What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2019 Sustainability Report Sun Life identified a range of material issues, such as economic performance, ethics, integrity and anti-corruption, data security and privacy, human rights, talent management. Among these, promoting employee wellness stands out as a key material issue for Sun Life.

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 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 Sun Life engages with:   

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Clients	·      Client experience surveys ·      Client focus groups ·      Other feedback channels (in-person, mobile apps, email, social media, call centres, website) ·      Online Client communities ·      Usability testing ·      Complaint resolution process
Employees/Advisors	·      Engagement and check-in surveys ·      Training and development activities ·      Internal social media and online forums ·      Team meetings and one-on-one meetings with managers, including formal performance appraisals ·      Town hall meetings with senior executives ·      Employee Ethics Hotline ·      Internal inclusion networks ·      Millennial think tank
Shareholders, Investors, ESG Analysts	·      Investor Day ·      Annual meetings ·      Quarterly earnings conference calls and webcast presentations ·      Participation in conferences ·      Meetings with investor groups ·      Participation in surveys
Community Organisations and Members	·      Community outreach ·      Sponsorships ·      Employee and advisor giving and volunteerism ·      Media relations
Suppliers	·      Request for proposal processes ·      Regular meetings and briefings ·      Ongoing relationship management ·      Supplier risk assessment ·      Supplier Diversity Programme
Governments and Regulators, Industry Associations	·      Participation in consultation processes, conferences and events ·      Memberships and participation in industry/trade associations ·      Sun Life Political Action Committee (U.S.)

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Sun Life distributed an online materiality survey to key stakeholder groups, collecting 319 responses.

 

What actions were taken by Sun Life to promote employee wellness?

In its 2019 Sustainability Report Sun Life reports that it took the following actions for promoting employee wellness:

• Announcing a new paid family and medical leave programme
• In 2019, Sun Life announced a new paid family and medical leave programme for its own employees in the U.S., setting an industry-leading example in this area. The programme provides paid leave for employees in moments that matter. That includes bonding with a new child or caring for a family member who is ill. Unique to the programme is an inclusive definition of family to address the needs of a modern workforce. Sun Life is also advocating for the expansion of paid family and medical leave legislation across the country. Additionally, Sun Life rolled out its EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) for employees across Asia. Across Sun Life, all employees and their families can now get access to free, confidential support to help them with a range of needs. Sun Life also launched a sabbatical programme for Canadian employees, after a successful 2018 launch in the U.S.

• Raising awareness of mental health issues
• In 2019 Sun Life increased its efforts on growing awareness of mental health issues. Accordingly, Sun Life:
  • Delivered a mental health webinar series for North American employees and held mental health education seminars for employees across Asia.
  • Added cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as an eligible mental health benefit for Canadian employees. CBT helps people develop resilience and coping skills.
  • Focused its annual 30-day wellness challenge in Canada on mental well-being. More than 2,800 employees participated.

• Introducing a new health benefit
• Sun Life introduced a new health benefit to help address a top health risk factor in its U.S. employee population. Employees who enrol get a blood pressure cuff that uploads data to a secure online account. The service also includes free coaching, anywhere, anytime. Sun Life also Introduced a defined contribution plan auto-enrolment and a discounted share purchase programme in the U.S., to help its employees achieve lifetime financial security.

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

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 403-2 Types of injury and rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days, and absenteeism, and number of work-related fatalities

Disclosure 403-2 Types of injury and rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days, and absenteeism, and number of work-related fatalities corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
• Targets: 3.3, 3.9
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.8

 

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.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

7 GRI sustainability disclosures get you started

Any size business can start taking sustainability action

GRI, ISEP, CPD Certified Sustainability courses (2-5 days): Live Online or Classroom  (venue: London School of Economics)

• Exclusive FBRH template to begin reporting from day one
• Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and People
• Formulate in group exercises your plan for action. Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP. 
• Benchmarking methodology to set you on a path of continuous improvement

See upcoming training dates.
References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Sun Life, 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/

Note to Sun Life: With each case study we send out an email requesting a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2018 Sustainability Report Sun Life identified a range of material issues, such as digital innovation, talent management, workforce wellness, diversity and inclusion, environmental impacts. Among these, promoting data security and privacy stands out as a key material issue for Sun Life.

