Social Performance

For many of our projects, we have a regulatory or contractual accountability to manage the impact (positive or negative) we might have in the communities we operate in.

Where this is the case, we work with our clients to understand and manage these impacts. By working with our clients, we are better able to reduce risk and create value for our clients and the communities we operate in.

We describe our approach to this as social performance.

Social performance framework

Our Social Performance Framework governs how we manage social performance.

Our Social Performance Standard and associated guidelines set the expectations and requirements that enable us to meet the commitments set out in the HWOGS Ethical, Social and Regulatory Risk Policy.

The Framework is significant in four main ways:

1. It sets out our minimum expectations and requirements for those contracts where we have a regulatory or contractual accountability for managing social impacts
2. It provides consistent guidance on how we manage the various elements of social performance
3. It demonstrates our approach to social performance and indicates our related credentials
4. It indicates to all stakeholders that we have a coherent approach to working in sensitive locations, and are capable of fulfilling internationally recognised social performance requirements

Implementing the Social Performance Standard

We implement our Social Performance Standard in countries where we are contractually responsible for managing community relations, such as Mexico and Tunisia. In both of these countries, we have completed social assessments and have mitigation measures in place to address identified issues.

We also have dedicated community relations teams to manage our social performance commitments and engage regularly with our neighbouring communities.

During 2017 we raised the profile of social performance issues across the Group and incorporated them into our wider business processes. For example, social performance considerations are routinely factored into the risk assessment phase of our bidding processes. Our security teams also seek to understand and address any situations where community relations could constitute a security risk.