CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Our goal at Grupo Tecnológico e Industrial GMV, S.A. (GMV) is to build a solid, enduring company that will flourish on a long-term basis. Like any business it obviously needs to grow and make a profit. But we never wish to sacrifice the company’s long-term sustainability to any get-rich-quick mindset. Our aim is rather to build up the company as an independent, ethically responsible organization that is socially committed to all its stakeholders, especially its employees, and fosters a relationship of mutual trust between them. Companies do not act in a vacuum. GMV is ever mindful of its duty to take on board not only the legitimate interests of its shareholders, executives and employees but also the problems and concerns of the wider society it operates in.
As regards its commitment to its employees, GMV has set up personnel policies that guarantee equal treatment of all its staff, from the job-selection process right through their professional careers in the company. GMV’s employees are evaluated and promoted on their own proven merits, regardless of sex, nationality, race, religion or culture. Our commitment includes the utmost respect for the individual, ruling out any behavior that flouts this principle or violates that person’s privacy. Any private information on its personnel, culled and filed by the company, has to be strictly reserved and used only for exclusively professional purposes. Over and beyond its legal obligations in this area, GMV has obtained ISO 27001 certification of its Information Security Management System (ISMS) to ensure the most efficient performance of the firm and the privacy of employees, clients and collaborating firms. GMV guarantees a safe and healthy workplace for everyone, abiding by and often bettering all legal provisions, control of procedures and standards for the prevention of health risks and occupational risks. The company also sees continuous top-up training of its personnel as a fundamental means of promoting their professional careers. It therefore invests the necessary resources to ensure that this training permeates the firm at all levels; its aim is for at least 70% of the company’s personnel to receive training during the year and for its staff to spend on average at least 40 hours a year on training. GMV also tries to help its employees harmonize their working and family lives, allowing them to work part-time or from home whenever these options, job permitting, might be conducive to that social end.
As a quid pro quo GMV expects from its collaborators an equivalent commitment to the firm in terms of professional loyalty. The company’s staff are forbidden from working for an actual or potential competitor without the consent of management. We also expect our personnel to give an evenhanded treatment to the rest of the employees, clients, suppliers, partners and other stakeholders. No discriminatory or demeaning treatment will be tolerated among our employees; such behavior would be considered as a grave professional breach and punished accordingly.
GMV has set up a Social Board (Consejo Social) for formal and direct liaison between employees and management through the Human Resources Directorate. This board is independent of and complementary to other organizations already set up within the hierarchical structure. The Social Board members are elected democratically by a vote from all employees – excluding directors – who have worked for the firm for more than two years, and in such a way as to represent the firm’s various subsidiaries and work centers.
GMV’s property is an essential asset in the firm’s long-term development. GMV therefore expects all its employees to watch out for the company’s tangible and intangible assets, preventing any loss, theft or illicit use that might damage it seriously. Any incident, degradation or malfunctioning of the work materials used shall be notified to the company for repair thereof. GMV requires its staff to pay particular attention to any confidential and proprietary information that might be held, temporarily or permanently, on the products, procedures, patents, know-how, personal data or information on the company’s industrial, strategic and financial operations. Such information may not be divulged or made public without the consent of GMV or the third parties or individuals involved.
As regards GMV’s corporate responsibility to the rest of the world, we see ourselves as duty bound to contribute towards the sustainable development of society in those places where the company is present or trades. This commitment can be broken down into the three following aspects:
- Responsibility to act in an ethical manner, eschewing any behavior that might raise moral qualms in any stakeholder.
- The responsibility to spread its own technical and scientific know-how and training skills further afield in such a way as might be conducive to the development of individuals and society as a whole. GMV therefore sponsors the research activities of some university chairs and promotes activities that kindle a scientific curiosity among the youngest: children and university students. To this end the company helps to sponsor engineering competitions and awards, such as the BEST prizes, for university students, or the First Lego League in Spain for children and teenagers aged 9 to 16. It also helps to bring scientific knowledge to a wider audience by active participation in tradefairs and exhibitions for the general public, such as Madrid por la Ciencia (Madrid Supporting Science). Whenever compatible with the other labor obligations of its executives and personnel, GMV also contributes to this end by participating in conferences and courses designed to bring scientific research and technology in general to a wider public, particularly when this falls with the company’s own fields of expertise.
- The responsibility to contribute towards the sustainability of its surroundings by applying environmental policies that help to reduce the company’s carbon footprint and recycle the materials used in its daily work. GMV is certified under the standard ISO 14000 and pursues an improvement program geared towards the following:
- The reduction of power consumption in its facilities by using low-consumption equipment and adapting lighting and air-conditioning consumption to the strict needs of personnel and the facilities.
- The use of solar power on its sites, by fitting solar panels in its central offices.
- Reduction of paper consumption and, wherever possible, the use of recycled paper.
- The recycling of IT material used in the work.
- Reduction of the company’s energy footprint by cutting down trips and using alternative technology such as videoconferences.
- The reduction of power consumption in its facilities by using low-consumption equipment and adapting lighting and air-conditioning consumption to the strict needs of personnel and the facilities.
Neither GMV nor its employees, executives, shareholders, agents or representatives will collude with corruption in any form, even if this means voluntarily absenting itself from some markets. To this effect GMV includes an ethical responsibility clause in all its agency contracts and collaboration agreements with third party companies, forbidding them from abetting such practices.
But GMV’s ethical responsibility in all its activities goes beyond the fight against corruption. GMV does not collaborate with any organizations or individuals that breach the habitual rules of business ethics and incur in practices of unfair competition, industrial espionage or violation of industrial or intellectual property rights. As regards its own personnel, GMV has taken all reasonable measures to prevent such practices in their professional activity, handing down precise instructions on the proper use of the company’s IT resources.
GMV remains strictly neutral in political, religious and philosophical matters. The company will make no financial contribution to any political parties, elected representatives or candidates. Nonetheless, this does not disqualify any GMV employee for participating in political life on a personal basis outside working hours and without using the brand image to support his or her personal convictions.
GMV limits its financing of associations, foundations or patronage to the cases laid down by ruling law, insofar as theses activities fall within the framework of values and priorities defined by the company.
