Values and behaviours (continued) Brand Promoters O Q, Introduction Report of the Executive Board Report of the Supervisory Board In 2018, we focused on four key areas: We launched a new workshop to build inclusive leadership which will be attended by all General Managers and the Global Functional Leadership Teams in 2019. We are developing a global ambassador community to help management teams understand and respond to local challenges and requirements and meet our global diversity aspirations. The ambassadors will join a dedicated development programme in early 2019. We have designed a programme that supports talented female employees in their development and career progression across the organisation - to be launched in early 2019. We continue to support operating companies and global functions in integrating inclusion and diversity in their Annual People Plans, talent management strategies and everyday business practices. In November 2018, our CEO, Jean-Francois van Boxmeer, signed the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) Inclusion Diversity pledge, the first pan-European commitment of its kind to promote inclusion and diversity in the workplace. Brand Promoters play an important role as ambassadors of our products, helping us to communicate the value of our products directly to consumers. In March 2018, allegations came to our attention with respect to the working conditions of Brand Promoters employed in Africa, specifically related to harassment. We took these allegations seriously. Our ambition is that Brand Promoters feel proud of their work with us. We see it as our responsibility to aim to provide safe working environments for them. With the help of Brand Promoters, NGOs, partners and our operating companies, we defined a set of seven guiding principles and created a new Brand Promoters Policy. This policy became effective in June 2018. It covers agency contracts and working conditions, availability of support, mandatory training and guidelines on uniforms and places Brand Promoter safety at the core. To better understand market realities, we commissioned a series of independent, third party external assessments through three leading pioneers in the field of ethical and socially responsible business practice. In Africa, a 17-country assessment was carried out by Partner Africa and a follow-up assessment was carried out in four countries. In Asia, Impactt conducted an assessment of 11 countries, while in the Americas we worked with Arche Advisors in 14 countries. As a consequence, 815 Brand Promoters were interviewed globally, 103 agencies were assessed, and 169 incognito assessments were carried out. Financial Statements Sustainability Review Heineken N.V. Annual Report 2018 Other Information All in all, the assessments found that all Brand Promoters were paid at, or above, the national minimum wage. No allegations of consensual or forced prostitution were made by any of the promoters interviewed, but instances of harassment were reported. The single biggest issue found was that policies and management systems were lacking in many of the agencies. Therefore, improvements were made in the areas of tendering, procurement and contracting agency services, including background checks, due diligence and ensuring commitment and adherence to the HEINEKEN Supplier Code. From the outset, we committed to stop deploying Brand Promoters in markets, channels or outlets where we could not apply these principles. In few markets, we stopped working with Brand Promoters. In some markets, we temporarily paused working with them. In others, we significantly reduced the number of agencies we work with and/or stopped working with specific outlets. As we know that creating and ensuring safe working conditions is not a one-off action, we are taking multiple actions and embedding Brand Promoters' safety in our commercial execution processes. This means both internal and external compliance audits will continue to be conducted on an ongoing basis. We recognise that changing the working conditions of Brand Promoters globally will take time and we are committed to playing an active role in this. To bring this change, we need to involve other parties, including civil society as a whole as well as the stakeholders involved. Most Brand Promoters work through agencies and work for multiple brands in venues and events that are run by third parties. This poses dilemmas and challenges. We have nonetheless decided to take a leadership role to foster this change and we are actively engaging with our industry peers, NGOs, third party agencies, bar owners and Brand Promoters themselves to make this change possible. For more details on our Brand Promoters policy and the third party assessments in the regions, see our website.

Jaarverslagen en Personeelsbladen Heineken

Jaarverslagen | 2018 | | pagina 144