Modern Slavery

At OC&C, we are committed to upholding high standards of ethical conduct and integrity in all our business activities. As a Certified B Corporation™, we recognise the interconnectedness of our actions with the well-being of the environment, society, and our stakeholders.

Established in 1987, OC&C is an international strategy consulting firm with offices in Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the USA and the UK. OC&C specialises in addressing complex business challenges, helping clients tackle their most intricate challenges, from high-level corporate strategy to in-depth data analytics and everything in between.

We acknowledge the pervasive issue of modern slavery and human trafficking and are committed to ensuring that these practices have no place within our operations or supply chains. This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes OC&C’s Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement for the financial year ending 30 April 2024.

Progress in the year

Our areas of improvement in financial year 2023-2024 include:

  • In September 2023 we introduced mandatory Modern Slavery e-learning for all business services (support function) employees, ensuring they understand the signs of Modern Slavery and the appropriate actions to take if they suspect such practices.
  • Publishing our annual ESG Impact Report.
  • We continue to pay our office cleaners a fair wage and ensure they work in a healthy and inclusive environment.

 

Our approach

We have implemented comprehensive policies to combat modern slavery:

  • Global Code of Conduct: sets out the expectations we have of our employees and our ambition to actively seek to be more purposeful in our activities. The Code of Conduct asks our people to consider the impact of their decisions on colleagues, clients, suppliers and the wider community and environment.
  • Global Professional Standards Policy: provides a framework for ethical and behavioural standards we expect our colleagues, Partners, and contractors to uphold.

 

We believe in empowering our employees through education:

  • Employee training: We provide mandatory training on modern slavery awareness to our global business services (support function) colleagues, ensuring they understand the signs of modern slavery and the appropriate actions to take if they suspect such practices.
  • Supplier engagement: We expect our suppliers to raise awareness about modern slavery and encourage them to implement similar training within their organisations. For higher risk suppliers, such as office cleaning and maintenance, we actively engage with our suppliers to ensure they have the right processes in place.
  • Reporting: Colleagues can report any concerns related to modern slavery to our Risk and Audit Committee, or an independent third party, who ensure all reports are investigated promptly and thoroughly.

 

Continuous improvement

We remain committed to continuous improvement in addressing modern slavery risks, enhancing transparency, and safeguarding human rights across our operations and supply chains.

In the coming months we plan to engage key suppliers on our Supplier Code of Conduct and introduce a cyclical refresher of our Employee Code of Conduct to reinforce the key elements of the policy and strengthen understanding across our global workforce.

Will Hayllar
Global Managing Partner
06 February 2025

 

This statement is approved for and on behalf of OC&C Strategy Consultants LLP and its applicable subsidiaries in accordance with section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 for the financial year ending 30 April 2024.