Case study: How Fuji Xerox New Zealand promotes ethical business conduct

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2020 Sustainability Report Fuji Xerox New Zealand identified a range of material issues, such as customer satisfaction, product quality and safety, technology and innovation, information security and privacy, employee health and safety. Among these, promoting ethical business conduct stands out as a key material issue for Fuji Xerox New Zealand.

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 reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

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 Fuji Xerox New Zealand engages with:

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Fuji Xerox New Zealand engaged with its stakeholders through an online survey, following an extensive workshop and a face-to-face, interview-based approach.

What actions were taken by Fuji Xerox New Zealand to promote ethical business conduct?

In its 2020 Sustainability Report Fuji Xerox New Zealand reports that it took the following actions for promoting ethical business conduct:

• Implementing a Code of Conduct
• For all Fuji Xerox New Zealand employees at all levels ethical behaviour is governed by a Code of Conduct, which is freely available on the intranet. The Code is also extensively covered in employee onboarding and induction training, with modules that all employees must pass in their early days of employment.

• Applying a Speak Up and Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy
• Beyond the Code of Conduct, Fuji Xerox New Zealand’s Speak Up (or whistleblowing) Policy and Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy set out clear guidance on what behaviour is expected and appropriate. These documents are also freely available on the intranet for reference after employee training.

• Providing training and support for reporting concerns
• Fuji Xerox New Zealand employees and contractors are trained and supported to report unacceptable ethical behaviour or practices of any kind that threaten the interests of other employees and/or customers and suppliers, the financial performance of Fuji Xerox New Zealand, the public, or the environment. In the first instance, employees should raise with their immediate manager anything that is causing concern. If an employee feels they are unable to raise a matter with their immediate manager, for whatever reason, they should speak to any member of the SLT (Senior Leadership Team), the Managing Director, or the Head of Human Resources. Two other options exist for employees to raise ethical concerns outside this chain.

• Offering a Whistleblowing Service and Hotline
• The Deloitte Whistleblowing Service is a free service that Fuji Xerox New Zealand employees can contact anonymously (if they choose) to report suspected theft, fraud, dishonesty, harassment, unethical behaviour, or workplace safety hazards. This service is managed independently by Deloitte and can be accessed via phone, email, or post. The Fuji Xerox New Zealand parent company FUJIFILM Holdings also implements a confidential Whistleblowing Hotline for all employees to make sure there is a forum for them to speak out about issues that concern them. Everyone who works for the FUJIFILM Group can use this route to raise concerns about potentially unethical, unlawful, or unsafe conduct or practices involving the company. Employees can access this service online. For all complaints, employees will be provided with the opportunity to remain anonymous, an identification number, an opportunity to provide further information, and a method to access up-to-date information on the investigation. All options are available for employees to pursue if needed, without retribution. After reports via any of the above options internal inquiries or formal investigations will be undertaken, and guidance can be provided to employees on the status of their complaints. In FY19, there were no requests for advice received and no concerns reported via the whistleblowing hotline.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures

Disclosure 205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and procedures corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
• Targets: 16.5

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References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Fuji Xerox New Zealand, 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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