HPE

HPE participates in the Digital Village initiative in India, providing people living in rural areas with affordable access to digital technology through free Wi-Fi. Furthermore, the company demonstrates its support of digital opportunities for women and girls through its science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educational programmes.

HPE has several initiatives aimed at teaching different types of digital skills. The Curated Pathways to Innovation programme established by the HPE Foundation encourages access to STEM education for women and other underrepresented groups. HPE also collaborates with development institutions to train underprivileged students with technical backgrounds to develop computer applications in the field of healthcare.

HPE discloses how cybersecurity is handled at the senior level in the company. Furthermore, the company has a computer emergency response team and information security management certification and reports data breaches. The company also promotes child online safety by providing educational material around the topic. 

HPE demonstrates best practices in supporting open, inclusive and ethical digital innovation. For instance, the company supports the tech innovation ecosystem with venture capital funds, an accelerator for start-ups and support for social entrepreneurs and start-ups founded by people from underrepresented groups. The company also discloses the number of its women employees working in tech roles. Moreover, HPE is one of the few digital companies to have adopted ethical principles for its AI research that include human rights considerations.

The company can disclose how the economic value it generates is distributed among stakeholders as well as its employment and the taxes it pays in its countries of operation. The company can also consider a third-party impact assessment to evaluate the efficacy of its existing initiatives to increase digital access.

HPE has an opportunity to further support digital literacy training as well as school connectivity. The company can also provide additional metrics on contribution, participation and impact for its existing initiatives.

HPE has an opportunity to disclose its information security management certification and make high-level commitments to cybersecurity and child online safety.

HPE can collaborate with universities on open source projects and consider making venture capital investments in start-ups founded by people from underrepresented groups.

HPE publicly commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights and expects the same of its business relationships. Furthermore, the company identifies, assesses and takes action to address salient human rights issues. However, it is unclear if the company provides a grievance mechanism for workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns.

HPE publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety. It also discloses the proportion of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements per country. HPE does not disclose a policy commitment stating that it does not require workers to work more than the regular and overtime hours, and it does not explicitly state that it requires its business relationships to make this commitment. HPE does, however, commit to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment and provides information on its workforce diversity against age, gender and other diversity indicators per employee category. Moreover, HPE discloses that 36% of its board members are women.

HPE discloses its global tax strategy but does not report the income taxes it pays in individual tax jurisdictions. The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption. Nevertheless, the company lacks disclosure across the board in relation to lobbying and political engagement. HPE can publicly disclose its lobbying expenditures and its overarching approach to the topic in a policy statement.