Case study: How Ericsson shows zero tolerance for bribery and corruption

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2016 Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Report Ericsson identified a range of material issues, such as the right to privacy, product energy performance, responsible sourcing (including materials sourcing), occupational health and safety. Among these, showing zero tolerance for bribery and corruption stands out as a key material issue for Ericsson.

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:

“The organization should identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process 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 Ericsson engages with:   

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify material issues and set priorities and goals Ericsson carried out, in 2016, a survey focused on sustainability and corporate responsibility among a representative sample of active employees and, also, sought feedback from customers and investors, through surveys and dialogue.

What actions were taken by Ericsson to show zero tolerance for bribery and corruption?

In its 2016 Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Report Ericsson reports that it took the following actions for showing zero tolerance for bribery and corruption:

• Promoting top-level commitment
• [tweetthis]Ericsson’s zero tolerance for corruption is solidly supported by top management[/tweetthis] and emphasized during employee and executive-level meetings. In addition, Ericsson tries to make sure that anti-corruption is drawn attention to at every major leadership meeting.

• Monitoring compliance among business partners       
• In 2016 Ericsson tested an automated anti-corruption screening tool regarding supplier and third party due diligence, in the company’s operations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Ericsson also planned to set up, in 2017, “Business Partner Review Boards” to ensure business partners met Ericsson’s compliance and ethical standards.

• Raising employee awareness of corruption risks
• Over 95,900 active Ericsson employees completed, by the end of 2016, an anti-corruption e-learning course, while additional, specialized training is offered to key sales staff and other related functions, and to regional leadership teams. Moreover, in 2016 a new compliance e-learning course was introduced, concentrating on anti-corruption, competition law and trade compliance.

• Enabling employees and external parties to raise concerns through Ericsson’s whistleblower tool
• Ericsson employees and external parties can report suspected violations of the law or of Ericsson’s Code of Business Ethics through Ericsson’s independent whistleblower tool: the Compliance Line, available 24/7, 365 days a year, in 188 countries and in more than 75 languages.

• Complying with the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative’s (PACI) Principles
• Ericsson is a signatory, since 2012, to the World Economic Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) and the latter’s Princi­ples for Countering Corruption, which commit companies to implementing a zero tolerance policy on bribery and an effective anti-bribery program.

Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?

The GRI indicator addressed in this case is: G4-SO4: Communication and training on anti-corruption policies and procedures and the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

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References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Ericsson, 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) http://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/global-reporting-initiative-gri-g4-guidelines-download-page

3) https://g4.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx

4) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

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