Stakeholder dialogue

In discussion with stakeholders.

Our CSR policy is based on the dialog with our stakeholders. We conduct dialogs with our stakeholder to make sure our CSR policy is in line with the expectations of our stakeholders and the trends in society. They are our eyes and ears for developments in society. We carefully listen to their suggestions and want to learn from this input. We also use these dialogs to maintain a good relationship with stakeholders and to inform the stakeholders about our CSR policy and activities. These conversations are of paramount importance for us.

Our stakeholders are selected on the basis of their relevance to the ICT industry and to KPN’s social themes. They are also organizations or persons (or their representatives) with whom we have a formalized contractual or business relationship. The other category of stakeholders concerns social organizations with which we do not have a business relationship, but whose views we value because KPN’s operations impact on the interests they represent. We count as important stakeholders (representatives of) customers, employees, shareholders, banks, suppliers, journalists and social organizations.

The Corporate Communications & CSR department is responsible for the corporate stakeholder engagement policy. At corporate level, issues are discussed that affect the company as a whole and are of strategic importance. Five Executive Committee members are responsible for our social themes. The programs for the social themes need to include: a dedicated team, clear KPI’s and reviews, an innovation agenda, a social agenda and a communication toolkit. Part of the social agenda is stakeholder engagement, which is thus a structural part of the programs for our social themes and a responsibility of the ExCo members.

Stakeholder engagement takes place on other levels in the company as well. Segments, departments and other organizational units are responsible for implementing local stakeholder engagement according to the corporate policy. Local stakeholder engagement mainly takes place at national and regional level. At regional level, specifically infrastructural activities, such as putting cables underground and placement of masts can be subject of intensive discussions. Local stakeholders are involved in order to find an approach to respect and balance all interests.

The method of engagement with stakeholders is defined based on the goal of the dialog. We use our conventional channels of communication, such as websites, social media, customer magazines, customer and consumer research and our regular contacts with stakeholders. We are involved in several associations and co-operations (within and outside of the ICT sector) in which we stay up to date about trends in our sector or regarding one of our social themes. We also organize exchange sessions or events in which we and external stakeholders discuss KPN's role in society or issues regarding our social themes. In addition, our internal social media platform TEAMKPN Online gives employees the opportunity to discuss the CSR policy amongst themselves. We also get spontaneous reactions, some positive, some negative or critical. They are a key way of stakeholder dialog and they reach us through various routes, one of which is mvo@kpn.com.

We report on our stakeholder dialog results in our CSR report and online. Several conclusions and recommendations resulting from our dialogs can be found via the links below.