Frequently asked questions (FAQ) Integrity

ABB’s success depends on the trust of employees, customers, business partners, shareholders and the communities it serves. To maintain that trust, we have companywide standards and expectations of how we conduct ourselves and treat our colleagues, as well as expectations of the third parties with which we do business. The Code of Conduct provides practical guidance on these standards and expectations to our workforce, suppliers, business partners and other stakeholders.

The Code of Conduct is based on five integrity principles:

1. We behave and do business in an ethical way
2. We work in a safe and sustainable way
3. We build trust with all stakeholders
4. We protect ABB’s assets and reputation
5. We speak up and do not retaliate

These principles guide our behavior in how we do business with ABB colleagues and with our customers and business partners, such as suppliers and sales channels. The principles relate to integrity focus areas such as human rights and health, safety, environment and security. They also focus on the protection of ABB’s assets and reputation and ask all employees to speak up and report suspected violations of the Code promptly to the Group Legal & Integrity team.

The Code of Conduct covers every common category of business ethics and integrity, including gifts, travel and hospitality, and donations and sponsorships. The Code of Conduct contains the broad principles and minimum standards that apply to our conduct and there may be more detailed guidance and applicable standards/rules on specific topics or in individual countries. All employees are required to familiarize themselves with the Code and to adhere to it.

We expect all of our employees to read, acknowledge and follow the ABB Code of Conduct. Failure to follow the Code will result in disciplinary action and may lead to termination of employment with ABB. Additionally, we expect ABB third parties, consultants, contractors and temporary workers to follow the Code in connection with their work for our company. Failure to do so may result in termination of their business relationship with ABB.

ABB has published a separate Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC) that all of our suppliers are expected to understand and follow. The ABB SCoC is integrated into our day-to-day operations and is a fundamental part of our supplier qualification, development and evaluation requirements. Suppliers may also find the ABB Code of Conduct useful in understanding how ABB conducts business.

All employees, contractors, suppliers, customers and other ABB stakeholders are strongly encouraged to promptly report any concerns related to a breach of the law or our Code of Conduct. By reporting concerns promptly, ABB can investigate and take any needed corrective actions early, before the matter becomes more serious or causes harm to the company or others. 

Any suspected violations of the law or our Code of Conduct (which are commonly referred to as integrity concerns) should be reported, including:

• Ethics and compliance issues, including fraud, misconduct, corruption, financial issues, conflicts of interest, violations of insider trading or antitrust regulations, theft, or embezzlement
• Employee relations and human resource issues, such as harassment, discrimination and other improper workplace conduct
• Loss prevention and asset protection
• Workplace violence and alcohol or drug abuse
• Health, safety, environment and security issues, such as occupational health & safety violations

We provide multiple ways for you to report potential violations of the Code of Conduct or of the law (which are commonly referred to as integrity concerns) to ABB:

• Your line manager or another person in your management chain
• A member of Legal & Integrity including our four Business Area Heads of Integrity
• Your Human Resources business partner
• Our Chief Integrity Officer
• ABB Business Ethics Helpline (also available through the Code of Conduct mobile app)

Please note that you are not obliged to use ABB's Business Ethics Helpline to report your concerns. You may report misconduct directly to the competent national government authorities, if you so prefer. 

ABB takes each concern raised seriously and handles allegations with appropriate confidentiality. During the course of an investigation, an ABB investigator will need to ask questions regarding the nature of the concern of those who may have knowledge of the matter. ABB may be required to disclose certain information regarding the concern or the investigation to third parties, for example, if it receives a compulsory government or court-issued request or if it makes a voluntary disclosure to law enforcement authorities regarding the commencement of an investigation. In such cases, ABB will abide by its Binding Corporate Rules and GDPR legislation to protect your privacy.

Yes, you can raise a concern anonymously through the ABB Business Ethics Helpline. Details you can find on the Reporting channels (abb.com), or on the ‘Reach us’ section on the mobile app. You can also write to our Chief Integrity Officer at ABB Ltd, Affolternstrasse 44, 8050 Zürich, Switzerland.

ABB does not condone or tolerate retaliation against an employee or other stakeholder because they raised a potential integrity concern in good faith or cooperated in an investigation. These are protected activities and any act of retaliation for a protected activity constitutes a breach of our Code of Conduct. Please report any suspected retaliation using the channels identified above. Employees or other stakeholders who have been found to have engaged in retaliatory conduct before, during or after an investigation will be subject to disciplinary or other measures, up to and including termination of employment.

