Engaging with our various stakeholders is crucial for us. Through this dialogue, we communicate our decisions and actions transparently in order to secure our social license to operate. We aim to conciliate divergent interests as far as possible while also building trust and sustaining it in the long term. We pursue a continuous dialogue with our stakeholders and use this exchange to identify trends and developments in society and in our business fields so as to take them into account in our sustainability endeavors. We regularly conduct a systematic materiality analysis to learn about our stakeholders’ expectations. In doing so, we identify the economic, social and environmental issues that are important to our stakeholders – and thus also to us.
We have established guidelines and principles for interacting with certain stakeholders. The focus is always on compliance with the rules. For example, we have defined internal guidelines and review processes for relationship with patients, for interactions in the healthcare sector and for business partnerships.
Our most important stakeholders:
- Associations/political decision-makers
- Communities
- Competitors
- Customers
- Employee representation bodies
- Employees
- Healthcare systems
- Media
- Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
- Patient organizations
- Patients
- Sales and business partners
- Scientists
- Shareholders
- Supervisory authorities
- Suppliers
- The Merck family
We organize interaction with our stakeholders on a decentralized basis – based on business requirements, legal frameworks (e.g., interaction with patients or political decision-makers), relevance, and the type of interaction. We communicate regularly with our stakeholders through a variety of channels. For instance, we conduct stakeholder surveys or organize topic-specific dialogue at a regional, national and international level. We also participate in exchange through discussions and informational forums as well as through our advocacy work and industry coalitions.
We believe that the interests, views and rights of our workforce are integral components of our strategy and business model. We engage in regular dialogue with our employees through different formats such as surveys or Employee Resource Groups to gather insights into their needs and concerns. This feedback directly informs our policies and initiatives, which are aimed at continuously enhancing employee welfare, diversity, and inclusion. By integrating employee perspectives into our decision-making processes, we aim to ensure that our business model not only drives financial performance but also fosters a culture of respect and empowerment.
We are committed to promoting a strong sense of inclusion and belonging among our employees. Therefore, we approach Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) with the same sense of purpose as our Group´s other business objectives. For example, we aim to help every employee maximize their potential, regardless of their gender identity, culture, ethnicity, race, religion or creed, sexual orientation, nationality, socioeconomic and family status, language, disability status, age, mindset, faiths, military service, or political conviction. We believe that our DEIB approach inspires progress, strengthens our ability to innovate in all areas of our business sectors and fuels our efforts to make positive impacts in the communities where we live and work.
In our Human Rights Charter and the complementing policies, we outline our commitment to uphold the rights of our employees, aiming to ensure a safe, equitable, and inclusive work environment. For example, our Social and Labor Standards Policy states that our company does not tolerate any form of discrimination, physical or verbal harassment, or intolerance. We conduct regular risk assessments to identify and mitigate any potential human rights risks within our workforce. More information on our own workforce can be found under S1.
With regard to workers in the value chain, our objective is to ensure that no violations of human rights occur in our own business activities or at our suppliers or business partners. Our commitment to the human rights of our value chain workers is reflected in our respective policies. As a key element of our approach, we adapted our guideline on supplier category strategies to integrate sustainability criteria into our decision-making processes. This has implications for our supplier selection processes and supplier performance evaluation. Moreover, we are active members in multi-stakeholder groups in order to exchange on and consider the interests of value chain workers from specific areas. We conduct regular assessments and offer training courses for suppliers with the aim of ensuring that our suppliers adhere to human rights due diligence requirements. More information on the processes for collaborating with value chain workers can be found under S2.
With regard to consumers and end-users, we want to conduct high-quality clinical research that complies with applicable laws and regulations. We set Group-wide requirements that aim to ensure that high ethical and scientific standards are met when we conduct our clinical studies. Our top priority is the safety, well-being, dignity, and rights of the sick and healthy people who take part in our clinical studies. Once our products are commercially available, they can only be purchased from a pharmacy with a prescription from a licensed physician. This is to ensure the safe use of our medications for our end-users as access to the drug is only given when medically justified. We aim to ensure that our products are effective in combating a disease, while posing the lowest possible risk for the end-users.
Furthermore, we prioritize access to our products and services as well as access to (quality) information based on their impact on patients – particularly in low- and middle-income countries. We focus on affordability, availability and accessibility. Alongside access to our healthcare portfolio, our strategy focuses on diseases that disproportionately affect underserved populations. Our approach involves close cooperation with governments of various countries, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders. In the context of access to (quality) information, our business model focuses on strengthening healthcare systems and local healthcare capabilities with the aim to enhance the skills and capacities of scientific and medical professionals through a network of experts. More information on processes for engaging with consumers and end-users can be found under S4.
In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of our internal and external stakeholders, we identified and classified stakeholders and users of sustainability reports as part of the materiality analysis. Further information can be found in the process description for identifying and evaluating our material IROs, see step 3: “List and involvement of relevant stakeholders”.
Information from the administrative, management and supervisory bodies on the views and interests of the stakeholders concerned regarding the company’s sustainability impacts
Our Executive Board has Group-wide responsibility for our sustainability strategy. In 2020, it adopted our three strategic sustainability goals. The Group Corporate Sustainability unit is responsible for the development and design of the sustainability strategy and informs the Executive Board about progress and need for action at least once a year. Group Corporate Sustainability is part of the Group function Corporate Sustainability, Quality and Trade Compliance (SQ), which reports to the CEO of the Healthcare business sector – on behalf of the Executive Board. At Executive Board level, responsibility for environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) aspects also lies with the CEO of Healthcare on behalf of the Executive Board. The Head of SQ also acts as Chief Sustainability Officer. She informs the Executive Board about relevant sustainability matters, for example in relation to climate change mitigation.
Group Corporate Sustainability is also responsible for coordinating the Group’s Sustainability Board (MSB), which is chaired by the Head of SQ. The board is made up of representatives from our business sectors and important Group functions, such as Procurement, Communications and Controlling. Members of the Executive Board may participate in the meetings of the MSB.
The MSB steers and monitors the Group-wide implementation of the sustainability strategy, defines priorities and stipulates globally applicable sustainability policies. In addition, it ensures that the initiatives of our various business sectors, Group functions and subsidiaries are aligned with our global sustainability strategy. Moreover, it recommends corresponding initiatives to the Executive Board. Within their respective area of responsibility, each Executive Board member is also responsible for sustainability, reviews the priorities that have been set, and decides on the implementation of initiatives.