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 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 Sun Life engages with:   

To identify and prioritise material topics Sun Life listened to and consulted with internal and external stakeholders throughout the year via diverse channels that included the following:

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Clients	·      Client experience surveys ·      Focus groups ·      Other feedback channels (in-person, mobile apps, email, social media, call centres, online communities) ·      User testing website
Employees/Advisors	·      Global Engagement Survey ·      Training and development activities ·      Internal social media and online forums ·      Manager/staff meetings, including formal performance appraisals ·      Town hall meetings with senior executives ·      Employee Ethics Hotline ·      Internal inclusion networks ·      Millennial think tank
Shareholders, Investors, ESG Analysts	·      Investor Days ·      Annual meetings ·      Quarterly earnings conference calls ·      Webcast presentations ·      Participation in conferences ·      Meetings with investor groups ·      Participation in surveys
Community Organisations and Members	·      Community outreach ·      Sponsorships ·      Employee and advisor giving and volunteerism ·      Media relations ·      Community consultations/meetings
Suppliers	·      Request for proposal processes ·      Regular meetings and briefings ·      Ongoing relationship management ·      Supplier risk assessment ·      Supplier Diversity Programme
Governments and Regulators, Industry Associations	·      Participation in consultation processes, conferences and events ·      Memberships and participation in industry/trade associations and working groups ·      Sun Life Political Action Committee (U.S.) ·      Ongoing dialogue

What actions were taken by Sun Life to promote data security and privacy?

In its 2018 Sustainability Report Sun Life reports that it took the following actions for promoting data security and privacy:

• Implementing a security awareness programme
• Sun Life’s global security awareness programme educates all employees on their security responsibilities and on Sun Life’s Security Policy. The programme includes compulsory security training, security alerts and bulletins, and additional training for specific groups, such as managers and system administrators. Sun Life’s security architecture includes firewalls, intrusion detection systems, network monitoring, encryption and other tools to prevent and detect cyber security attacks.

• Promoting privacy protection
• Sun Life’s Global Privacy Programme is embedded in its enterprise-wide risk management framework and includes various standards and processes. Additionally, Sun Life’s Global Privacy Commitment outlines principles to ensure personal information remains private and confidential. Sun Life employs privacy by design in its product development, and includes privacy clauses in contracts with third parties that handle client data. All employees receive privacy training and guidance through Sun Life’s privacy policies, to understand and fulfill Sun Life’s corporate privacy commitments and all relevant regulations.

• Strengthening defences
• To strengthen its defences, in 2018 Sun Life:
  • Initiated over 20 projects to increase its cyber security capabilities. Examples include enhancements to security alerting and incident response processes.
  • Continued to embed its privacy risk appetite statement and compass in internal processes, to better manage privacy risks and guide employees during the development and deployment of new products and initiatives.
  • Enhanced its privacy risk self-assessment processes to better identify risks and strengthen privacy controls in ongoing business processes, products and initiatives. 

• Promoting cyber safety
• To promote cyber safety, in 2018 Sun Life:
  • Carried out monthly phishing simulation tests with every employee.
  • Broadened its cyber security training and education to include new ways of reaching and engaging employees. For example, Sun Life:
    • used Workplace by Facebook to deliver a live streaming event that featured Q&As with executives, offering a forum for employees to ask questions about how to protect data and privacy both at work and at home; and
    • created topical blogs, posts and animated videos to bring cyber security issues to life. Topics addressed common questions and concerns raised by employees, such as online security, anti-virus protection, social media security and the Internet of Things.

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

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 418-1 Substantiated complaints concerning breaches of customer privacy and losses of customer data

Disclosure 418-1 Substantiated complaints concerning breaches of customer privacy and losses of customer data corresponds to:

• 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: Compliance with laws and regulations, Protection of privacy

 

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.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

7 GRI sustainability disclosures get you started

Any size business can start taking sustainability action

GRI, ISEP, CPD Certified Sustainability courses (2-5 days): Live Online or Classroom  (venue: London School of Economics)

• Exclusive FBRH template to begin reporting from day one
• Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and People
• Formulate in group exercises your plan for action. Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP. 
• Benchmarking methodology to set you on a path of continuous improvement

See upcoming training dates.

