Grievance mechanisms and remediation

Our commitment

Provide effective grievance mechanisms to employees and stakeholders

We give everyone inside and outside Nestlé the confidence to speak up to ensure we are living our values and protecting human rights.

Demonstrating our commitment

In 2020 we had two platforms for reporting grievances: the Integrity Reporting System (IRS) for internal employees; and Speak Up (formerly Tell us), an independently operated system for all stakeholders.

We have spent several years analyzing trends from these channels, including report volumes and the rate of substantiated reports. In 2020, we used insights from this analysis to drive improvements, primarily strengthening our processes for flagging more sensitive cases and allegations.

In order to reinforce our Speak Up culture, we launched in April 2021 our single global internal and external reporting channel for non-compliance concerns and questions - Speak Up. Speak Up replaces the internal IRS reporting system and the external Tell Us system and is independently operated by a third party to ensure anonymity when requested. This new system will provide us with more transparency and better data.

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Creating better reporting systems

Transparency, visibility and efficiency are crucial for our reporting system. We constantly evolve our reporting platforms to enhance their effectiveness. In 2020, we piloted case management system (CMS) software, which improves report tracking and handling.

The pilots were launched in five markets: Brazil; Greater China Region; Russia and Eurasia; Middle East and North Africa (MENA); and Colombia. This included training led by internal experts and external providers.

The CMS will add an extra layer of depth to incident reporting, which will help consolidate information, identify trends and generate key insights. It will be launched in all markets in 2021‒2022 to globally enhance our ability to capture, document and monitor concerns and violations.

The CMS has added value to the overall reporting experience in terms of the ability to track, categorize, and efficiently manage our cases end to end.

Nestlé Middle East & North Africa (MENA)

CMS is a good tool for systematization of the information on IRS complaints. It will be useful in preparing annual and half-yearly reports related to compliance cases in the market.

Nestlé Russia

In 2020, we implemented the CMS into our Integrity Reporting System. This feature gives us an integrated management approach that is helping us gain transparency, visibility and efficiency.

Nestlé Brazil

The CMS is an exceptional tool for handling the progress and recording the result of investigations. It is also a great platform for confidential case distribution across a big organization.

Nestlé Greater China Region

The CMS system is a great tool to have in a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all necessary information regarding a market’s integrity reporting system. It is a friendly, easy to use tool, where all integrity reports (coming from the IRS or not) can be included and follow-up can be easily made.

Nestlé Colombia

Type of issue	Number of messages received in 2020
Abuse of power and/or mobbing/bullying	415 (26%)
Labor practices	344 (21%)
Violence, discrimination and harassment	197 (12%)
Kickbacks	23 (1.4%)
Other allegations	645 (40%)
Total	1624

Type of issue	Number of messages received in 2020
HR matters related (labor practices, abuse of power and/or mobbing/bullying, workplace respect, inclusion and diversity etc.)	227
Safety and health	97
Fraud	52
Undefined	47
Third-party compliance	45
Conflict of interests	31
Environment	26
Data privacy, cyber security, IP infringement	22
Discrimination	14
Kickbacks	12
Harassment	10
Sexual harassment	7
WHO Code related concerns	7
Seeking advice	7
Noncompliance related (general inquiries, campaign, consumer/customer complaint, donation, recruitment, advertisement, test messages, commercial matters, impersonation of Nestlé etc.)	1077
Total	1681