Between October 2018 and December 2019, Roland Berger has continued strengthening its commitment to the UN Global Compact at the practical level. We have done so by following through on the goals we set in the previous year and implementing new initiatives that help us realize more fully our corporate values – entrepreneurship, excellence, and empathy – and the values of the UN Global Compact.

The Communication on Progress for the UN Global Compact (2018-2019) outlines how we realized the four pillars of the UN Global Compact (human rights, labor standards, environment, anti-corruption) during this period and what initiatives we are continuing to develop.

Over the course of the year, we refined current policies and programs and implemented new ones to create a safe, welcoming, and equal-opportunity corporate environment for our employees and partners. We achieved the goals set in the previous year of maintaining the rate of successfully completed e-trainings on the Code of Conduct at the same rate and conducting refresher-courses. At the same time, we launched an app that allows us to better take the pulse of satisfaction and engagement among our employees. In the future, we aim to increase the number of colleagues participating in our work and life balancing programs by 10%.

We are also actively looking for ways to improve employee work-life balance. A major step towards this goal is our B&me program. This program, which is currently under development, will feature part-time and sabbatical opportunities and offer employees the possibility to ask for additional unpaid vacation days or pitch for entrepreneurial or social leave. We hope that this program can also be an opportunity for employees to take their commitment to “entrepreneurship, excellence, and empathy” outside of the scope of their responsibilities at Roland Berger in a meaningful way.

In the corporate world, gender imbalance remains of utmost importance for our management. Shaping a corporate environment in which our female employees are empowered is an important goal of Roland Berger and our work towards upholding the UN Global Compact. During the past year, we achieved our goal of holding several women’s events. These provide a space where women can support and inspire each other by sharing their career advancement experience and professional achievements.

Apart from human rights and labor, we have developed our commitment to the additional UN Global Compact values of anti-corruption and environment with further initiatives. We have established clear pricing and approval guidelines aimed at removing space for corruption, particularly in corruption-prone areas. In all our offices, we are continuing our policy of random checks of anti-bribery and anti-corruption practices. We have also reconsidered aspects of our meeting policies to be more eco-friendly.

Highlights of our accomplishments over the 2018-2019 period are:

• Launch of employee engagement app
• Implementation of stress management courses
• Completion of e-trainings on our Code of Conduct at the same level as the previous year
• Development of the B&me initiative
• Continuing support groups and events for minority members of the Roland Berger community
• Compulsory professional development throughout the year
• Establishment of clear approval processes for project proposals, pricing structures and contracts, and a second-pair-of-eyes principle as anti-corruption measures
• Starting conversion of our hardware at the workplace in order to significantly reduce power consumption in the coming years
• Changed beverage offerings for more sustainability and regionality

This yearly report describes the tangible steps that we have put into place to proactively uphold our commitment to these principles. It is our seventh since Roland Berger Strategy Consultants GmbH became a member of the UN Global Compact.