 

References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Sun Life, 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/

Note to Sun Life: With each case study we send out an email requesting a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2016 Sustainability Report Sun Life identified a range of material issues, such as digital innovation, data security and privacy, talent management, workforce wellness, responsible investing. Among these, promoting ethical business conduct stands out as a key material issue for Sun Life.

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 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 Sun Life engages with:   

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Clients	·         Client experience surveys ·         Focus groups ·         Client feedback channels (in-person, email, social media, call centre) ·         Customer/market research ·         Claims management processes ·         Complaint resolution processes
Employees and advisors	·         Bi-annual Global Employee Engagement Survey ·         Training and development activities ·         Internal social media and online forums ·         Manager/staff meetings, including formal performance appraisals ·         Town hall meetings with senior executives ·         Employee Ethics Hotline
Shareholders, investors, ESG analysts	·         Investor Days ·         Annual Meetings ·         Quarterly earnings conference calls, webcast presentations, conference participation ·         Meetings with investor groups ·         Participation in surveys
Community organizations and members	·         Community outreach ·         Sponsorships ·         Employee and advisor giving and volunteerism ·         Memberships ·         Community consultations/meetings
Governments and regulators, NGOs, industry associations	·         Ongoing dialogue ·         Participation in consultation processes ·         Participation in conferences, events, symposia ·         Industry/trade association memberships
Suppliers	·         RFP processes ·         Regular meetings and briefings ·         Ongoing relationship management ·         Supplier risk assessment ·         Supplier Diversity Program
Media	·         Briefings/interviews ·         Press releases ·         Phone, email and social media channels

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritize material topics Sun Life engaged both internal and external stakeholders through a stakeholder panel on sustainability. Stakeholders represented in the panel included clients, employees and advisors, investors, shareholders, government, advocacy groups, industry associations, sustainability think tanks, NGOs, community interest groups and academia.

What actions were taken by Sun Life to promote ethical business conduct?

In its 2016 Sustainability Report Sun Life reports that it took the following actions for promoting ethical business conduct:

• Training employees to adhere to key policies and guidelines
• All Sun Life employees receive annual mandatory training on key policies and guidelines, including the company’s Code of Business Conduct, Financial Crimes Awareness (focused on deterring fraud, combatting money laundering and terrorist financing, and rejecting corruption and bribery), Maintaining the Privacy and Security of Personal Information, Records Management and Security Awareness.

• Promoting ethical behaviour through the Code of Business Conduct
• Sun Life’s Code of Business Conduct sets out the company’s standards of honesty and integrity. Most importantly, all directors and employees have to comply with the Code of Business Conduct, reporting any misconduct. The Code covers topics such as fairness and safety in the workplace, deterring fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing, rejecting corruption and bribery, avoiding conflicts of interest, respecting privacy and confidentiality.

• Enabling employees to raise ethical concerns
• [tweetthis]An Employee Ethics Hotline enables Sun Life employees to report ethical misconduct.[/tweetthis] The Hotline can be accessed through a toll-free telephone number or a secure website and is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day in many languages.

Which GRI indicators/Standards have been addressed?

The GRI indicators/Standards addressed in this case are:

1) G4-56: Describe the organization’s values, principles, standards and norms of behavior such as codes of conduct and codes of ethics – the updated GRI Standard is: Disclosure 102-16 Values, principles, standards, and norms of behavior

2) G4-SO4: Communication and training on anti-corruption policies and procedures – 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.

Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.

7 GRI sustainability disclosures get you started

Any size business can start taking sustainability action

GRI, ISEP, CPD Certified Sustainability courses (2-5 days): Live Online or Classroom  (venue: London School of Economics)

• Exclusive FBRH template to begin reporting from day one
• Identify your most important impacts on the Environment, Economy and People
• Formulate in group exercises your plan for action. Begin taking solid, focused, all-round sustainability action ASAP. 
• Benchmarking methodology to set you on a path of continuous improvement

See upcoming training dates.

 

References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Sun Life, 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/

Note to Sun Life: With each case study we send out an email requesting a comment on this case study. If you have not received such an email please contact us.