Stakeholder engagement - Corporate Responsibility

Stakeholder engagement

ANZ's approach to stakeholder engagement assists in minimising risks, identifying ideas for new products and services and understanding and responding to the issues that matter to our communities.

We engage continuously, listen to a range of opinions, formulate responses and make specific public and auditable commitments where appropriate.

We report our progress and outcomes to stakeholders.

ANZ's stakeholder engagement principles, developed in 2005, guide this process. The principles and are consistent with the AA1000 stakeholder engagement standard.

ANZ Stakeholder Engagement Principles

Stakeholder identification
ANZ identifies its stakeholders through regular stakeholder mapping with business and functional areas. This occurs formally each year in preparation for our Stakeholder Engagement Forums and includes consideration of 'silent' stakeholders such as future generations and the environment. A stakeholder database is used for managing information and communicating to our stakeholders. It includes more than 7,300 individual stakeholders who we have identified as important to our business including regulators, customer and community groups, suppliers, investors and ANZ employees.

Stakeholder identification

ANZ identifies its stakeholders through regular stakeholder mapping with business and functional areas. This occurs formally each year in preparation for our Stakeholder Engagement Forums and includes consideration of 'silent' stakeholders such as future generations and the environment.

A stakeholder database is used for managing information and communicating to our stakeholders. It includes more than 7,300 individual stakeholders who we have identified as important to our business including regulators, customer and community groups, suppliers, investors and ANZ employees.

Approaches to engagement
Stakeholder engagement is embedded into our business strategy and decision-making processes. We seek to understand the expectations of our stakeholders by learning about them, understanding their motivations, engaging with our toughest critics and developing shared goals where appropriate. This helps us to balance the competing needs of stakeholders, respond to concerns and manage issues in an informed and effective manner. Our approaches to stakeholder engagement include: Dialogue in the form of stakeholder forums, participation in multi-stakeholder initiatives and meetings Consultation through surveys, focus groups and online feedback forms Communication through our CR update and website Partnerships with community organisations We hold forums for specific stakeholder group each year to seek formal input into our business agenda. These forums are attended by a consistent group of stakeholders, along with new participants, ensuring progress and tracking of issues that have been raised in past forums, together with the identification of new and emerging issues. Ongoing engagement on key strategic and operational decisions is also prioritised by involving our stakeholders in internal working groups, focus groups, seminars and surveys.

Approaches to engagement

Stakeholder engagement is embedded into our business strategy and decision-making processes. We seek to understand the expectations of our stakeholders by learning about them, understanding their motivations, engaging with our toughest critics and developing shared goals where appropriate. This helps us to balance the competing needs of stakeholders, respond to concerns and manage issues in an informed and effective manner.

Our approaches to stakeholder engagement include:

Dialogue in the form of stakeholder forums, participation in multi-stakeholder initiatives and meetings
Consultation through surveys, focus groups and online feedback forms
Communication through our CR update and website
Partnerships with community organisations

We hold forums for specific stakeholder group each year to seek formal input into our business agenda. These forums are attended by a consistent group of stakeholders, along with new participants, ensuring progress and tracking of issues that have been raised in past forums, together with the identification of new and emerging issues. Ongoing engagement on key strategic and operational decisions is also prioritised by involving our stakeholders in internal working groups, focus groups, seminars and surveys.

Participation in external initiatives
We participate and support a number of external initiatives including: Carbon Disclosure Project Equator Principles Global Reporting Initiative Greenhouse Challenge Plus, the London Benchmarking Group OECD Guidelines for Multi-National Enterprises Partnerships Brokering Accreditation Scheme World Business Council for Sustainable Development United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative. We are also active members of: Asia Business Council Australian Bankers' Association Australia New Zealand Business Council Australian Davos Connection Australian-Israeli Chamber of Commerce Business Council of Australia Committee of Melbourne Institute of International Finance The Global Foundation

Participation in external initiatives

We participate and support a number of external initiatives including:

Carbon Disclosure Project
Equator Principles
Global Reporting Initiative
Greenhouse Challenge Plus, the London Benchmarking Group
OECD Guidelines for Multi-National Enterprises
Partnerships Brokering Accreditation Scheme
World Business Council for Sustainable Development
United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative.

We are also active members of:

Asia Business Council
Australian Bankers' Association
Australia New Zealand Business Council
Australian Davos Connection
Australian-Israeli Chamber of Commerce
Business Council of Australia
Committee of Melbourne
Institute of International Finance
The Global Foundation

Progress in 2008

Outcomes of the forums and other stakeholder engagement processes are communicated through our interim and annual Corporate Responsibility Reports, our monthly "ANZ Corporate Responsibility" newsletter and our Corporate Responsibility website.

Some examples of the outcomes from stakeholder engagement include the development and enhancement of our:

Responsible lending commitments
Financial Literacy and Inclusion programs
Reconciliation Action Plan including specific targets for Indigenous employment at ANZ
Indigenous Housing Paper (PDF 220kB)
Social and environmental issues management policies including the Forests policy, Greenhouse and Energy Policy, Water policy, and Mining and Mineral Policy
Disability Action Plan (PDF 1.2MB)

Examples of key stakeholder engagement

Activities during 2008

Customers

Stakeholder group	Topics	Countries
Focus groups involving more than 3,000 customers and ANZ staff	Why customers choose a particular bank What is important to their continued satisfaction	Australia New Zealand Vietnam Indonesia Hong Kong China
Consultation and forums with more than 400 people from Indigenous groups, community groups, housing groups, financial services providers and government agencies	Indigenous home ownership	Australia
Consultation with key external stakeholders including clients, government, industry and NGOs	ANZ's Water, Greenhouse & Energy, and Mining & Minerals policies	Australia

Employees

Stakeholder group	Topics	Countries
Annual Engagement and Culture Census conducted with 32,000 employees	What it's like to work at ANZ Leadership Corporate responsibility Career development and progression	Global
My Difference Census completed by 13,500 employees	Issues of diversity and inclusion in our workforce Feedback on ANZ's progress on diversity	Global

Government

Stakeholder group	Topics	Countries
Submissions to a range of parliamentary inquiries, regulatory reviews and government policy papers	Productivity Commission Review of Australia's Consumer Policy Framework Australian Federal Government's Green Paper on Financial Services and Credit Reform Australian Federal Government's national Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy Australian Law Reform Commission's Review of Privacy House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics Inquiry into Competition in the Banking and Non-Banking Sectors Australian Federal Government's Green Paper on the Proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme	Australia
	The Ministry of Economic Developments Review of Financial Advisers The Office for Senior Citizens Code of Practice for Home Equity Release Products The Ministry of Justice Regime for Anti-money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism The Ministry of Economic Developments Review of Financial Products and Providers	New Zealand
	Feasibility study on an Australia-India free Trade Agreement Senate Inquiry into the main economic and security challenges facing Papua New Guinea and the Island States of the Southwest Pacific Mortimer Review of Australia's export policies and programs Visits by ANZ senior executives to Canberra for meetings with key government officials and ministerial advisers, including a regular program of visits by ANZ Asia Pacific executives	Asia Pacific

Community

Stakeholder group	Topics	Countries
Consultation (including meetings and workshops) with approximately 30 suppliers in New Zealand and 12 suppliers in Australia	Implementation of the Sustainability Self Assessment Tool Development of Sustainability Code of Practice and Action Plans Sharing ideas and best practice examples of sustainable procurement	Australia New Zealand

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