Telia

Telia has initiatives in various countries enhancing digital opportunities for vulnerable groups. This includes its TechGirls programme in Estonia, which encourages high school students to choose a career in tech, using a series of workshops and events led by Telia volunteers. Further, Telia supports accessibility through its partnership with the company No Isolation, which seeks to reduce social isolation among children who have long-term illnesses by developing robots that support these children with participating in school and social activities. Additionally, the company reports the taxes it pays and employment in its main countries of operations.

Telia’s Mer Digital (More Digital) initiative teaches digital literacy to seniors in Sweden and Norway. Further, its Bli Digital (Become Digital) initiative works with municipalities to help entrepreneurs learn digital skills to expand their businesses.

The company demonstrates responsible practices in relation to user data. It has a group-level privacy policy, which details that user consent is required to process user data, explains how users can view their data, and specifies that suppliers are required to prevent the inappropriate use of user data. In addition, Telia has a high-level commitment to child online protection and is a signatory to several initiatives aimed at child online safety, including the ICT Coalition for Children Online and the GSMA’s Mobile Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Content.

Telia demonstrates leadership in the area of innovation by providing big data for sustainable development and following ethical principles in artificial intelligence (AI) research. As the founder of the AI Sustainability Centre, Telia is also partnering with universities and non-profit organisations to conduct research into sustainability and ethical AI.

Telia can provide additional details about its programmes for enhancing digital accessibility and opportunities. For example, it can report the number of programme participants and consider carrying out third-party impact assessments for the programmes.

The company has several digital skills programmes but has only provided a third-party assessment for one of these programmes. The company can also undertake third-party assessments for its other programmes in this area to better understand whether they merit replication and expansion in other markets.

Telia can increase its transparency in cybersecurity by making its information security certification publicly available and reporting the number of individuals affected by data breaches.

Telia has an opportunity to support start-ups founded by people from underrepresented groups, as well as social enterprises.

Telia 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 has a grievance mechanism accessible to both workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints. Furthermore, Telia identifies, assesses and takes action to address the salient human rights issues in its own operations. Additionally, the company identifies and engages with stakeholders whose human rights are or could be impacted by its operations. However, it has an opportunity to improve its disclosure by providing specific examples of how it engages with these stakeholders.

Telia publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers and places the same expectation on its business relationships. The company also discloses the proportion of its global workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements and requires its suppliers to pay its workers a living wage. Telia does not disclose a policy commitment stating that it does not require workers to work more than regular and overtime hours. It also does not explicitly state that it requires its business relationships to make this commitment. Telia does, however, commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment. In relation to workforce diversity, the company provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender. However, it does not disclose against other indicators of diversity per employee category.

Telia has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and it includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in contracts with its business relationships. Furthermore, the company takes steps to identify and address bribery and corruption and has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints on the topic. Telia has a global tax strategy and discloses tax information for its main markets. The company also specifies that it does not make political contributions. However, it does not have a publicly available policy statement regarding its approach to lobbying and political engagement.

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