Speaking Up and contacting us
Being open and honest
We want everyone to feel valued at GKN Aerospace: kept safe, respected and treated fairly.
We want everyone to feel they can speak openly and honestly.
We believe in Speaking Up when we see behaviour which is wrong
If an employee suspects that our Code of Ethics, our Culture Principles, a law, regulation, standard or internal policy or procedure is being, or will be, breached, there are many ways in which they can raise a concern, including talking to their manager, a member of the Legal & Compliance Function or their HR contact. They are available to listen to their concerns and take appropriate action.
Also available to all our employees is our Employee Disclosure Hotline. We want all employees to feel able to raise concerns about suspected misconduct, in the knowledge that their concerns will be listened to, investigated and dealt with properly and sensitively – without fear of reprisal or disciplinary action. The Hotline is hosted by Navex, an independent company that provides third party reporting by telephone and internet for international companies. Anonymous reporting is possible. All options are available 24/7. Employees can choose to:
- Call the Hotline: country specific telephone numbers are available on the intranet and on the posters at the sites. Employees can report their concern in many different languages.
- Use web reporting: details are available on the intranet and on the posters at the sites. Employees can report their concern in many different languages.
The reporting options are available to all individuals across all levels, including directors, senior management, officers and employees (whether permanent, fixed term, or temporary), pension trustees, consultants and other business advisers, contractors, trainees, casual workers/agency staff, volunteers, business agents, distributors, joint venture partners, or any other person working for, or on behalf of GKN Aerospace regardless of status, position and length of service.
Confidentiality, Non-retaliation, Investigation
All concerns raised in accordance with the GKN Aerospace Whistleblowing Policy will be investigated. The GKN Aerospace Business Ethics Officer determines how and by whom the concern will be investigated. The investigation of a concern will be conducted in an independent, fair and unbiased manner with respect to all parties involved and in accordance with the GKN Aerospace investigations protocols and all applicable laws and regulations.
Outcome and feedback
Following the conclusion of the investigation a report will be produced. In all circumstances, any corrective measures requested will be reviewed by and confirmed to the Business Ethics Officer. The corrective measures taken will also be verified and recorded in a Whistleblowing Log.
Feedback on the investigation will be supplied to the person who raised the concern, through the Hotline within 20 working days. If additional time is required to conduct the investigation this will also be mentioned through the Hotline and a new feedback date will be given. We will aim to keep the person who raised the concern informed of the progress of the investigation and its likely timescale. However, the need for confidentiality may prevent GKN Aerospace from giving specific details of the investigation or actions taken.
Where appropriate, GKN Aerospace will refer matters to external authorities.
The GKN Aerospace Whistleblowing Policy contains further details on the process of handling reported concerns. The Whistleblowing Summary Policy can be found in the Policies section.
GKN Aerospace will fully investigate any disclosures made to it by third parties (e.g. customers, suppliers, counterparties) of any circumstances or conduct that the third party believes GKN Aerospace should be aware of. Third parties may contact our hotline webpage.
Reporting
The Business Ethics Officer reports monthly on speak up cases to the General Counsel. The Business Ethics Officer reports quarterly on speak up cases to GKN Aerospace’s shareholder. The General Counsel and the shareholder are also notified immediately of any cases of bribery, corruption, fraud, cyber incidents, and health and safety, as well as cases that relate to a member of the GKN Aerospace Executive Committee.
2021 Speak Up data
In 2021 we received 62 SpeakUp cases, 60 of which came through our Employee Disclosure Hotline.
The calls came from across GKN Aerospace and all these cases have been fully investigated. Where we were able to fully or partially substantiate the concerns that were raised, this has led to a variety of corrective actions being taken including; people being retrained on processes & behaviours, warnings for inappropriate behaviours not in line with our Culture Principles, disciplinary measures and in a few isolated cases even dismissal.
In many more cases the investigation process has led to an increased awareness of the importance of open and honest communication between colleagues, managers and their teams; and also an increased awareness of the importance of Doing the Right Thing in line with our Code of Ethics.
