Environmental, Social, Corporate Governance Report

One of the missions of CITIC Limited is to build a platform on which employees can showcase their talents and abilities. More than asking what employees can do for us, we are concerned with what we can do for our employees. Through a variety of initiatives, we are committed to achieving growth for both our employees and the Company.

Equality as the foundation of growth

Legal Compliance

All of our labour contracts were established and modified in strict accordance with relevant laws and regulations to protect the legal rights of our employees and to develop a harmonious relationship with our staff. Our labour contract signing rate was 100%.

Equal job opportunities

We remained committed to the provision of fair opportunities in our staff recruitment process by adhering to the principle of open recruitment based on merit, without regard to race, nationality, religion, physical disability or gender. CITIC Group was named one of the Top 100 Best Employers in China 2016 by zhaopin.com and the Peking University Social Survey and Research Centre.

Staff overview

At the end of December 2016, CITIC Limited had a total of 127,610 employees, a reduction of 5,916 employees as compared with the previous year.

Incentives to consolidate growth

Remuneration management

We have a medium-to long-term remuneration mechanism in place across all of our subsidiaries, which is guided by the remuneration policies of relevant local governments and based on business results. This market-oriented mechanism makes reference to statistical data on salaries and remuneration prepared by professional consultants with equal emphasis on market competitiveness and fairness. In accordance with national policies, we are investigating the feasibility of a staff shareholding scheme to attract and retain talent and enhance the Company’s competitiveness and staff morale.

Welfare and benefits

We continued to improve the insurance, benefit schemes, working hours and annual leave provisions we offer to our staff. In accordance with local government requirements, we provided basic social insurance policies, and most of our subsidiaries have instituted corporate annuities (supplementary pension insurance) and supplementary medical insurance schemes.

Appraisal mechanism

We optimised our performance appraisal and remuneration systems during the year. Based on the different business characteristics and development stages of our subsidiaries as well as the principle of “one company, one policy”, we made improvements to the industry benchmark matching system. This helped to create a closer link between performance appraisal results and staff remuneration/incentives, with a strong emphasis on value creation and shareholder returns for our subsidiaries, as well as for the Company’s overall strategic direction. We also reallocated our remuneration pool in response to concerns about the gap in remuneration between the senior management and general staff of the subsidiaries. Instituting a remuneration regime that is appropriately valued, reasonably structured, uniformly administered and effectively supervised has enabled us to motivate employees at all levels more effectively.

Training for future growth

Career paths

In line with our people-oriented philosophy, we arranged for staff postings and exchanges between the headquarters and subsidiaries, among subsidiaries, and between CITIC and relevant provincial and municipal governments. This has broadened the training of our staff and gave them exposure to our operations in the field. We also identified qualified younger people to replenish our talent pool and launched training programmes for our younger officers through our CITIC Excellence Training Project.

Talent strategy

For the implementation of our Talent Strategy during the 13th FYP period, we formed five teams comprising the senior management team, industry leaders’ team, a senior technical team to provide advanced skills and technologies, the international team, and outstanding young officers’ team. These teams will act as a talent pool in support of the Company.

Training programmes

In the Company’s education and training plan for the 13th FYP period, we have proposed to optimise the allocation of resources and provide innovative training approaches, which aim to foster innovative leadership for company leaders, creativity for specialised technical personnel and executive power for management teams. The annual plan for education and training encourages the sharing of training resources among subsidiaries.

In 2016, the Head Office organised 52 training sessions with a total enrolment of approximately 4,700 participants. New seminars were held based on the five major development concepts. New trainings also include the tripartite CITIC-CP Group- Itochu joint training programme, training for Hong Kong-based CITIC employees, and training for senior managers. Additionally, we entered into agreements for reciprocal staff postings with reputable overseas corporations, including Daiwa Securities in Japan for 10 key officers. The annual expenditure of CITIC Securities on staff training amounted to RMB22.67 million, and each employee received an average of 20 hours of training. CITIC Heavy Industries worked with Zhejiang University and China Europe International Business School (Online) to launch a joint training programme. CITIC Construction organized staff to post online micro-class to give lecture on the Company’s rules and regulations for overseas staff, while CITIC Dicastal implemented its China-US-Germany joint personnel training initiative for domestic employees and expatriate employees. CITIC Pacific (China) Investment Co., Ltd. developed a new induction training system for new staff, open lessons and large-group lectures for general staff, specialisation training for business personnel, Eaglet training camps for management trainees, and Flying Eagle training camps for intermediary and senior management.

