Building a strong ethics and compliance culture

Act with integrity is one of our core values which is embedded in every interaction we have with colleagues, customers, suppliers, partners, investors and our communities. Our commitment to Integrity, Ethics and Compliance starts with the Board and the Bekaert Group Executive. The Bekaert Compliance Committee and the Board’s Audit Risk and Finance Committee meet quarterly to review and evaluate Bekaert’s compliance program.

We continuously invest in building a structured, company-wide compliance program, based on our Code of Conduct. It gives the foundation for everything we do each day. It outlines the basic principles of compliant and ethical behaviour when dealing with all our stakeholders, company assets, information, and infrastructure. The privacy protection of the individuals we interact with is of utmost importance to Bekaert. Our company has a Global Privacy Policy that is applicable to all personal data processed by Bekaert (including, but not limited to customers, suppliers, employees, and job applicants) and at all our entities globally. It ensures compliance with the GDPR and with all other applicable privacy laws in the countries where we do business.

Educate

Every year, all managers and salaried professionals worldwide confirm their commitment to the Bekaert Code of Conduct after completing an e-learning module. Every three years, Blue Collar Workers (BCWs) complete a training and certification program, tailored to their nature of work. Beyond that, every new employee is trained on the Bekaert Code of Conduct as part of their onboarding. In 2022, our Bekaert salaried employees (managers and white-collar workers) completed 21,500 e-learning assignments on topics such as anti-bribery and anti-corruption, anti-trust, conflict of interest and data privacy.

We also hold risk-based and targeted focus compliance trainings for selected groups of employees. We aim to increase awareness about this important topic amongst our employees through a variety of campaigns and initiatives. 

Examine

In 2022 we implemented a global, risk-based Anti-Corruption/Anti-Bribery and Sanctions screening program for all third parties we do business with to ensure compliance with international regulatory requirements. We leverage a state-of-the-art screening tool to detect and continuously monitor possible risks.

In 2021 and 2022, we also introduced our Speak Up policy, our Investigation Protocol and FAQs on Speak Up and internal investigations. We focus on helping our employees to understand the policies, encourage them to speak up if they come across a potential integrity concern and build clarity about the reporting process.

Our Internal Audit also performs regular risk-based audits on relevant compliance topics. Group Ethics and Compliance then works with internal audit to incorporate possible improvement actions. 

Enforce

We believe that a strong speak up culture is fundamental for identifying and addressing potential issues. We also understand that raising a concern is not an easy step to take. That is why we focus our efforts on making this first step as easy as possible for our employees by providing training, transparency in our processes, opportunity for anonymous reporting and reinforcing our strict no-retaliation policy.

Every reported integrity case is managed according to our Investigation Protocol which is aligned with the EU whistle-blower directive. The Protocol ensures global compliance standards, as well as the quality and consistency of our internal investigations and the appropriate reporting of case statistics and lessons learned.