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Acting ethically and in accordance with the law is at the heart of everything we do at the Rhenus Group. Our compliance management system ensures the highest standards and active measures to combat corruption, human rights violations, conflicts of interest, antitrust violations and fraud.
Completely revised in 2024, our Code of Conduct is a central element of our compliance management system and the Rhenus culture. It defines the values and principles that guide our company and forms the basis for all other internal compliance guidelines. The principles of the Code of Conduct are binding for all employees in all subsidiaries and must be followed in their daily work.
The Code of Conduct prohibits any form of anticompetitive behavior and corruption and addresses topics such as conflict of interest and personal data handling. To further specify these standards, the Code of Conduct is supplemented by additional Group-wide compliance guidelines. These guidelines are regularly reviewed and, if necessary, adjusted.
For more information, please read the corporate compliance policy (Code of Conduct), which you can access here:
Employees and external parties can report Illegal or unethical behavior in the relevant risk areas via a Group-wide electronic whistleblowing platform. All incoming reports are validated and forwarded to the departments responsible, which are in charge of investigating and taking appropriate measures. In most cases, this will be carried out by compliance management employees.
The Rhenus Group Compliance function regularly conducts global risk assessments to identify, evaluate and minimize compliance risks. These risk assessments are typically based on surveys and extensive interviews with employees of the so-called “1st line of defense”. In order to obtain a comprehensive picture of the net compliance risks, not only potential risks but also existing risk mitigation measures are taken into account.
In order to introduce all employees to the regulations of the Code of Conduct and compliance guidelines, the Rhenus Group continuously offers mandatory e-learning programs. Additional on-site training promotes the exchange between elected officials, employees and compliance officers. Our compliance training courses are tailored to the business requirements of the respective target groups. For example, new employees are obliged to take part in compliance onboarding training. Compliance employees keep continuously up to date by means of regular training. Ongoing communication measures additionally sensitize Rhenus employees worldwide to compliance risks.
Implementing an effective compliance management system (CMS) is the responsibility of the Executive Board, which is supported by a Group-wide compliance organization. This organization consists of compliance officers at all levels of the corporate structure and reports directly to the Compliance Board, which consists of the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Human Resources Officer and Group Head of Legal.
Acting as direct points of contact for employees on-site, local compliance officers support the implementation and continuous improvement of the compliance management system. Their main focus is on communication measures, training and the processing of compliance reports. Serious violations are reported through a mandatory compliance reporting process. This specifies how reports are to be passed from the compliance officers of the functional and local organizational units to the Group Compliance Officer and on to the Compliance Board.
