Committed to ethical and responsible actions

Today, companies are held to higher standards of ethical behaviour more than ever before. At Siemens, our corporate responsibility is to conduct all business according to the highest professional and ethical standards and practices.

As employees, we actively work to represent Siemens as a company that is respected for both responsible business conduct and as a good corporate citizen. This means that each of us must act in accordance with the laws, internal rules and regulations for business conduct, and actively contribute to a culture of transparency, personal accountability and responsible decision-making.

These principles are not only applied within Siemens: we must also support and encourage our business partners, suppliers and other stakeholders to adopt a similarly high standard of ethical behaviour.

Siemens Compliance Program

The cornerstone of compliance in any company is management's directive to all employees that laws must be obeyed and that no infractions will be tolerated. At Siemens, this directive is set out in the Business Conduct Guidelines, the corporate code of behaviour and the core of our compliance program.

The compliance program at Siemens also includes other regulations that are applicable company-wide which complement our Business Conduct Guidelines.

Corporate Compliance Office

Siemens has a worldwide compliance organization headed by a Chief Compliance Officer in each country in which it operates. Supported by a compliance team, the Chief Compliance Officer is responsible for implementing a compliance program and acts as a first point of contact for reported infringements of the Business Conduct Guidelines.

Tell Us

The system that Siemens uses to verify adherence to the compliance program is based on business-related controls, audits, handling of complaints, and reporting obligations. To supplement existing procedures, Siemens has established processes for addressing comments and concerns via a global Compliance Help Desk - 'Tell Us'.

The 'Tell Us' function provides the opportunity to submit reports 24/7, either online or by telephone, and in 150 languages. Siemens customers, suppliers and other business partners can contact the Compliance Helpdesk. The call centre and the web site are operated by an external provider specializing in the secure and confidential handling of sensitive content. Incoming reports are not traced, nor is the sender automatically registered.