Community Policy
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Statement of Policy
GKN is committed to making a positive contribution to the communities and societies in
which it operates.
There are many ways in which we can be a good neighbour. We can promote good
business practice, create opportunities for employment, support the introduction of people
into the world of work and ensure that we are sensitive to the cultural issues which play a
major part in the life of the local communities and wider societies within which our
operations are located. GKN companies and their employees are expected to play an
active and supportive role within their communities. In doing so they will be true to one of
GKN’s Values and also nurture and sustain our reputation for fairness and integrity.
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General Principles
As part of our community involvement:
1. we will support projects and activities in our local communities and will encourage our
employees to do the same;
2. we will seek to minimise negative impacts on the communities in which we operate;
3. we will endeavour to support local communities in our purchasing and recruitment
policies; and
4. we will have processes in place to deal with any comments or complaints from local
communities and to enter into dialogue with them as appropriate.
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Practice
Each company must have in place procedures for recognising, supporting and reporting
on community activities in their locality. Companies must establish arrangements under
which employees have responsibility for coordinating community activities within the
company. Inevitably, the level of support will be constrained by the demands of the day
to day business but nevertheless coordination of time and resources within set
parameters will help to establish an awareness of activities in progress and set priorities
for action.
There are many ways in which GKN employees can be supportive of their local
communities. It is for individual companies to determine what is appropriate for their
communities at any particular time. The following is a list, which is neither prescriptive
nor exhaustive, of activities which have been undertaken by GKN employees throughout
the world and which can serve as examples for others to follow:
• providing paid time off for employees involved in community activities
• fundraising for local causes, through organised events such as Open Days, or
through collections amongst employees
• operating a payroll / charitable giving scheme
• providing volunteer support for community projects
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making learning facilities available for local organisations and community bodies and
promoting standards of literacy and numeracy within the local community as well as
for all employees
building regular links with local education establishments in order to promote
engineering or manufacturing to students as a future career option
providing professional mentors and coaches for young people about to enter the
workplace
providing structured work experience placements for young people from the local
community
making industrial placement opportunities available for students as part of their
vocational or vacation training activities
operating apprentice training schemes and making specialist training facilities
available to non-employees through local training organisations
implementing supervised training programmes for graduate engineers in accordance
with the standards of professional registration bodies
contributing to industry bodies and other partnerships to represent the Group as well
as the individual company and to promote the spread of good business practices
involvement in local environmental projects
charitable giving
being ready to act in response to local or national emergencies.
Reporting
In a time when large companies are judged by more than just their financial performance
it is important that we can demonstrate our corporate social responsibility. The way we
engage with our communities is a key measure which enables us to judge just how well
we are living our values.
At the end of each calendar year, companies must report on their community involvement
during the previous twelve months to the Group Secretary who is responsible to the
Board for reviewing and monitoring the Group’s performance on social responsibility. The
report must include as a minimum the following information:
• the cost of volunteering hours (paid)
• hours of unpaid support (per employee) given to the activities of community bodies
and the nature of that support
• contributions to charitable bodies
• examples of projects / programmes supported in cash or in kind.
Examples of good community practice will be celebrated on a regular basis on the
Group’s website and intranet and in the Annual Report to shareholders.
This Policy must be read in conjunction with the GKN Code, the other GKN Policies and
the requirements regarding their implementation.
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