Selected training programmes in 2016

Case study:

Training to promote cooperation and interaction between Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong staff

CITIC organised two training sessions for Hong Kong employees in June and October 2016, respectively, to promote a better understanding of CITIC by Hong Kong-based employees and greater interaction and cultural inclusion between employees in the Mainland and Hong Kong. Experts were invited to provide lectures on CITIC’s corporate culture and business development. Participants also had the opportunity to visit CITIC Heavy Industries, CITIC Pacific Special Steel and the CITIC Bank Credit Card Centre, and to attend a forum with CITIC Chairman Chang Zhenming as well as other senior management. Through these activities, staff were able to increase their knowledge of the Company and enhance their sense of pride as members of the CITIC team. We plan to incorporate this into the regular training programme of the Company in 2017 with improvements in format and scheme as this will contribute to the development of CITIC.

• Reporting session of the action-based learning programme for middle and young officers of CITIC Limited.
• Worker-maker training session at CITIC Heavy Industries.
• HR strategic workshop at CITIC Pacific.
• Hong Kong employees attend Beijing Guoan football match at its home pitch.
• Visit by Hong Kong employees to Rong Yiren Memorial Hall.

Employee Health and Safety

As part of our commitment to providing a safe and healthy work environment, we keep improving safety management regimes at the headquarters and subsidiaries level to safeguard our employees against occupational diseases and to promote their physical and psychological well-being.

2016 Safety Management and Measures

Promoting Business Ethics and Integrity

In keeping with our customer-centric philosophy, our subsidiaries are committed to providing premium products and integrated service so as to improve service regime. Based on our strengths in business integration, we strive to achieve all-win with our partners and to ensure that we have a responsible supply chain with partners who comply with our high standards of business ethics opposed to corruption and bribery.

Note
1. 10-step service model comprises “greeting, smiling, inquiring, guiding, reminding, instructing, caring, offering drink, showing the way and saying goodbye”.
2. The 6S management model comprises “Sorting, Setting in order, Shining, Standardising, Safety and Sustaining”.

Improving our coordination strategy

In recent years, in keeping with national PPP policy, CITIC Limited has participated in CITIC Group’s initiatives to upgrade its coordination strategy and improve the related systems and mechanisms. Capitalised on CITIC Group’s diversified businesses and mature practices in business coordination, CITIC Limited have contributed a lot to the establishment of three CITIC Coordination Circles.

The Three CITIC Coordination Circles

Responsible procurement

All companies within CITIC Group have procurement duty committees responsible for the management of their respective supply chains according to the Measures for the Administration of Procurement and Tenders formulated by CITIC Limited. According to our rules and regulations, we support and purchase products and services from responsible suppliers.

Case study:

Procurement at CITIC Heavy Industries: A Sunshine Policy

As part of its effort to drive sustainable development, CITIC Heavy Industries has incorporated the concept of social responsibility into its end-to-end supplier management, seeking to jointly create and develop a responsible supply-chain regime that is fair, just and open.

There are currently 2,286 qualified suppliers on the list of CITIC Heavy Industries located in China, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil and Australia. There are 2,123 Chinese suppliers, accounting for 92.87%, 1,208 Henan-based suppliers, accounting for 52.84%, and 914 Luoyang-based suppliers, accounting for 39.98%. Co-operation with locally-based suppliers has not only improved our efficiency but also greatly supported local economic development.

CITIC Heavy Industries aims to grow into a top tier Chinese company with an international reputation. Its objective in procurement is to improve the quality of its products, ensure their timely delivery, enhance fulfilment of its social responsibilities and lower procurement risks by purchasing primarily from well- known domestic and international manufacturers and suppliers. This collaborative relationship with suppliers endeavours to create a healthy, safe and sustainable business environment for the industry.

Anti-corruption

Through adherence to the principles of honesty, integrity and fair competition, and via internal and external supervision measures, we have effectively prevented any ethical risks, safeguarded the Company’s assets and upheld its corporate image. In 2016, we enhanced relevant education and training by arranging anti-corruption presentations at our headquarters and the offices of our subsidiaries. This enhanced training for middle-level management ensured compliance with the CITIC Limited Code of Staff Conduct; more than 90 supervisory staff from our subsidiaries were also trained. We also arranged two visits for relevant departments to the ICAC in Hong Kong, where they learned about measures to prevent corruption, with staff gaining useful experience in strengthening corporate governance and improving the Company’s internal anti- corruption systems.