When raising a concern that the law or our Code of Conduct may have been violated, please provide all and the most detailed information that is available to you, including, for example, full facts around what when, where and how it happened, who was involved, what organizations were involved (including any external parties, if applicable), and whether you were provided with any explanation about what happened. You are also encouraged to submit or identify any documents, such as emails, reports, SMS messages or other material that may be relevant to your concern. Any information that could assist an ABB investigator to understand, address and resolve the concern should be included in your report. A reported concern that does not include enough detail or information will be difficult to investigate properly.

ABB strongly encourages employees to raise concerns if they have grounds to believe there has been a suspected violation of the law and/or our Code of Conduct. This means that you do not have to have complete information about a suspected violation, nor do you have to have personal knowledge of all the facts relating to a potential violation. Instead, you should have a reasonable basis for believing, in good faith, that a violation may have occurred. A good faith belief is grounded in your honest perception of events and facts, and not on any other motivations such as spite, retribution, payback, discrimination, or other improper motivations or impulses. If you are still unsure as to whether you have grounds to report an integrity concern, please contact your line manager, HR or your local Legal & Integrity team to discuss the matter further.

ABB seeks to build a culture in which employees feel comfortable to speak up and raise concerns so that the company can address and take early and decisive action to address and remediate potential violations of the law or Code of Conduct. Although the number of concerns raised each year varies, ABB generally receives and investigates hundreds of concerns each year.

All concerns are submitted, and often also handled by the ABB’s dedicated global investigations team, the Integrity Investigations & Monitoring Team, a function of the Integrity & Regulatory Affairs team or further assigned to the appropriate business area or specialist team for handling. In EU countries, if required by local law, reporters can also ask for their report to be submitted to a local representative for their chosen ABB partner company. At times, investigators may involve or obtain support from an external law firm, or third-party firm that provides other forensic or due diligence services.

The Integrity & Regulatory Affairs team reports to the Chief Integrity Officer at ABB headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

The Code of Conduct requires all ABB employees to cooperate fully if asked to participate in an integrity investigation, including by making yourself available for a discussion or interview and by providing any relevant information or documents. The investigator will arrange a convenient time to conduct an interview with you to discuss any questions regarding the concern that has been reported, although they are not obliged to give you any information about the concern to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the investigation. You should answer questions to the best of your ability and recollection and provide truthful and complete information. Investigations are confidential, so you should not discuss the fact that you have been invited to interview or the questions you were asked with anyone, not even your line manager. You of course can discuss the facts of what happened as you would normally do, but not what was discussed in the interview. If anyone asks you about the interview, you should let the investigator know. Do not delete any documents, including electronic records such as emails, collaborative workspaces, text messages, photos or other evidentiary material during the pendency of an investigation.

After the end of the interview, you may not hear back from the investigator unless they have further questions for you.  You will not normally be informed about the outcome of an investigation unless you reported the concern. 

The investigator who has been assigned to a case is responsible for collecting all relevant facts relating to the integrity concern and to work with the appropriate business(es) and function(s) to determine whether any corrective actions, such as process improvements or enhanced controls, are necessary to prevent a recurrence of the incident. Depending on the findings made in the investigation, and pursuant to the ABB Integrity, Internal Controls, HSE & Security Accountability Framework, the investigator may also recommend appropriate disciplinary actions and remediation measures. If so, an internal disciplinary committee will usually be convened to decide on the appropriate disciplinary actions and remediation measures investigator will.

ABB launched the Code of Conduct mobile app to provide ABB employees and external stakeholders with quick and easy access to the Code of Conduct and related resources.

The app design allows users to navigate easily through the Code of Conduct focus areas, take short integrity trainings, seek help when encountering an integrity issue, and to report an integrity concern to the ABB Business Ethics Helpline.

The security of the app is of the utmost importance. Its development followed ABB’s high security standards to protect it from vulnerabilities and cyber attacks. 

Yes, ABB employees and external stakeholders can report any integrity concern using the mobile app. Non-integrity concerns need not be reported using the app and can be reported using ordinary reporting lines. All available reporting options are listed in the “Reach us” section in the bottom navigation bar of the app.

Reports can be made anonymously through the ABB Business Ethics Helpline.

As stated on the ABB Business Ethics Helpline portal: “This system does not maintain any connection logs with IP addresses, so there is no information linking you to the ABB Business Ethics Helpline.”

For more details, please refer to the ABB Privacy Statement.

The app is publicly available, which means anyone using an iOS (13.0 and up) or Android (8.1 and up) enabled mobile phone can download the app from their app store.

The app contains selected integrity trainings in the form of short videos. The list of trainings available in the app is constantly being reviewed and enhanced where necessary.

No. However, all employees and external stakeholders working with ABB are strongly encouraged to download the app as it gives the user an opportunity to easily access the Code of Conduct at any time.  

You can contact your local legal counsel, or a member of the Legal & Integrity team, or any of ABB’s Reporting Channels.