Dialogue with stakeholders
Both at Group level and through its various business units, Orkla engages in dialogue with people who are influenced by and influence our activities. Corporate responsibility also entails identifying, understanding and addressing the needs of such stakeholders in their encounters with the Orkla Group.
Orkla’s most important stakeholders are our shareholders, employees, customers, consumers, suppliers and the local communities in which we operate. Through dialogue, we wish to gain knowledge about expectations and interests that is important if we are to make good decisions. This also gives us an opportunity to inform people about our plans, thereby generating understanding of measures we may find it necessary to implement.
Employees
We engage in continuous dialogue with our employees, on the basis of a stated desire for broad-based involvement in all the Group's processes. This dialogue takes place through regular employee interviews, departmental meetings, larger meetings and group-wide surveys. The Intranet and the in-house magazines facilitate the flow of up-to-date information. We also have good (formal and informal) channels for discussion and information between employees' representatives and management. Comprehensive, structured employee surveys are carried out every second year. |
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Customers and consumers
The Orkla Group encounters its customers and consumers in many arenas. Through consumer and customer satisfaction surveys, the Group receives necessary feedback on our ability to meet needs and expectations regarding our products. Customers and consumers are also included in certain development projects to ensure that their needs and interests are satisfied as accurately as possible. Up-to-date information about the Group's products is available on the companies' various websites at all times, with contact details for anyone who wishes to know more. Many Orkla companies have extensive contacts with consumers and customers through their consumer service departments or customer centres. |
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Suppliers
Orkla wishes to engage in constructive dialogue with its suppliers on important corporate responsibility issues. Among other things, the Group includes requirements relating to EHS and ethical standards in its contracts, and is currently increasing the number of group-wide guidelines and systems in this area. As a consequence of Orkla's decentralised structure, responsibility for following up suppliers rests with individual Orkla companies. Nevertheless, in order to strengthen monitoring of product quality and working conditions in the supplier chain, the Group has found it appropriate to further develop common systems and working methods.
Regardless of business area, market or product, Orkla companies require their suppliers to comply with strict quality standards. These quality standards are incorporated into supplier contracts, and compliance is monitored by means of delivery inspections, product certificates, continuous dialogue and, when necessary, supplier audits.
Several Orkla companies receive inputs for their monitoring of suppliers and on other matters relating to sustainability as a result of their dialogue with non-governmental organisations and their membership of organisations such as the UK organisation Sedex and the Ethical Trading Initiative – Norway. |
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Shareholders
As the largest privately owned company in Norway and one of the five largest companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, Orkla seeks to communicate actively and openly with the financial market. The company's annual and interim reports provide extensive information about the various aspects of its activities. Presentations of quarterly results are webcast directly on the Internet and are available on Orkla's website, alongside press releases, notices to the Stock Exchange, and annual and quarterly reports.
Other comprehensive, detailed information, reports and documents are also published on Orkla's website. The company always ensures that all shareholders have the same access to financial information. All significant events are reported to the market immediately through notices or press releases. Around one hundred such notices and press releases were issued in 2008.
The Group's Investor Relations department is responsible for contacts with shareholders apart from the General Meeting. The Board of Directors is regularly informed about the company's investor relations activities. |
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Society
Orkla is an international Group and the choices we make must take into account our impact on our host communities. We identify needs, expectations and development potential on the basis of dialogue with these communities, as well as risk assessments and consequence analyses. In accordance with our decentralised approach to corporate responsibility, it is the individual companies that initiate cooperation with local authorities and other actors in their local communities.
We collaborate with and are members of many organisations all over the world that provide valuable information and feedback. Orkla must also be prepared to deal with changes in framework conditions, and to this end we pursue an active dialogue with authorities, both directly and through relevant sector organisations. |
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