NTT

NTT supported affordable access to digital technologies by providing extra data for its users for several months during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company is helping to reduce the digital gender divide in India through its initiative providing female students with enhanced learning opportunities using digital technologies. NTT leads in its commitment to accessibility with numerous products and services incorporating accessibility features. The company also discloses the number of its employees with disabilities and in fact, has a specifically established subsidiary for working with people with disabilities. The company also discloses its community investments.

The company has a programme that provides free smartphone and mobile safety classes for students, parents, teachers and the elderly. Launched in 2004, this programme has benefitted over 13 million participants to date.

NTT demonstrates leading practice in its senior-level responsibility for cybersecurity as well as in how it monitors, responds to and reports on security incidents. The company also has several initiatives to promote child online safety.

NTT displays strong support for open source initiatives and standards through participation in international standards organisations, sharing source code and collaborating with universities. The company supports the tech innovation ecosystem through a venture capital fund and other support for start-ups. It also demonstrates support for sustainable innovation by using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a reporting framework and collaborating on joint sustainability research. Additionally, the company reports the number of its women employees engaged in technical roles and the ethical guidelines it uses in its AI research.

While NTT discloses its community investments, it should also report how the economic value it generates is distributed among its stakeholders, as well as the income taxes paid and employment in its main markets of operation.

The company can establish up-to-date programmes for intermediate and technical skills development and school connectivity.

NTT can consider implementing a group-level privacy policy and should produce a transparency report detailing the government requests it receives for user information. The company should also make a high-level commitment to child online protection.

The company can strengthen its support for the tech innovation ecosystem through initiatives for non-profit start-ups and start-ups founded by people from underrepresented backgrounds.

NTT commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights. It also has a publicly available policy statement that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. The company identifies, assesses and takes action to address the salient human rights issues in its own operations. However, it does not describe a process to identify human rights risks in its business relationships. NTT does have a grievance mechanism for all stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints, but it is unclear if complainants have the option to identify themselves or remain anonymous.

NTT publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers, and it places health and safety expectations on its business relationships and monitors their performance. Additionally, the company discloses the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. It also provides support to its business relationships in relation to collective bargaining. However, the company lacks disclosure on living wages and working hours. In relation to workforce diversity, NTT provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender and discloses that at least 30% of its board are women. The company also publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

NTT has a global tax strategy, but it does not disclose if an executive or board-level individual or group oversees this strategy. Furthermore, the company does not disclose its income tax payments for all its individual tax jurisdictions. In relation to responsible lobbying and political engagement, the company states in its sustainability report that it does not make political contributions. However, it does not make this same statement in a formal, publicly available policy document. NTT does, however, have a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption. It also takes steps to identify and address bribery and corruption and has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints on the topic.

The below datasheet disaggregates scores within the three core social measurement areas and by specific indicators.