As a leading health care and agriculture company, we bear a great responsibility. To ensure that we meet current societal expectations, we introduced the Bayer Societal Engagement (BASE) principles in 2019. Set out in a publicly available corporate policy, these principles establish how we interact worldwide not just with our employees, but also with patients, customers, consumers, business partners, political stakeholders, scientists, critics and our stockholders. In this way, we want to live up to our social responsibility as a sustainably acting and transparent company that is respected for its contribution to progress in health care and agriculture. We want to listen, understand, take concerns seriously and engage in respectful dialogue – especially where this is difficult or uncomfortable.
The BASE principles are grounded in our purpose “Science for a better life,” our vision “Health for all, hunger for none” and the Bayer LIFE values of leadership, integrity, flexibility and efficiency.
The principles describe our actions in eight areas:
// Our engagement with society
All societal engagement activities have been reviewed and approved by the local CSE Lead, the local Compliance Officer, the Managing Director, together with the legal reviewers from HQ, based on the locally enacted policy. The whole process is taking place through the web-based platform ‘Bayer Grants”, accessible to all the involved parties
// Our guiding principles and core values
We contribute to ensuring the future livelihood of our planet for humans, animals and plants. We use natural resources responsibly and limit our ecological footprint. We contribute to the development of less developed regions in the country by increasing access to health and nutrition, adhering to and raising standards, and by investing in education. We support and respect human rights and leverage our sphere of influence to promote them, inside and outside of Bayer. We firmly believe that compliance protects our license to operate worldwide and therefore place great importance on responsible corporate governance
// How we drive innovation
We are committed to generating and delivering solutions in the field of healthcare and agriculture with the aim of improving peoples’ lives and addressing major societal challenges, while at the same time our solutions help reduce environmental impact along the entire value chain. For this purpose, in 2022 115 medical centers from Greece participate in 15 international clinical studies from Bayer, in accordance to local and international guidelines and uphold the highest ethical standards.
// How we act in the workplace
We treat each other with fairness and respect with zero tolerance for discrimination or harassment and we create a diverse and purposeful working environment. A dedicated Inclusion and Diversity Council has been established, aiming to promote practices and behaviors that contribute to fostering diversity, combating discrimination, and to ensuring everyone can make a contribution whoever they are – gender, age, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, social class, physical ability.
We ensure fair compensation and equal opportunities for all our employees and we follow a fully transparent process in hiring or promoting, governed by Bayer AG Policy . In addition, we ensure safe and healthy work conditions, through a compelling Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) program and we support our employees activating all four core dimensions of our wellbeing: mental, physical, social and financial, through the program Be Well @ Bayer
// How we conduct our business
We compete fairly in every market, we act with integrity in all our business dealings, and we comply with all applicable laws and respect all antitrust rules. We comply with all the relevant Industry Code of Ethics, like SfEE Code of Ethics, ESYF Code of Business Conduct and EFEX Code of Ethics, while a dedicated person in LPC Department is entitled to review, audit and interfere with the way that business is conducted. In addition, we disclose in details the Transfer Values to Healthcare Professionals and Organizations, in a yearly basis, through our corporate website (as per legal requirements), while we provide all the details about the governance of our interactions with HCPs. Please visit the link.
We expect our suppliers to organize their business with Bayer in line with the Bayer Supplier Code of Conduct which sets forth key ethical, social and ecological standards.
// How we interact with our customers, patients and the consumers of our products
We use responsible marketing practices, and we respect patients’ and customers’ preferences, while we empower customers and patients to make informed choices.
We develop safe, high-quality products and provide support for the safe application of our products in a close partnership with all who use our products and services. We closely monitor and review the effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of our processes and products through the dedicated department of Quality Assurance and Pharmacovigilance, in order to comply with external and internal requirements, responsibilities and ethical standards. For this purpose, we have established a hotline for anonymous reporting of any incidents, open to external audiences, we have established multiple digital communications channels (e-mails, social media, websites) to interact with all involved parties externally.
// How we interact with media, legislators, regulators and civil society organizations
We do not make any donations as a company to political parties, politicians or candidates for a political office, as per our internal guideline for conducting Responsible Lobbying. We publish our positions regarding relevant political topics on the Bayer website, to allow a public debate on the basis of these viewpoints. As an active member of trade associations (SfEE, PIF, ESYF, PSVAK, EFEX) we advocate for these organizations to adopt a code of conduct for responsible lobbying. We engage openly and transparently with journalists and media representatives and provide accurate information, through the entitled department of Communications.
