the well-being of the communities in which we operate by participating in or supporting local environmental, social, and charitable initiatives.
