Case study: How Celestica promotes compliance and ethics
As a global technology leader, operating in in over 30 worldwide locations spanning Asia, the Americas and Europe, employing approximately 25,000 permanent and temporary employees, Celestica seeks to maintain a workplace with a high standard of ethics that is free from discrimination and harassment. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the 2017 Sustainability Report by Celestica published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
To ensure it consistently lives up to its customers’ expectations Celestica fosters a high-integrity work environment, based on the key values of teamwork, ingenuity, confidence and care. In order to promote compliance and ethics Celestica took action to:
- implement an ethics programme
- help employees raise ethics concerns
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Celestica has identified;
- How Celestica proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Celestica to promote compliance and ethics
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2017 Sustainability Report Celestica identified a range of material issues, such as
occupational health and safety, environment, health and safety compliance, greenhouse gas emissions, customer privacy and data security. Among these, promoting compliance and ethics stands out as a key material issue for Celestica.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups Celestica engages with:
| Stakeholder Group | Method of engagement |
| Employees
| · Town hall meetings · Leadership meetings · Employee surveys · Sustainable Workspace programme · Open-Door Policy · Sustainability Report · Annual risk assessment · Internal communications |
| Customers
| · Teleconferences · Voluntary reporting · Surveys · Audits · Scorecards · Collaboration projects |
| Academia | · Working group meetings · Surveys · Research projects |
| Consortia
| · RBA meetings · RBA working groups · RBA leadership · Seminars · Webinars |
| Government
| · Local government regulations · Site inspections · Site audits |
| Investors
| · Investor surveys |
| Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) | · Face-to-face meetings · Teleconferences · On-site tours · Collaboration projects |
| Suppliers
| · Emails · Teleconferences · Questionnaires · Facility tours |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics Celestica held discussions with both internal and external stakeholders.
What actions were taken by Celestica to promote compliance and ethics?
In its 2017 Sustainability Report Celestica reports that it took the following actions for promoting compliance and ethics:
- Implementing an ethics programme
- Celestica’s established ethics programme is open to all employees, customers, suppliers, and anyone else interacting with Celestica employees. If illegal or unethical behaviour is witnessed, employees have a responsibility to report it immediately. Additionally, Celestica supports an environment that is free from discrimination and harassment and employees are accountable for making sure Celestica’s culture is free from discrimination and harassment based on race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity, citizenship and/or origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital status or other factors.
- Helping employees raise ethics concerns
- Celestica seeks to make sure employees are aware of how they can voice their concerns on ethical matters and communicates various options in its Business Conduct Governance (BCG) Policy, and through the distribution of an ethics wallet card. In addition, there are Ethics Awareness Centres throughout Celestica’s sites that contain additional compliance and ethics information. Celestica encourages employees who have concerns or questions on legal or ethical matters to speak with their manager, a member of management or human resources. Employees can also email compliance@celestica.com should they have any questions or concerns on compliance or ethics issues and, if none of these options is preferred, they can report concerns to Celestica’s Ethics Hotline, by phone or through the web-based reporting tool. Maintained by a third-party vendor, Celestica’s Ethics Hotline is a key part of its ethics programme as a grievance mechanism available to all employees. The hotline programme allows employees to file an anonymous or identified report regarding misconduct in the workplace. Employees are assured that their reports are managed by an independent function, and investigated to the fullest extent. This programme, managed by the Compliance department, allows Celestica to maintain a high standard of ethics within the workplace. Celestica also makes sure that there is no reprisal or retaliation for reporting actual or suspected violations of the law, of the BCG Policy or other policies, or for cooperating in an investigation of reported violations. Celestica takes all reports of possible misconduct seriously and investigates the matter confidentially, making a determination whether the BCG or the law has been violated and taking appropriate corrective action.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 406-1 Incidents of discrimination and corrective actions taken
Disclosure 406-1 Incidents of discrimination and corrective actions taken corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
- Business theme: Non-discrimination
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
- Business theme: Non-discrimination
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
- Business theme: Non-discrimination
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References:
1) This case study is based on published information by Celestica, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:
http://database.globalreporting.org/
2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/
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