Our social commitments
We treat our colleagues, suppliers, customers and the communities in which we operate in an ethical and respectful way.
Treating everyone in an ethical and respectful way
Meaningful engagement with our employees, customers, suppliers and shareholders - as well as the communities in which we operate - enables us to react and respond to their needs and feedback. Our Code of Business Principles sets out core principles which define the way we conduct ourselves and work on a daily basis.
How we achieve this
We are committed to creating a culture of respect and inclusivity for every individual we employ, prioritising their health, wellbeing and fair treatment.
- Promoting an inclusive culture that values diversity
- Making the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees a top priority for the business
- Ensuring that we take all possible steps to protect human rights both within our business and in the wider supply chain
- Driving high levels of engagement with our stakeholders through the use of multiple forums and channels
- Upholding the highest ethical standards in the way we conduct our business
We fully support the principles set out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and we have effective management systems in place to protect human rights. De La Rue is an active participant in the UN Global Compact (UNGC) and is committed to its principles which include human rights and labour issues.
Health, safety & wellbeing
We ensure all our health and safety processes are robust and meet our responsibility to keep our employees and everyone visiting our sites safe and secure. This is done through clearly defined responsibilities, clear communication and training, risk assessment and the implementation of appropriate controls.
We track a number of key metrics regarding health and safety including reportable incidents, lost time accidents, near miss reporting and containment actions and minor first aid incidents, along with more proactive measures such as health and safety training, compliance to our safe, secure and sustainable inspection programme and health and safety training for managers.
We provide internal and external support mechanisms to support physical and mental wellbeing such as occupational health and mental health first aiders.
All our main manufacturing sites are certified to the ISO 45001:2018 standard following external audits by accredited providers.
At De La Rue we believe that diversity is a key factor in our future success and when we say diversity we mean in its broadest sense. We recognise that everyone is unique and we are working hard to create an environment where everyone can thrive and feel included.
Our commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) aren’t just words on a page. We have three areas of focus and here’s how we bring our actions to life:
Demographic diversity – Be you
As a global business we believe it’s important to understand, represent and support the communities where our people live and work.
- We address diversity at the hiring stage by:
Training our managers in hiring best practice and using inclusive language in our job adverts
Measuring the diversity of our applicant pool - We promote the importance and the value of diversity in the workplace by:
Proactively educating our workforce on the value of diversity and inclusion - We challenge our teams to reflect diversity by:
Performance and talent processes that promote diversity and targeting a 60/40 gender split in our senior managers
Organisational diversity – Be heard
We will only truly improve what we do by listening to the views of others, both internally and externally
- We give our people a voice through:
Forums and networks and mechanisms to share ideas, views and opinions and raise concerns and using engagement surveys to gather feedback (target >85% response rate) - We keep people informed about the business and encourage feedback:
Global announcements, CEO calls and Divisional updates, site briefings and communications cascade and feedback channels between all levels - We benchmark ourselves externally by participating in:
UNGC Target Gender Equality initiative and our supplier fairness and respect forum
Cognitive diversity – Be valued
We focus on creating engagement through a culture of trust and respect
- We care about our people’s physical and mental wellbeing
Provision of both internal and external professional support - We equip our people with the skills to understand and develop themselves and others
Access to a wide range of training programmes and materials - We value the behaviours that encourage collaboration and teamwork
We actively manage these behaviours through our appraisal and performance processes
We believe every one of us is personally and collectively responsible for creating an inclusive environment and we ask everyone to make their own commitment to this.
Be heard, be valued, be you.
We publish information in line with our obligations under the UK Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. See link below for our latest report.
We fully support the principles set out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and we have effective management systems in place to protect human rights. Our Code of Business Principles covers human rights issues including employment principles, health and safety, anti-bribery and corruption and the protection of personal information. The Code also highlights that we seek to provide an environment where employees can raise any concerns via a variety of mechanisms, including a whistleblowing hotline known as ‘CodeLine’ which is managed by an external third party, and a network of Ethics Champions across the Group so issues can be raised in confidence.
