Swisscom

Swisscom is committed to applying accessibility principles in designing its products. This is evidenced through the company’s extensive list of product features and services that accommodate the needs of people with disabilities, which include a service facilitating calls with people who have hearing impairments and TV features assisting people with visual and hearing impairments. The company also reports the number of people with disabilities that it employs as well as the changes it has made to its workplace to make it more inclusive for employees with disabilities. In addition, Swisscom reports how it distributes the economic value it generates among its stakeholders.

Through its Swisscom Academy, the company has been teaching people in Switzerland how to use mobile devices and the internet since 2005.

Swisscom demonstrates leading practice by providing a public copy of its information security management certificate and by reporting the data breaches it experiences. The company also provides a mechanism for parental control of content for children and cooperates with the Swiss national authorities on media protection of minors.

Swisscom partners with various universities on projects focusing on topics such as youth media consumption and the contribution of 5G to climate protection. Furthermore, it promotes innovation in Switzerland by offering developers anonymised data from its operations. The company is committed to reducing its environmental footprint, and it discloses its carbon emissions across all scopes and innovates in areas such as smart mobility. Swisscom also supports start-ups through venture capital and consulting, coaching programmes and other services.

There is limited evidence of Swisscom’s efforts in ensuring universal and affordable access to digital technologies. While the company reports some activities, such as an annual event, to advance the digital inclusivity of women and girls, it can consider expanding its support in this area by introducing ongoing programmes.

Swisscom has an opportunity to extend its support for digital skills development by setting up programmes that advance intermediate and technical digital skills. Even though all schools in Switzerland have free access to the internet, the company can demonstrate its role in contributing to school connectivity.

Next to publishing its information security management certificate, Swisscom can demonstrate high-level accountability for cybersecurity as well as report on its approach to information security management. The company should also report government requests it receives for user information. Additionally, Swisscom can make a high-level commitment to child online protection.

Swisscom has an opportunity to expand its support for open innovation by participating in projects advancing open source technologies and open standards. It can also extend its support for the tech innovation ecosystem by supporting entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups. Although the company reports the number of its employees working in research and development (R&D), it can provide information on their gender breakdown as well as on how it applies ethics in its R&D activities, to better demonstrate its support for inclusive and ethical innovation.

Swisscom commits to respecting human rights, but it does not have a publicly available policy statement committing to respect 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. However, it does not disclose a process to identify, assess and take action on the salient human rights risks in its own operations. Swisscom describes the stakeholders it engages with in general, but it does not specify whether it engages with stakeholders whose human rights could be affected by its activities.

Swisscom does not commit to respecting the health and safety of workers in a publicly available policy statement. It also does not place health and safety requirements on its business relationships. Furthermore, the company 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 whether it requires its business relationships to make this commitment. Swisscom provides the percentage of its employees covered by collective bargaining agreements in Switzerland, but does not provide this information for its global workforce. Additionally, it provides no relevant evidence in relation to paying its workers a living wage. The company publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment and has time-bound targets on the subject. Swisscom does not provide a breakdown to report the workforce diversity within different employee categories.

Swisscom has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and takes steps to identify and address bribery and corruption. It also includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in contracts with its business relationships. The company does not disclose any relevant information in relation to tax, such as a global tax strategy or income tax payments in individual tax jurisdictions. Swisscom states that it does not make political contributions. However, it does not disclose its overarching approach to lobbying and political engagement in a publicly available policy document, and it does not disclose its lobbying expenditures.

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