CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
There are many ways for a company to put its values into practice and demonstrate its commitment to the environment, its employees or the community in which it operates. This long term commitment is an integral part of the culture and values of EVS since its creation.
The environment
From its creation in 1994, EVS has sought to limit its impact on the environment. Over the years, clear policies have been implemented in order to honor this commitment. The harmonious integration of the company’s buildings with vegetal roofs into the wooded environment of the Sart-Tilman Scientific Park and the frequent use of energy-saving methods, such as “free cooling” to cool premises subject to major temperature variations, are examples of this, as is the low-energy lighting, the solar panels for the production of hot water, and the company car fleet which runs on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), with its minimal emissions.
Through the nature of its activities, EVS plays an indirect role in reducing the carbon footprint of audiovisual productions. The solutions offered by EVS are based on reusable servers and hard disks which, unlike the tape readers used abundantly in television productions, do not require the recurrent purchase of environmentally-unfriendly chemical or hard to recycle consumables.
EVS also offers solutions for remote production and access of video content, what allows a lot of operators to reduce dramatically their travels. For instance, during major sporting events, broadcast production tools favor image sharing between the event venue and the television channel, which greatly reduces the air travel of a large number of people.
The employees
The employees are the main driver of EVS. They develop the solutions, offer them to customers throughout the world, install them and provide the follow-up and maintenance.
The management of the company is therefore particularly careful to offer them a working environment based on personal development and respect for the individual. This includes:
- an attractive workplace (open and luminous buildings in a wooded environment, a cordial company cafeteria, free fruits and healthy drinks, etc);
- welcoming new recruits, listening carefully to one another, internal training programs;
- numerous activities organized by or for the employees aimed at building the team spirit, such as departmental incentives, various company events (some of which also include spouses and children) or incitement to sport in the neighborhood;
- a competitive global remuneration package in relation with the skills and experience of each person, accompanied by company profit-sharing programs.
This policy is bearing fruit and reinforce the belonging feeling, since the turnover rate is particularly low (a 4% departure rate on average from 2005 to 2008), despite the low average age of the company’s employees (36 years).
The community
EVS has a strong regional anchorage and participate in the development of the Liège region in which the head office is based. It is building partnerships with numerous suppliers in the region, it actively supports cultural projects (such as the Festival of Wallonia – classical music) and social projects (such as the Télévie or Cap48, together with the large French speaking Belgian TV stations), and it encourages its employees to do likewise in their own environment through targeted sponsoring actions.
In addition, after the Beijing Olympics in 2008, EVS left for free its state-of-the-art technology equipment at the disposal of the Paralympics, in which more than 4,000 disabled athletes participated.