Global Citizenship Report 2017

Supplier Engagement and Evaluation Suppliers provide critical goods and services our company needs to continue operating, and we view partnerships with our suppliers as an essential aspect of operating responsibly, meeting our sustainability goals and managing expenses. We seek out suppliers that share our values and work to clearly communicate our expectations regarding social and environ- mental issues. The following standards and policies provide the foundation for these efforts: • Our Statement of Supplier Principles outlines the ethical, human rights and environmental standards we expect from our suppliers. • Our Standards for Suppliers provide guidance across 11 general policy areas. We published a new version in 2017 that includes updates to strengthen our standards related to accessibility and diversity, the handling of Citi employees’ personal information, child labor, forced labor and human trafficking, among others. • Suppliers are also asked to abide by the Citi Statement on Human Rights. For more information about our approach to human rights, see the Human Rights section. • Citi complies with the UK Modern Slavery Act, and we released our first transparency statement in 2017, which summarizes our approach to eradicating modern slavery in our operations and supply chain. For more information, see the Human Rights section. We use our Corporate Responsibility Questionnaire (CRQ) to evaluate suppliers’ adherence to our Statement of Supplier Principles and Citi Code of Conduct and to gauge how well they manage a range of issues, such as environmental management, human rights, labor practices, diversity and health and safety. The CRQ for our Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region also includes specific questions intended to help in our efforts to identify and contribute to eradicating child labor and the set of practices known as modern slavery, including forced or bonded labor and human trafficking. We continue working to implement these questions across other regions as well and to continually improve our transparency with an annual statement pursuant to the UK Modern Slavery Act. Integrating these questions into our CRQ and our broader work to address the issue of modern slavery is part of the way Citi supports SDG 8 , which aims to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all . In particular, our work in this area addresses target 8.7, which includes a mandate to eradicate forced labor, end modern slavery and human trafficking and end child labor in all its forms. Our network of Global Champions helps us adapt the CRQ to local cultures and business norms, and we translate the CRQ into 14 languages to make it easier for suppliers to fill out and to enable productive follow-up conversations. We typically ask suppliers to fill out the CRQ every two years. If a supplier’s CRQ score is below 70 percent, we communicate our concerns to the supplier and our regional sourcing manager and ask the supplier to take action steps to improve and submit a CRQ again the following year. In 2017, 8 percent of suppliers scored 70 percent or lower on the CRQ. We often find that additional training and face-to-face dialogue can help suppliers better understand the CRQ and our expectations so they can quickly address any issues that we have flagged related to their responses. With this in mind, we meet with suppliers that fall below the 70 percent threshold to review their CRQs, discuss the factors that led to their scores and outline steps necessary for them to improve their scores within a year when they will resubmit. If the necessary improvement is not achieved within that year, we escalate review to determine whether the contract should be discontinued. To ensure a consistent approach and understanding of the CRQ process and supplier evaluation, we provide training for our employees. We also provide sustainability training and education to suppliers. SDG SPOTLIGHT: GOAL 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth 68