Download Human Rights Policy PDF
Modern Slavery
We directly employ more than 2,000 people and provide livelihoods to thousands more indirectly. We are committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking in our operations and in our supply chain and our modern slavery statement, available via the link below, details the preventative steps we take and how we comply with the Modern Slavery Act.
Unions
We have long-established, strong and productive relationships with the unions in the countries where we have manufacturing operations and we recognise the following unions: UK (UNITE), Malta (General Workers Union (GWU)), and Sri Lanka (De La Rue Branch – Internal Company Employees Union (ICEU)). Overall around 63% of our employees globally are part of a collective agreement.
We work hard to maintain regular engagement with all our key stakeholder groups.
Employees
Employee engagement remains a key focus for the business because we recognise that our employees have a critical role to play in the delivery of our strategy.
Our aim is to enable strong two-way communication channels in the business ensuring employees in all sites and at all levels understand the business goals and expectations on them and have a voice within the business and an opportunity to help shape, grow and improve De La Rue.
Training and development of our people is vital. Talent reviews are an important underpinning activity in the business, enabling us to ensure robust succession planning, understand our talent profile and areas of focus. We support this with targeted learning and development interventions, personal development plans and exposure across different parts of the business to build knowledge and share experience.
Customers
We engage with our customers through regular face to face and virtual meetings and events throughout the year as well as our customer magazines featuring thought leadership pieces from leading industry experts.
Suppliers
Our Supplier Code of Conduct clearly sets out the ESG and ethical standards to which we expect our suppliers to adhere. We have an online system for onboarding new suppliers and the cyclical screening of existing suppliers. We work with our main suppliers and contractors to ensure that their health and safety processes are robust and engage with them to help drive improvements in environmental, social and governance matters.
Download Supplier Code of Conduct PDF
Investors
The Board values the importance of building strong relationships with shareholders and investors. Our Chairman, CEO and key members of our Executive Team meet regularly with our major investors to ensure they understand our strategic plans and how we aim to deliver these.
Community
We are conscious of our responsibilities to the wider communities in which our operations are based. We focus our charitable activities on the local community to ensure we are having a positive impact.
The De La Rue Charitable Trust is an independent body established by De La Rue to offer financial support in the form of small donations to help address issues such as relief of suffering, educational support, development and self-sufficiency promotion. For more information about eligibility for funding, please contact
Some examples of recent activities are:
Westhoughton site Men's Health event
Colleagues in Westhoughton Team Westhoughton held a fundraising pool tournament in recognition of International Mens’ Day with focus and awareness for prostate cancer.
Malta site breast cancer awareness event
Our Malta colleagues held an on-site event to raise awareness of the importance of screening for breast cancer attended by local charity Europa Donna and a breast cancer survivor who sits on their Board.
Basingstoke site sponsored run
Seven employees from our head office took part in the Basingstoke 10K and Half Marathon, running in support of one of our chosen charities Basingstoke Neighbourcare which supports older people in the local community.
Code of Business Principles
Our Code of Business Principles defines the way in which we conduct ourselves.
Download Supplier Code of Business Principles PDF
Anti bribery
We are committed to preventing our employees and representatives from engaging in bribery or other corrupt practices and have implemented a robust framework of anti-bribery policies and processes to support this.
We are one of the founding members of the Banknote Ethics Initiative which promotes ethical business practice in the industry with particular focus on the prevention of bribery and corruption and compliance with anti-trust law. Members are required to commit to the BnEI Code of Ethical Business Practice. Our compliance with the Code through processes, procedures and controls is rigorously tested through an audit framework developed in conjunction with GoodCorporation, recognised as a leading company in the field of corporate responsibility assurance and business ethics.
Our head office is certified to the ISO 37001:2016 Anti Bribery Management System standard.
Raising concerns
Our employees are encouraged to speak up about any concerns regarding behaviours or business practices. Internal reporting via line managers, senior management, Ethics Champions or human resources team is encouraged, but our ‘CodeLine’ whistleblowing service, operated by an independent third party, is available for all employees to use and gives them the opportunity to report anonymously.
De La Rue is a supporter of the Institute of Business Ethics which was established in 1986 to champion the highest standards of ethical behaviour in business.