Upholding our Standards

Our approach and success as a global consumer health company is underpinned by our understanding of the evolving science of ingredients. The quality and safety of our portfolio is essential to our business strategy and business growth. To deliver products that are safe and trusted is fundamental to our purpose to deliver better everyday health with humanity.

Every batch of raw materials, active pharmaceutical ingredients and packaging components is assessed by our suppliers and reassessed by Haleon on a set basis upon acceptance of the supplier certificate of analysis. Product quality control testing is largely conducted in-house by our internal manufacturing network. Our third-party manufacturers conduct product testing as part of their overall service.

Our Quality and Consumer Safety organisations drive continuous improvement of our processes and standards. This includes leveraging learnings from their monitoring of new scientific data and regulatory changes, as well as consumer feedback, to help ensure that our positions on the benefit-risk profiles of our products remain current and that products are manufactured in accordance with our quality standards, as well as applicable laws and regulations.

All employees are responsible for the quality and safety of our products. Haleon Code of Conduct training includes details of policies on quality and on collecting information (such as human safety information, e.g. adverse event reports) from users of our products and Health Professionals. All employees who perform product quality or product safety activities undergo product safety training according to the requirements of their role.

Health and safety is at the heart of everything we do at Haleon. This is why we are dedicated to doing the right thing by enabling anyone who works for or on behalf of Haleon to go home healthy, safe, and well. In 2022, we set out a three-year strategy to develop a zero-harm culture, including the priority of preventing serious injuries and fatalities against which we continue to benchmark our performance. This strategy is comprised of three pillars; strengthen culture and capability, prevent harm and making it easier. Each of these are supported by programmes and projects to drive continuous improvement.

Supporting our employees’ health and wellbeing is central to our business strategy and key to our success as a company. We know that investing in creating the right environment at Haleon can drive productivity, increase employee engagement, boost creativity, attract and retain talent, reduce absenteeism, and decrease overall turnover. We continue to build upon a range of tools and initiatives to support our employees’ health and wellbeing.

Our supply chain is vital to our continued business success and delivery of our wider business strategy. Working to ensure suppliers are aligned with our high environmental, social, and ethical standards can support the long-term viability of working with these suppliers and contribute to our commercial success. This includes compliance with all national laws and regulations and expected compliance with international conventions, including the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact covering human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. To understand whether suppliers operate responsibly and in line with our expectations, our compliance procedures include routine risk management as well as in-depth due diligence when high-risk activity is detected.

Our Supplier Code of Conduct outlines the minimum standards that must be met by a third party on issues such as child labour, wages and remuneration, and environmental responsibility, to supply products or services to Haleon. We have also launched our Supplier ESG Expectations, which outline the ESG targets that we have set for our suppliers. This includes switching to renewable electricity and requiring raw materials to be covered by industry-recognised certifications where possible, such as Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification (RSPO) for palm oil derivatives.

We recognise the importance that Responsible AI practices play in business innovation and transformation, enabling Haleon to trust and use AI with confidence. 

Our Responsible AI policy and standards, endorsed by our Chief Digital & Technology Officer, dictate how AI must be designed, developed, deployed, maintained, and used at Haleon. 

Haleon has six Responsible AI Principles:

• Human Accountability and Human Agency
• Transparency and Explainability
• Fairness, Inclusion, and Mitigating Bias
• Privacy and Respect
• Security, Reliability, and Safety
• Trusted Science

These Principles reflect our values and industry best practice. We train our employees both in Responsible AI and practical use of AI to promote good outcomes for our consumers, partners, customers, and employees. As our AI maturity evolves we are also strengthening our approach to vendor risk management to maintain trust and accountability. 

We aim to promote and empower people to look after their everyday health, providing insight and information to enable them to understand how they can take better care of themselves and those they care for. Many people and communities continue to be marginalised and face barriers to accessing better everyday health¹. Our brands champion inclusive, sustainable, and achievable healthcare to help millions of people be more included in opportunities for better everyday health. Our responsible marketing strategy is driven by our purpose to deliver better everyday health with humanity and on our core value of seeking to always do the right thing, to inform our marketing communications and activity.

Training in responsible marketing is crucial for our marketers to uphold our commitment to deliver better everyday health with humanity. Our Responsible Marketing Policy training will engage over 1,700 marketers worldwide, equipping them to put our responsible marketing commitments into action. Furthermore, our Responsible Marketing learning programme will furnish marketers with the skills and knowledge to understand the accessibility requirements for our creative assets (including closed captioning, alternative text and audio descriptions), and Inclusive Design fundamentals for our products, packaging and experiences.

^{1 Economist Impact (2023)}