About N4

Philosophy and values

The ethos of our business is to achieve, in business and in our lives as a whole. To us achievement is enjoying doing our best. We are passionate about what we do and how we do it.

We are very proud of our reputation for honouring commitments to our clients and delivering quality solutions on-time and to-budget.

Culture

We take a keen interest in promoting the general well-being of our employees at work and at play. We take special pride in supporting family life through measures like flexible working hours and home working.

Our rural location was selected by consensus and has many special features designed to keep people feeling good and working well. They include things like:

• a roof garden with thinking space
• constant renewal of equipment and furniture
• a gym and showers with fitness inductions
• casual dress code
• company mountain bikes
• the daily N4 run (not compulsory!)

Our ethical policies would be described as:

• support fair trade practices
• actively demonstrate care for the environment
• avoid practices that cause long-term damage for short-term gain
• operate non-exploitative employment practices
• challenge all forms of discrimination

Our policies lead to us being included in the top ten 'Best Places to Work' in the National Business Awards 2006, and featured as a finalist in the Business of Year Awards 2007.

Corporate social responsibility

For the past three years we have received The Gold Award for philanthropy from the Home Secretary. It is awarded to employers that have succeeded in generating sustainable income sources for UK charities through Payroll Giving.

On a local level, we actively assist The Corinium Museum in Cirencester, which traces the story of the Cotswolds from pre-history to the late 19th Century and has been recognised as one of the top 40 museums in Europe.

We also continue to support the National Star College in Gloucestershire, an independent specialist college working with students with physical disabilities and learning difficulties.

As well as contributions from the payroll of our staff, N4's chairman, Steve Jones leads a corporate group which is helping to raise £15m with a three-year funding programme. This is what the college had to say about our relationship:

"N4 Solutions is the embodiment of what corporate social responsibility should be all about and we are so very fortunate for all their continuing support!"

The environment

We have a firm commitment to policies that limit our impact on the environment with a range of measures such as:

• a recycling policy for all paper, plastic, cans and glass that is fully supported by employees
• using environmentally friendly products and consumables wherever possible such as low energy light bulbs
• promoting the concept of 'Smart Consumption' - enabling staff to purchase a range of environmentally friendly products for personal use
• supplying items such as canned drinks to reduce the use of plastic drink bottles