We take our ethical business practices very seriously and have defined our commitment to these in Our Business Principles. They describe the high standards of conduct we set for ourselves and act as a guide for turning our values into action. The principles take into account global standards, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organisation conventions. Please follow the links below to read a full copy of Our Business Principles.
We expect each employee to uphold our ethical business practices. Every manager receives an annual communication on the principles and each is expected to be responsible for ensuring the same behaviour of those they manage. We ask our managers to sign up to Our Business Principles, which includes affirming that they have communicated the principles to their staff. From 2006, we used an electronic IT communication and sign-up process for our senior executives. Our Human Resources department confirms sign-up by our senior executives to our Group Company Secretary and the Chief Executive's Committee.
Our commitment to ethical business practices is underpinned by our global confidential Speaking Up process and helpline run by a third party organisation. Through Speaking Up colleagues from around the world can raise any concerns they have related to ethical business practices.
Translated Booklets:
Our Business Principles have been updated in September 2008 and can be downloaded in 8 languages. They are available in a pdf (Adobe Acrobat®) format. The following links will open in a new browser window.
English
Chinese
French
Russian
Polish
Latin American Spanish
Turkish
Brazilian Portuguese