Spark

Spark operates the Skinny Jump programme, aimed at providing subsidised broadband access to low-income families. This programme includes partnerships with the company Ciena to provide free broadband to school students and with the New Zealand Red Cross to provide free internet access to ex-refugees settling in New Zealand.  The company also funds events supporting female coders and discloses its community investments.  

Spark, through the company’s charitable organisation Spark Foundation, supports programmes aimed at developing digital knowledge among Māori youth. The company also funds the Take2 programme, which teaches coding to incarcerated individuals to improve their employment opportunities. Additionally, the company operates the Recycle a Device programme, which trains high school students to refurbish secondhand laptops and deliver them to youths in need. 

Spark meets industry norms by having a security incident response team and information security management certification, as well as disclosing the number of data breaches it experiences. The company also has a privacy policy at the group level and publishes transparency data detailing requests it receives from government agencies for user information. The company has several initiatives supporting child online safety, including programmes that offer support to young people dealing with social media addiction. 

The company supports Kōkiri, an accelerator programme in New Zealand for Māori innovators. It also supports various non-profit start-ups.

Spark can disclose participation and impact metrics for its existing digital access programmes. In addition, the company can report the number of people with disabilities it employs, partner with disability organisations to help increase accessibility for users with disabilities, as well as provide a statement on its commitment to accessibility. The company also has an opportunity to report how the economic value it generates is distributed among its stakeholders.  

The company has an opportunity to disclose participation metrics for the programmes it runs for skills development, as well as carry out impact assessments. 

The company has an opportunity to make high-level policy commitments in relation to cybersecurity and child online safety.  

Spark should disclose the number of its women employees engaged in tech roles.  

Spark commits to respecting human rights and has a policy statement committing to respect all the labour fundamentals outlined in the ILO core labour rights. However, it does not disclose a process to identify, assess and act on all of the salient human rights risks in its own operations and in its business relationships. Moreover, the company could engage with stakeholders whose human rights could be impacted by its operations. Spark has a grievance mechanism for workers to raise human rights concerns and complaints. However, it is unclear if this mechanism is accessible to external stakeholders.  

Spark commits to respecting worker health and safety and expects its business relationships to do the same. The company also discloses the percentage of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements, but it provides no relevant evidence in relation to paying its workers living wages, nor does it explicitly state the limits on working hours. The company provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by age, gender and ethnicity per employee category. Additionally, Spark reports basic salary and remuneration of women to men across employee categories.   

Spark has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and it includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts. In relation to lobbying and political engagement, the company states that it did not make any political contributions in the 2021 fiscal year. However, there is no evidence that the company has a public statement that specifies it does not make political contributions as a matter of policy. Furthermore, it does not disclose its lobbying expenditures.