Case study: How Landis+Gyr promotes business integrity

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2019-20 Sustainability Report Landis+Gyr identified a range of material issues, such as data security and privacy, energy efficiency and climate protection, fair labour processes, occupational health and safety, community engagement. Among these, promoting business integrity stands out as a key material issue for Landis+Gyr.

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 Landis+Gyr engages with:

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Landis+Gyr conducted a series of qualitative interviews with representatives of its stakeholders.

What actions were taken by Landis+Gyr to promote business integrity?

In its 2019-20 Sustainability Report Landis+Gyr reports that it took the following actions for promoting business integrity:

• Implementing a Code of Business Ethics and Conduct
• Landis+Gyr’s stringent integrity standards are showcased in its Code of Business Ethics and Conduct. The Code prohibits corruption, violations of fair competition, and human rights infringements. Prospective employees receive, along with the offer of employment, a copy of the Code of Business Ethics and Conduct, which includes information about internal anti-corruption policies and procedures. The acceptance of the norms outlined in the Code of Business Ethics and Conduct and its supporting policies is a condition of employment. All Landis+Gyr policies, including the Code of Business Ethics and Conduct and Anti-Corruption Policy, are also routinely communicated to Landis+Gyr’s intermediaries during onboarding and to Landis+Gyr’s customers during the tender phase. With regards to suppliers, the same is communicated to them through the Landis+Gyr Supplier Code of Conduct, which was updated recently. Suppliers need to confirm adherence.

• Applying a third-party due diligence process
• Landis+Gyr implements a third-party due diligence process, which requires a mandatory due diligence check prior to the appointment of a third-party intermediary. This check is conducted by or with the assistance of an independent third party and scans potential third party intermediaries against blacklists, sanctions lists, adverse media, and other databases that may reveal a lack of business integrity. Landis+Gyr’s third-party due diligence process is regularly re-evaluated and updated, to make sure third parties are properly screened and vetted before business engagements are initiated.

• Providing ethics training
• All Landis+Gyr white-collar employees are trained on the content of the Code of Business Ethics and Conduct on a yearly basis. Additionally, Landis+Gyr offers specialised training sessions on the most relevant compliance risks. Training sessions focused on anti-corruption and competition law are completed on a yearly basis by employees who deal directly with customers, agents, distributors, vendors, and competitors, as well as anyone who is a direct manager. At the end of FY 2019/20, 4,107 or 71.2% of Landis+Gyr’s employees completed the e-learning session for the Landis+Gyr Code of Business Ethics and Conduct. The remaining 1,360 employees were either an exception to the launch population (i.e., blue-collar workers) or joined Landis+Gyr after 30 November 2020. For this latter group, it was required that the same e-learning session be completed within 7 days of joining Landis+Gyr. Moreover, 1,427 employees (24.74%) attended a face-to-face Code of Business Ethics and Conduct training session during the reporting period, which focused on a variety of compliance risks that Landis+Gyr is exposed to due to its internal and external operations, including anti-corruption. The target population for this training were employees at various global locations who deal directly with customers, agents, distributors, vendors, and competitors, as well as anyone who had a management role. Lastly, 1,161 employees (20.13%) also completed a Preventing Bribery and Corruption e-learning session. The target population for this training were, likewise, employees who deal directly with customers, agents, distributors, vendors and competitors, and anyone who had a management role.

• Encouraging employees to raise concerns
• Landis+Gyr has created appropriate channels for reporting suspected or known violations of the Code of Business Ethics and Conduct, other internal policies, or the law. For this purpose, Landis+Gyr provides a confidential 24-hour hotline for making such reports, as well as a web portal where employees can file a complaint. Concerns can also be reported through different channels in the organisation, such as via e-mail to a manager, HR Business Partner, or Compliance Officer. To this end, a case management system has been rolled out to record and monitor complaints and their resolution.

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 Landis+Gyr, 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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