Corporate Social Responsibility

ZXM takes its responsibility as a global thought leader seriously.

Our policies and procedures take careful consideration of the financial, environmental, and social impacts the decisions of all staff make – from the Board of Directors to our consultants and office staff – and the effects it has on the community.

2025 Strategy

2025 strategy sees an increased focus on diversity in our supply chains, including businesses operated by indigenous people. 

• In Australia, the strategy focuses on looking for opportunities to support Aboriginal and other socially disadvantaged groups in all states.
• In the Americas, ZXM’s strategy focuses on support for America’s most vulnerable communities to improve child wellbeing.
• For ZXM’s work with clients in the EU, our strategy focuses on prompting social enterprise and supporting local partnerships. 

Social Procurement

Supporting disadvantaged groups, including Aboriginal people and those with disabilities

All employees of ZXM have a responsibility towards building a culturally and socially inclusive workplace, encouraging and supporting the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander candidates. All employees of ZXM have a responsibility to build and embrace relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander suppliers, external organisations, clients, and with potential employees.

We are committed to supporting businesses who directly support and impact the lives of disadvantaged groups, including Aboriginal people, those with physical or mental disabilities, the long-term unemployed, or disengaged youth.

We have set a target of 10% procurement of goods and services from these businesses by 2025.

Plan and actions

• Local reviews by Consultant Development Team on businesses that meet the target areas on a quarterly basis.
• Financial viability and risk study by the Chief Operating Officer submitted to the Board on a quarterly basis.

Target areas for 2025 include:

• Catering.
• Marketing and social media.
• Recyclable office supplies.
• Printing.
• Support for corporate functions, including workshops and conferences.

Supporting ethically responsible organisations

Superannuation

ZXM’s policy for Social Procurement extends to its preferred superannuation partner, Future Super, an Australian ethical superannuation company.

When contractors and staff do not have a preferred Superannuation provider, ZXM will recommend Future Super.

Plan and actions

The Board will:

• Review Future Super as the preferred superannuation provider on an annual cycle.
• Consider other ethical organisations to be included as preferred providers. 

Supporting our local communities

ZXM is a small business at heart. Our staff have a passion for being involved in the communities that helped our reputation for high-quality consulting services. Being part of this community, we’re know it’s our responsibility to support and contribute to its development.

Our support is given directly through undertaking special projects on a pro bono basis, presenting at conferences in our local and global communities of practice, and donating 5% of our net-profits to local non-profits and charities in the cities that we operate on a financial year cycle.

Environmental Sustainability

Supporting the Planet

ZXM acknowledges that climate science says humankind has caused global warming and, with it, disruption to the environment and society.

From 2020, as a part of our commitment to combat climate change, ZXM’s operations run exclusively from renewable energy sources, including solar, with a target carbon footprint of net-zero emissions by 2025.

Sustainable Business Practices

Neither ZXM or its Board invests in companies that support or invest in fossil fuels.

ZXM’s energy for its offices are supplied from 100% renewable energy sources.

Plan and actions

• Enact the following from Jan 2020 with a target of 100% compliance by 2025.
• ZXM’s workshops and training courses use entirely recycled materials.
• TerraCycle is used by ZXM to dispose of pens and Sharpies.
• ZXM’s workshops and training courses don’t use printed workbooks.
• ZXM recycles all of its IT equipment, including mobile phones, laptops, computers and monitors through government approved recycling centres.
• Printing ink cartridges are recycled through PlanetArk.
• ZXM, its staff, and contractors, must offset any air travel through a carbon offset program verified by the Australian government’s National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS).
• ZXM has committed to reducing its plastic consumption by 50% by 2025.
• Only those contractors and suppliers who demonstrate a commitment to environmental sustainability – including a commitment to carbon reduction and recycling – are engaged by ZXM.

Inclusive Employment Practices

All employees of ZXM have a responsibility towards building a culturally and socially inclusive workplace, encouraging and supporting the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander candidates.

For employment in ZXM, you must demonstrate inclusive employment practices for people from disadvantaged groups, including Aboriginal, and people with physical or mental disabilities in a weighted framework.

ZXM has a formal monitoring and oversight framework that assesses progress toward inclusive employment targets. This oversight includes assessing the current level of support people need to perform their very best.

Importantly, the framework acknowledges the value of diversity in our staff, their weaknesses, and their strengths, relative to the impacts our business vision seeks – to improve the work lives of 1M people by 2025.

