Our business integrity commitment includes standards that provide for equal employment and promotion opportunities and strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination and harassment of any kind against any of our employees. All Sodexo employees are required to abide by these standards in order to help create inclusive workplaces where everyone can thrive. These standards have been developed in line with our adherence to global standards, such as the UN Global Compact Principles (since 2003), the UN Women Empowerment Principles (since 2015), the ILO Global Business and Disability Network Charter (since 2016) and the UN LGBTI Standards (since 2020). We are constantly reviewing our policies and working to meet the needs of our workforce and the communities we serve. The Sodexo Speak Up Ethics Line allows everyone working for or on behalf of Sodexo or with whom Sodexo has or has had some type of business relationship to raise concerns about possible misconduct – including discrimination or harassment – in a safe and confidential environment.
We believe we can support behavioral change and accelerate progress by rallying our employees around Culture & Belonging and engaging proactively with our external stakeholders.
In June 2017, Sodexo and the International Union of Food (IUF) signed an agreement committed to preventing and combating sexual harassment in the workplace. Sodexo and the IUF wish to ensure that all employees are aware of what constitutes sexual harassment, that they fully understand what is expected of them, that they know how to report any problems and that they are able to report alleged abuses in total confidence. Following this agreement, training for all staff regarding this policy and their responsibilities has become mandatory. We provide online training on the subject and on the reporting mechanism, e.g., our Speak Up Ethics Line .
We want each employee to be treated fairly and build a self-aware, respectful and inclusive workforce. This requires effort to raise awareness amongst our managers and employees regarding sensitive issues, such as understanding their own behaviours towards others and on how they can contribute to build more inclusive workplaces. As such, we invest in and implement the necessary tools, processes and training to achieve this goal. Sodexo has developed Culture & Belonging learning and development programs to:
Through our communications, we raise awareness, build a common understanding and support behavioral changes that favor inclusion. Making sure our communications are accessible to all and representative of the diversity of the communities is also a global requirement at Sodexo.
Across all of our communication mediums, we take a consistent approach to ensure readability and to provide alternative means of accessing information in order to comply with our policy. We ensure that all of our employees, vendors, clients and stakeholders can connect with us regardless of how they access our site.
Our goal is to ensure that our intranet and externally-facing website meet the new standards for accessibility. This means that anyone, anywhere can access this information on any device using any adaptive or assistive technology. As of January 1, 2020, all content produced by Sodexo meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, Level AA Conformance.
To continue our efforts in pressing for progress toward gender equality, we celebrate International Women’s Day each year on March 8 by conducting awareness campaigns mainly with employees and external stakeholders on various topics, including our job shadowing program with women from local communities, our actions for reducing the gender gap and gender balance in our business, to name just a few.
Each year, we observe the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3rd to raise awareness on the inclusion of persons with disabilities. Debunking misconceptions and clichés on disability, invisible disabilities and mental health are some of the topics addressed during past campaigns.
We partner with our clients to mutually tackle Culture & Belonging challenges and to accelerate our progress. We build mutual trust, and support them in their own C&B journeys as strategic partners in Culture & Belonging and demonstrate how our Quality of Life services can support their own C&B objectives.
Our Supply Chain Inclusion Program was launched in North America in 2001. Its goal is to include and promote more small business in our ecosystem of suppliers. This program is now active worldwide
For nearly two decades, Sodexo has focused its community engagement efforts on building inclusive stronger and healthier communities and partnering with organizations with local reach to advocate for diverse and vulnerable communities.
Acknowledgement of Country
Sodexo acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and live. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We celebrate the stories and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities and the continuation of their culture.