EE highlights ongoing commitment to digital inclusion and youth employment in latest responsibility report

On course to reach headline 2015 corporate responsibility goals
Outlines further programmes to improve digital skills of one million people
On track to recruit 1,300 apprentices by end of year to boost customer service

23 April 2015: EE, the UK’s most advanced digital communications company, today published its 2014 Responsibility Report, setting out the continued commitment to invest in job creation for young people and boost digital skills and inclusion across the country. The report’s release coincides with Business in the Community’s annual Responsible Business Week 2015.

The report provides an update on EE’s responsibility programme and headline 2015 goals, including:

Help 1,500 young people into employment by developing the UK’s young talent. EE is supporting this by driving up apprenticeship intake, ensuring the business is on target to reach its goal of hiring 1,300 apprentices in addition to graduates, while also introducing permanent contracts and bonuses for apprentices and running other work experience programmes.
Improve the digital skills of one million people by building on the success of 2014’s inaugural EE National Techy Tea Party Day to continue to help to bridge the digital divide, while showcasing the benefits of a connected lifestyle.
Minimise EE’s environmental impact, including reducing CO2 emissions by 30% and waste by 50%.

Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE, said: “2014 was a year of connecting more people in more ways than ever before and also making sure every one of our 13,000 employees understands our commitment to be a responsible company.

“I can say that at the very heart of our business lives a drive to connect people, to open up the potential of mobile services and the mobile internet. That’s a great place to start, and for the past few years, it’s something we’ve been working hard to build upon so we can be a truly sustainable and responsible business.”

In 2014 EE made significant strides through a number of initiatives to deliver even better service to EE’s customers. These include:

The launch of a programme to record customer calls to improve transparency and future training.
An initiative whereby EE proactively contacts customers when their bill is particularly high, giving them the opportunity to discuss it.
Working to ensure customers no longer face unexpected high bills by introducing a £100 cap on bills in the event a phone is lost or stolen phones if reported within 24 hours, in line with government recommendations.
The implementation of a new call coding methodology to improve monitoring, understanding and escalating customer complaints.
Exceeded targets to enhance service for customers with disabilities, based on the benchmark set out by the British Disability Forum.

Developing digital skills

Following the success of EE’s Techy Tea Parties, which are contributing towards the goal of helping boost the digital skills of one million people across the UK, EE is ramping up the programme to ensure more people than ever before have access to advice and practical assistance in today’s digital world. EE will host another National Techy Tea Party Day in 2015, which will see a number of EE’s 580 stores across the country close the tills as staff take time to help people with technology-based questions.

To complement this, EE is also extending its dedication to developing digital skills with a new initiative ‘Techy Time’ - a volunteer scheme which enables employees to aid digital understanding with Year 3 and 4 children (and their parents) in their local primary school.

Additional commitments for 2015 include:

Rolling out new micro network technology, with the ambition of reaching the company’s goal to connect 1,500 rural communities by 2017
Helping families make the best use of their devices by continuing to work with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
Use the power of our network and our 4GEE WiFi pay as you go products to help the financially excluded get online in a cost effective way.

To view the full report, visit ee.co.uk/being-responsible

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For more information, please contact the EE press team on:

ee@nelsonbostock.com

0845 373 7070

About EE

EE is the largest and most advanced digital communications company in Britain, delivering mobile and fixed communications services to consumers, businesses, government and the wholesale market. EE has approximately 13,000 full time employees and 580 retail stores, and serves more than 30 million customers across its mobile, fixed and wholesale businesses.

EE runs the UK's biggest, fastest and most reliable mobile network, pioneering the UK's first superfast 4G mobile service in October 2012. EE's 4G coverage today reaches more than 85% of the UK population. EE’s 2G coverage reaches 99% of the population while 3G reaches 98%. EE's superfast fibre broadband service covers 54% of the UK population, and ADSL broadband service covers 98.7% of the population.

In the last few years, EE has received extensive independent recognition including being ranked the UK's best overall network by RootMetrics®, Best Network Operator and Most Innovative Service at the 2015 Mobile News Awards, Best Network at the 2014 Mobile Choice Consumer Awards and What Mobile Awards 2013, Fastest Network at the 2013 uSwitch Awards, Network Innovation at the 2013 Recombu awards and Best Network for Business at the 2013 Mobile Industry awards.

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Rankings based on RootMetrics® UK RootScore® Report for mobile performance as tested on best available plans and devices on 4 mobile networks across all available network types (Jul-Dec 2014). The RootMetrics award is not an endorsement of EE. Your results may vary. See rootmetrics.co.uk for more details.