Responsibility & Ethics at the core of our strategy
“At Schneider Electric, one of our cornerstone values is the commitment to ensure that our company operates in an ethical, sustainable and responsible manner worldwide. As a global company, our responsibility goes beyond fulfilling regulatory and legal requirements, especially in the fields of business integrity and human rights.
As CEO of Schneider Electric and President of the United Nations Global Compact France, I want to reaffirm my unwavering commitment to act with the highest standards of ethics.”
Jean-Pascal Tricoire,
CEO and Chairman Schneider Electric
- A common frame of reference Our Principles of Responsibility
Our Principles of Responsibility are a foundational part of our commitment and apply to our employees.
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- Our Responsibility & Ethics Dynamics program
The Responsibility & Ethics Dynamics (R&ED) program has been designed to support our employees’ efforts to uphold and comply with Our Principles of Responsibility.
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Focus on Human Rights and Business Integrity
Human Rights
In 2011, the United Nations issued the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, that precisely defined the roles and responsibilities of States and businesses on that matter. As a business leader, Schneider Electric intends to follow and promote these principles. Sustainability is at the heart of our company’s strategy, and we are convinced that energy access is a basic human right.
With a new Human Rights policy, approved by CEO Jean-Pascal Tricoire, we confirm our engagement to strive for the respect of all internationally recognized Human Rights, along our value chain.
Business Integrity
At Schneider Electric, we encourage our employees to conduct business ethically by adopting a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and other unethical practices. To promote and develop integrity in business activities, various anti-corruption initiatives have been created or reinforced in the last years, both in terms of prevention and control.
Schneider Electric became a member of Transparency International in 2014 to promote and strengthen integrity in business. TI is a leading NGO which aims to stop corruption and promote transparency, responsibility and integrity at all levels and across all sectors. The Group participates in intercompany exchanges organized by the NGO.
- Our Global Anti-Harassment Policy
At Schneider Electric, we believe that all employees are entitled to respectful treatment at the workplace and to be free from the demoralizing effects of harassment or unwelcome offensive or improper conduct. The Global Anti-harassment policy defines Schneider Electric’s global position on harassment and demonstrates our commitment to zero-tolerance on harassment including sexual harassment.
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- Supplier: Being a responsible actor along our supply chain
Highest level of ethics, social equity and environmental protection are at the core of Schneider Electric’s Purchasing principles. Every supplier is committed to put in place, maintain and comply with adequate procedures to support the requirements of our Supplier Code of Conduct. This implies that a strong management system is implemented, applied and maintained to ensure compliance with this code, mitigate the risk of deviation and guarantee continuous improvement.
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Our alert escalation process
We have designed an alert process to guide employees towards the right bodies, ranked in order of priorities:
- Contacting the manager
- Using existing in-house outlets (legal, financial, RH, environment, etc.), or
- Contacting the Group Fraud Committee via the professional alert system accessible via Internet or multilingual telephone line
A professional alert system: the R&ED Line
When an employee is a victim or witness of an event that touches on ethical issues, a professional alert system has been available since 2012 to report information on such events. This system ensures the confidentiality of the exchanges and protects the anonymity of the whistleblower (unless there is legislation to the contrary).
In compliance with local legislation, this system is provided by an independent company and proposes alert categories, a questionnaire, and information exchange protocol between the person issuing the alert and the person responsible for investigating it. Each alert is reviewed by the Group’s Fraud Committee, which appoints a two-person team to take charge of the investigation, consisting of a Compliance Officer and an investigator from the Schneider Electric Bureau of Investigation.
Based on the findings of the investigation, management take appropriate measures to punish or exonerate the party or parties involved. Each year a detailed report with statistics (number and type of alerts by region) is presented to the Audit committee and the Group Executive Committee, which reviews and approves the preventive and corrective actions to be taken.
Unless there are legal provisions to the contrary, the system can be used to send alerts in the following areas in every country in which the Group operates: discrimination, harassment, safety, environmental harm, unfair competition, corruption, conflicts of interest, accounting manipulation, document forgery, insider trading, theft, fraud and embezzlement.
113 ethical alerts have been escalated in the R&ED line system in 2014: 3/4 of them were related to potential financial frauds/conflict of interest; the remaining 1/4 were related to allegations of discrimination/harassment/unfair treatment of employees.
Unless there are legal provisions to the contrary, the system can be used to send alerts in the following areas in every country in which the Group operates: discrimination, harassment, safety, environmental harm, unfair competition, corruption, conflicts of interest, accounting manipulation, document forgery, insider trading, theft, fraud and embezzlement.
113 ethical alerts have been escalated in the R&ED line system in 2014: 3/4 of them were related to potential financial frauds/conflict of interest; the remaining 1/4 were related to allegations of discrimination/harassment/unfair treatment of employees.