In accordance with the requirements of section 54(2) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Transparency in Supply Chains) Regulations 2015 we confirm our long-standing commitment to respecting human rights, including the elimination of slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and business operations. We welcome the transparency that the Modern Slavery Act encourages. We seek to have the right policies, processes and procedures in place. Further, and as importantly, we seek to foster an environment where respect for the individual and their rights is a core value. We encourage any individual who has concerns about unethical behaviour in any part of our business or operations to speak up and to do so without fear of retaliation. While much of what we do in this area will remain the same from year to year, we cannot be complacent and are always looking to improve. As in previous years, our intention has been to be thoughtful and targeted in our reviews of our suppliers and in our engagement with them. We are proud of the ethical values we share and the human rights commitments we seek to uphold in our business. It is in this context that we are publishing our 2020 Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement below.
Global Reviews is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting and consumer centric insights. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 8 industries and all consumer centric functions — underpinned by a world leading best practice repository we help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders through our driving principle of Intelligence Enabling Advantage. Global Reviews is committed to supporting and respecting internationally proclaimed human rights. We adhere to the 10 Principles of the Global Compact and to the United Nations Guiding Principles.
Global Review’s commitment to doing business ethically and legally is the foundation for the company’s culture. Our culture is shaped by our core values, and our core value of ’Putting People First‘ underpins our commitment to the elimination of slavery and human trafficking. We expect all our people to treat each other, and those we deal with, respectfully and with dignity. We do not tolerate physical violence, threats, corporal punishment, mental coercion, verbal abuse, disrespectful behaviour, bullying or harassment of any kind. We actively encourage our people to raise ethical and legal concerns, including any concerns about human rights issues, and we make multiple channels available for them to do so—including anonymously, where legally permitted. We have zero tolerance for retaliation against anyone who speaks up in good faith. Global Reviews investigates any potential human rights breach it becomes aware of, and seeks to appropriately remedy or mitigate those breaches.
Global Reviews assesses our overall risk profile in relation to Global Reviews suppliers by referencing several factors, including the geographic location of the Global Reviews supplier and the industry in which they operate. Global Reviews supply chain buys goods and services every year from approximately 10 key suppliers: about 20% of this spend is with companies that have a presence in the United Kingdom, about 5% of this spend is with companies based elsewhere in the European Union/ European Economic Area and Switzerland or in North America. The majority of the remainder of our spend is with companies based in Australia and 1% is based with companies from other countries around the world.
Our onboarding checks for all Global Reviews suppliers follows a robust processes to assess human rights, ethical and environmental risks when sourcing suppliers. New Global Reviews suppliers must provide detailed information about their human rights policies, processes and risk assessments, including the prevention of slavery and human trafficking within their own organisation and supply chains. We continue to monitor and assess all responses from potential new Global Reviews suppliers and we weight our procurement decisions accordingly. In each fiscal year, we target our due diligence efforts on those industry areas and geographies that we consider to be higher risk for us. We recognise that there is real value in an open and transparent dialogue with our key suppliers, and that no single business can tackle the problem alone.
In this fiscal year therefore, we have engaged with Global Reviews suppliers who operate in two key geographies that we had identified as higher risk for slavery and human trafficking. We focused our engagement in these geographies on two suppliers who provide Global Reviews with project management and panel supply services. Most of these Global Reviews suppliers are small or medium sized local businesses. We recognise that they face specific operational challenges, and we are therefore seeking to constructively engage with them to help address potential issues of concern. In addition, we want to help increase their awareness and understanding of potential issues around human rights, slavery and human trafficking, workplace safety and environment sustainability. In this fiscal year, we therefore plan to host at our offices training and knowledge-building workshops with suppliers across all territories.
Global Reviews is commited to being a living wage employer and providing a wage which is higher than the legal minimum requirement and takes into account relevant actual living costs. Global Reviews is also commited to driving the efforts of our suppliers in providing a living wage policy to their employees.
This fiscal year, we will provided training on slavery and human trafficking to our entire team responsible for sourcing and contracting with Global Reviews suppliers. Advocacy and collaboration within our ecosystem Global Reviews is committed to advocating awareness of slavery and human trafficking within our global ecosystem of Global Reviews suppliers, and we are also committed to encouraging collaboration and the promotion of best practices to address potential risks.
We continue to review our human rights efforts, as well as best practices in the marketplace, to understand how we can further strengthen our commitment to ensure slavery and human trafficking are not taking place within our organisation or our supply chains. Suchi Hota continues, as our nominated Modern Slavery Act Officer, to lead our compliance with the Modern Slavery Act. Suchi is a key member of our team with responsibility for driving our Putting People First iniaitive across all our territories. Her responsibilities include building trust and cooperation, workplace safety, and corporate citizenship.
