The following statements reflect how the Company, and in particular, the board of directors, have engaged with key stakeholders and explains, with any relevant examples, how the board has reached key decisions and how those decisions may have impacted the Company’s stakeholders.
The Board of Directors consideration of the requirements of Section 172(1)
The Company has held quarterly board meetings with the presence of three Executive board members (Chairman, Managing Director & Finance Director), three non-Executive Shareholder (Airbus) representative board members, one independent non-Executive board member and the Company Secretary. At the start of each Board meeting, the Chairman has reminded the Board members of the need to consider the matters contained within Section 172(1) and these matters are noted within the Board papers for regular reference.
The comprehensive board agenda contained updates relating to project delivery, workload, engineering / technology developments, employee statistics, corporate security, health & safety, IT, risk, compliance, business development & finance. The key stakeholder groups discussed and considered at board level were employees, customers, institutional bodies and the shareholder.
At the end of each board meeting, the Chairman requested all board members to reflect upon the discussion and decisions taken during the board meeting in specific reference to Section S172(1) and the matters contained therein. Each board member had the opportunity to confirm or disagree with the view that all discussions and decisions taken did consider the impact on the Company’s various stakeholders and considered the long term success of the Company.
Throughout the year, there were no detailed assessments of the impact of decisions upon the stakeholders of the Company as there were no key board level decisions made of such a nature that would have required such an assessment.
Employees
The non-Executive directors within the board of directors did not directly engage with the employees as this engagement is managed by the Executive directors and management team.
Customers
The board of directors engaged with customers in various forums. The Chairman & Managing Director both regularly engaged with key customers directly in relation to specific sales campaigns and often the Managing Director engaged with customers to discuss existing project topics. Certain non-executive members of the board interacted with customers on behalf of the Company in order to strengthen the position of the Company’s key sales campaigns. Such engagements were made at industry events and customer meetings.
Shareholder
The Executive Directors engaged with the shareholder throughout the year via the quarterly board meeting whereby the shareholder’s appointed non-Executive Directors attended and represented Airbus Group. The Executive Directors also engaged with various shareholder representatives throughout the year in areas such as finance, compliance, legal and commercial. Airbus group has enforced policies, processes & controls which require mandatory implementation within all controlled subsidiaries. Therefore, the Company is engaging on a very regular basis with the shareholder within many departments of the Company. Local Company and Airbus group level approvals are now required in many Company processes.
The financial results of the Company are reviewed at each board meeting and it is generally such key information which contributes to driving the board to make the strategic decisions of the Company.
The Executive Management’s consideration of the requirements of Section 172(1)
At a Company operational level, a quarterly Environmental Quality Management System (EQMS) review was held with the presence of the executive management team. The performance of the Company against targeted key performance indicators across a wide area of subjects was assessed in both a financial & non-financial manner. The Company held monthly project reviews and weekly executive team meetings whereby key Company operational decisions were made and noted. Throughout these various operational level reviews, the key stakeholders discussed and considered were employees, customers, suppliers, institutional bodies / external parties, the local community and the shareholder.
Employees
The executive management team continued to engage with the employees in a number of different ways including the business connection forum, which is a regular meeting held between employee representatives and management to address employee topics and concerns. The executive management team also engaged via quarterly staff updates, email and intranet communication updates.
The Company update meetings were reintroduced on a monthly basis to provide general business updates including updates from project managers, business development and service functions. A number of social events were reintroduced such as the Lunar Pathfinder mission kick-off event and the Galileo launch celebration.
Customers
The Company engaged with existing customers at project level and each project had an appointed project manager who interacted with each customer project manager throughout the year. The customer’s progress, schedule and overall satisfaction were closely monitored with resolution actions determined during monthly project reviews. The executive management team attended the monthly project reviews and endorsed the agreed actions in order to satisfy customers’ needs during the period. Resources were prioritised or reallocated as determined during the project reviews.
Suppliers
A number of new key subcontractors were awarded contracts in relation to the securing of new missions and the Company placed many new orders with component and equipment suppliers in preparation of future satellite manufacturing.
The Company on-boarded 45 new SME’s, representing 1/3 of all new suppliers on-boarded. In the second half of the year, the Company paid 95% of its supply chain within 60 days as part of its payment practices reporting.
In March 2021 and May 2022, the Company updated and published its Modern Slavery Act Statement for the years 2020 and 2021. This statement sets out the Company’s policies & processes, actions taken in prior years & the future action plans to help ensure there is no slavery or human trafficking within the operations & supply chain of the Company. The Company retains an unquestionable commitment to this endeavour.
Local Community
In May 2021, the Company’s Charity Committee resumed engagement, commencing with an employee engagement survey, including a request for new members to the committee. In September 2021, a Macmillan coffee morning event was organised on the Company’s premises by the Charity Committee, raising donations for Macmillan.
Further events planned during the festive period were suspended due to concerns around rising Coronavirus cases in the UK at that time.
Members of the Company engaged with the public during the World Space Week event in October 2021 in Guildford. The Space industry, skills and careers were all promoted during this event.