At P&G, we serve nearly five billion people around the world with our brands. We have operations in nearly 70 countries and have one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality and leadership brands. As we serve the world's consumers, we believe in, and have publicly committed to, doing what's right and being a good corporate citizen.
Our Purpose, Values and Principles
Our Purpose, Values and Principles (PVPs) are the foundation of who we are. Our Purpose is to improve consumers' lives in small but meaningful ways, and it inspires our people to make a positive contribution every day. Our Values of Integrity, Leadership, Ownership, Passion for Winning and Trust shape how we work with each other and with our partners. And our Principles articulate our deliberate approach to conducting work every day. We know that P&G employees believe in the personal and business value of this PVP foundation — our PVPs are consistently cited in our annual employee survey as the number one aspect of our culture that employees would not change. Our philosophy is that a reputation of trust and integrity is built over time, is earned every day and provides lasting value for our stakeholders.
Good governance
Our PVPs further inform our approach to corporate governance. We believe that strong governance practices contribute to better results for shareholders. We maintain governance principles, policies and practices that support Board and management accountability and serve the best interests of our Company, our shareholders and our many stakeholders.
Respecting Human Rights
Respect for Human Rights is fundamental to the way we manage our business. Our Human Rights Policy Statement communicates our support for the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which respects and honors the principles of internationally recognized human rights consisting of those rights expressed in the International Bill of Human Rights (i.e., Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and Civil and Political Rights) and the principles concerning fundamental rights as set out in the International Labor Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
Confidence and Trust
We strive to promote a work environment of confidence and trust. Our Worldwide Business Conduct Manual (WBCM) and Employee Rights Policy provides employees with clear guidance on specific situations they may face and directs them where to go when they have questions or concerns. We are a recognized leader in providing a safe, healthy, secure and productive work environment. We are committed to maintaining a workplace that is free of violence, harassment, intimidation or other unsafe or disruptive behaviors or conditions due to threats inside or outside of our facilities. Each employee has a personal responsibility to their fellow employees and to the Company to follow all Company safety and security procedures, as well as applicable laws and regulations.
Doing the Right Thing with Our Consumers
Doing the Right Thing with Our Supply Chain
Engaging with our suppliers is critical to drive mutual growth in all areas of environmental and social sustainability.
Employees
Investors
We value our relationships with all our shareholders. Engagement with shareholders builds mutual understanding and a basis for progress, and the input we receive from them impacts and informs our corporate practices. Senior management, our investor relations team and subject matter experts from the Company maintain a year‐round dialogue with investors to gain their perspectives on current issues and address any questions or concerns, and we make our Directors available for engagement with shareholders when appropriate. The Company’s top 100 institutional shareholders collectively own more than 50% of the Company’s outstanding shares of common stock, and we generally focus our proactive shareholder outreach efforts on these shareholders. We conduct meetings with institutional shareholders via telephone calls and one‐on‐one conferences throughout the year. We also routinely respond to individual shareholders and other stakeholders who provide feedback about our business. We recently launched an ESG Investor Portal on pginvestor.com, in order to provide more information and address the frequently asked questions covering environmental, social and governance topics.
Consumers
We are committed to providing products and services that can help improve the lives of our consumers all over the world. In developing and marketing our products, we adopt a "Consumer Is Boss" approach to ensure that we delight consumers by launching new products and product improvements that genuinely meet their needs. We actively encourage consumers to contact us because we want to hear about their experiences with our products.
Communities
Each P&G production facility has site-specific activities to build appropriate and constructive relationships with industry associations, residential and business neighbors, action groups, thought leaders and news media. Depending on the cultures and interests of individual communities, this can range from regular official meetings, during which new information is shared or questions are answered, to more informal meetings.
Authorities: Local, Regional and Global
P&G is focused on meeting consumer needs in the countries where we do business, while creating value for our shareholders and continuing to be a good corporate citizen. Guided by our PVPs, P&G appropriately engages in the political process to ensure that the interests of our employees, consumers and shareholders are fairly represented at all levels of government around the world. We are committed to being transparent about our political involvement globally, and our policies and procedures on appropriate contact with government officials prohibit bribery and any kind of improper influence.
P&G’s tax strategy is to seek tax certainty in order to achieve predictable and sustainable financial outcomes that positively impact all stakeholders. As a result of our tax strategy choice, we strive to be viewed as a transparent and low-risk taxpayer and do not pursue aggressive tax planning. Our tax strategy is delivered through our Core Tax Principles. P&G’s Core Tax Principles are based on our PVPs and are the foundation to our approach to taxes globally. P&G wants to be known, through words and concrete actions, as a company that is responsibly governed, behaves ethically and is open and transparent with governments in its tax affairs. Our Core Tax Principles guide how our business model, organization structure and results of operations are reported to governments through our tax return filings, tax payments and related disclosures made in each jurisdiction in which P&G operates.
External Business Partners
We work closely with our external business partners to ensure that our products are sourced responsibly. P&G's Sustainability Guidelines for External Business Partners set our expectations with our supply base regarding Social and Environmental Responsibility. We actively seek business relationships with partners that share these values and that promote high standards within their own supply chains.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs): Local, Regional and Global
We frequently enter into dialogue with NGOs to understand their concerns and cares. NGOs and our engagement with an NGO can vary by area of interest (e.g., environmental, consumer, human rights) and by geographic links, from local to global.
Principal Industry and Business Associations
We hold membership in many industry and business associations whose activities are related to the Company's. These associations provide a forum for us to promote and defend our interests in the broader industry context, while providing a lawful platform for joint research, issue monitoring and advocacy, and sharing of best practices. Participation in business associations is controlled by Company policy to ensure such industry activities have the right governance and oversight.
Health and Safety
The health and safety of our employees and our contractor partners is foundational to the Company and directly linked to our core values. Nothing we do is worth getting hurt. Safety can be managed. Every injury can and should be prevented. Safety is everyone’s responsibility.
The Company tracks our total injury rate (TIR) and lost work day case rate (LWDC). TIR includes any injury that requires medical treatment beyond first aid, including work restrictions. LWDC is a subset of all injuries that were serious enough to result in the individual missing the next assigned work shift. Our TIR target for both employees and contractors is 0.35 injuries per 200,000 hours. No targets are set for LWDC rates. To achieve these results, we have implemented an integrated Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) program. This program sets expectations that enable evaluation of each site’s leadership involvement, behavior and culture, equipment design and maintenance standards and training and procedures. We specifically focus on life-safety critical systems such as electrical safety, confined space entry, fall prevention/protection, material handling and isolation of hazardous energy. The TIR and LWDC rate results are summarized in the charts below.