Performance is formally assessed every 6 months by ZXM’s Chief Operating Officer and, where underperformance is identified, support activities are initiated with oversight from the Consultant Scrum Team’s Scrum Master.

People with disabilities

ZXM’s support for people with disabilities encompasses three areas:

1. Inclusivity – ensuring Consultant Scrum Masters support staff with disabilities to engage at all levels of the organisation and have equal voice, particularly in Consultant Scrum Team events.
2. Wellbeing – that people’s mental and physical health is monitored Sprint-to-Sprint by Consultant Scrum Masters and, where needed, they understand the support available to them through leave and other entitlements. Staff receive an additional week of leave if they take time off work iteratively throughout the year in support of their mental and physical wellbeing.
3. Contributing lives – that the work identified by Consultant Product Owners is meaningful and contributes to our vision of 1M working lives improved by 2025.

Plan and actions

Review and revise requirements on disability and submit to recruitment partners at the conclusion of each quarter for use in following quarter’s consultant recruitment initiative.

ZXM has a target of 5% for recruitment and retention of people from disadvantaged groups, including those with mental disabilities or are neurodivergent.

As of 2024, 30% of our staff come from disadvantaged groups.

Gender Equality

ZXM promotes a gender equal organisational culture.

In onboarding new people to ZXM, the Chief Operating Officer and Consultant Scrum Masters in teams are responsible for building awareness of the importance of gender equality to ZXM, building respectful relationships, talking about gender inequality, gender stereotypes, and violence against women, and reinforcing the need for all ZXM staff, contractors and suppliers to being open to doing things differently and committed to taking action to build a fairer workplace.

Our Board of Directors was established in 2010 with a 50% gender balance.

In 2020, our female gender balance target of 35% was exceeded by 12%.

Our new target of 50% by 2025 was achieved in 2022.

Plan and actions

Provide new requirements on gender equality and equity to recruitment partners by June 2023.

Supporting Safe Workplaces

ZXM promotes a safe system of work for its staff, contractors and suppliers, to ensure that people are not exposed to avoidable risks, hazards, and potential incidents.

Consultant Scrum Masters are responsible for assessing client workplaces to identify risks, or potential risks, and ensure appropriate safeguards are put in place in coordination with our clients to address them. Specifically, because most people in ZXM conduct most of their work at their desks at a client site, occupational health and workplace safety is of paramount concern.

On first starting an engagement with a new client or a new site, consultants are expected to:

• Work with their Consultant Scrum Masters to undertake an OHS assessment regarding the suitability of workstations, monitor positions and chairs.
• Share the results with ZXM.
• Work with the client to action recommendations.
• Escalate issues to the Consultant Scrum Master where OHS remain.

Feeling safe regardless of culture, gender, disability or age

ZXM promotes an environment that is safe for people: where there is no assault,
challenge or denial of their identity, of who they are and what they need. We promote and expect our people to have a shared respect, shared meaning, shared knowledge and experience of learning, living and working together with dignity.

The COO is responsible for creating an environment in the Consultant Scrum Teams where:

• Feeling safe is built not only creating cultural awareness of each others’ needs, but incorporating cultural values into the design, delivery and evaluation of ZXM’s services.
• Feeling safe is built not by individuals, but rather involves the whole team and the whole system of work.
• Feeling safe extends to all levels of ZXM’s service delivery, monitoring and accountability, and client engagement.

Monitoring our targets and accountability

The Board is accountable for setting ZXM’s policies on corporate social responsibilities. The CEO is responsible for establishing targets and auctioning them in collaboration with the Chief Operating Officer.

The Board will assess progress toward ZXM’s targets on a quarterly basis.

With regards to ZXM’s Social and Sustainable Procurement targets, the Board will review ZXM’s financial position each quarter and assess both the impact of its policies on the viability of the business, and the effectiveness of the outcomes it’s seeking.

Plan and actions

Incorporate targets and review into Board strategic cycle.

The Board will:

• Review industry benchmarks.
• Consider the impacts from actions from the last quarter.
• Review targets.
• Consider new actions that are needed to achieve reviewed targets.
• Initiate new actions through the Executive Kanban and Consultant Kanbans.

The Board will promote and share information on targets and achievements and provide an update progress at R&R.

Meeting our targets

The Board

Plan and actions

The Board’s review of ZXM’s financial position each quarter will include the assessment of purchases in the previous quarter, assessment of effectiveness of existing areas of procurement from disadvantaged groups, and identify new target procurement areas.