Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom has sponsored the Women STEM Award in Germany since 2014, which provides cash prizes to recent science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates with the best thesis in technical areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), the cloud and cybersecurity. The company contributes to digital access for people from low-income backgrounds and people with disabilities through its discounts programme Sozialtarif (Social Tariff). It also reports the number of people with disabilities it employs and provides technical resources and translators for these employees. Furthermore, the company discloses how the economic value it creates is distributed among its stakeholders, as well as its tax contributions and employment in its countries of operation.

Deutsche Telekom supports both basic and intermediate digital skills development with a range of programmes. Among its programmes is GestaltBar, which offers workshops to teach students in Germany technical skills such as robotics. The company’s Magenta Moon initiative teaches media literacy to the general public. Additionally, its ENTER programme supports digital education by providing digital tools to children, parents and teachers in Slovakia. The company has also supported connectivity in 28,000 general and vocational schools throughout Germany, providing free internet access since 2000 through its telekom@school programme.

Deutsche Telekom stands out as a leader in the area of use, being one of the few companies to embed a commitment to cybersecurity into its code of conduct. The company is also transparent about the governance and management of cybersecurity at the group level. It has a group-wide computer emergency response team, and it reports government requests for user information by country as well as data breaches in detail each month. The company also demonstrates good practice in child online safety, with a dedicated webpage available in several languages and a range of initiatives, such as awareness campaigns.

Deutsche Telekom contributes to open innovation through a range of open source projects. It supports the tech start-up ecosystem through its incubator Hubraum. Deutsche Telekom is inclusive and ethical in its research and development (R&D) initiatives, as evidenced by the R&D centres it operates in countries outside Germany and its creation of ethical guidelines for its AI research. The company also solicits feedback from external stakeholders to further develop its ethical principles.

Deutsche Telekom can assess and report the indirect economic impacts of its operations.

Deutsche Telekom has an opportunity to undertake projects related to technical digital skills development. The company can also undertake third-party impact assessments for its basic and intermediate skills programmes and its school connectivity initiative.

The company could adopt a group privacy policy with principles applicable across all subsidiaries. To strengthen its commitment to child online safety, the company can explicitly mention this subject in its governance documents.

Deutsche Telekom can improve transparency in its efforts to increase diversity by reporting the number of women working in tech, engineering and R&D roles at the company. It can also explicitly commit to human rights in its AI framework.

Deutsche Telekom 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, Deutsche Telekom assesses and takes action to address its salient human rights issues in its own operations and in its business relationships. The company describes the various stakeholders it engages with in general, but it does not mention whether it specifically engages with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities.

Deutsche Telekom publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety, and it places health and safety expectations on its business relationships and monitors their performance. Furthermore, the company discloses the proportion of its workers covered by collective bargaining agreements. The company commits to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment and provides information on its workforce diversity per employee category by gender and age group. Deutsche Telekom also discloses the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in Germany, but it does not do so for its entire operational workforce.

Deutsche Telekom has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and it includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts. It also describes how it identifies bribery and corruption and has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints on the topic. However, no evidence could be found of a global tax strategy. Deutsche Telekom discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement, specifying that it does not make political contributions. It also discloses its lobbying expenditures.