PotashCorp recognizes that stakeholder engagement is a key performance driver for the company and that it must have the confidence of its major stakeholders to deliver long-term results.
Major Stakeholders
Major stakeholders are those essential to a successful business, including employees, customers, investors, suppliers, regulators and communities where PotashCorp operates.
Approaches to Consultation
One of PotashCorp's core values is that it listens to all stakeholders. It does this through customer and investor surveys, meetings with investors, employee and union consultation, community meetings, political engagement and responding to critics.
Summary of Dialogue with Key Stakeholders
The company interacts with its key stakeholder groups in a variety of ways:
Customers and Suppliers: PotashCorp surveys customers annually to gauge their satisfaction with the company at every point of contact and to understand how it compares with competitors. These extensive surveys provide valuable information on how to better meet customer needs. PotashCorp requires its contractors and suppliers to provide proof of their codes of conduct or human rights policies or to sign a business conduct declaration. In 2007, all 380 major suppliers satisfied this requirement.
Investors: The company engages with investors through investor surveys, one-on-one meetings and calls, analyst conference presentations and quarterly conference calls. PotashCorp webcasts many of these presentations and all conference calls.
Communities: PotashCorp interacts broadly with its headquarters and production site communities, participating on community advisory panels, hosting meetings with neighbors and surveying residents in host communities. The company issues regular site-specific sustainability reports that give local communities a more detailed picture of what is occurring at nearby PotashCorp facilities.
Employees: PotashCorp surveys a sample of its employees annually to learn about issues important to this key stakeholder group. The company holds meetings on safety, environment, business prospects, compensation, benefits and many other topics. Various newsletters are published at the plant sites and corporate offices.
Critics: PotashCorp engages with critics of commercial fertilizers in modern agriculture, many of whom are concerned about environmental and safety impacts.
Political Engagement: PotashCorp engages with elected officials and regulators through meetings; financial contributions by a US subsidiary's Political Action Committee (contributions limited to the United States from US employees); and trade associations.
Relations with Aboriginal Communities: In Saskatchewan, Aboriginal people represent a rapidly growing share of the province's population and labor force. PotashCorp is taking active steps to build relationships with the Aboriginal communities and make inroads in becoming a more accessible and attractive employer to Aboriginal people.
Examples of Dialogue with Key Stakeholders in 2007
These examples illustrate company interaction with key stakeholder groups and how the information gleaned has shaped corporate decisions.