Listening to stakeholders and our materiality assessment process

Engaging with our stakeholders enables us to understand and respond to their expectations and concerns.

Our approach to engaging with stakeholders is guided by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Universal Standards 2021 and its principles for defining reporting content, which includes stakeholder inclusiveness. In line with the GRI, we engage with our stakeholders to identify and report on the expectations and interests of key stakeholder groups. We seek to ensure that our stakeholders are able to engage with us in a meaningful way.
 

Our sustainability management framework, which includes internal frameworks, policies and committees, also supports our stakeholder engagement process. External stakeholder forums including our Stakeholder Advisory Council, Customer Council, Safer Children, Safer Communities Roundtable, and Westpac Indigenous Advisory Committee, play an important role by bringing wider perspectives to help inform our approach.
 

A number of channels enable us to further understand concerns and respond to stakeholders:

 

 

Stakeholders Ways we engage
Customers
  • Call centres
  • Online
  • Social media
  • Customer advocate
  • Focus groups
  • Customer councils
  • Branch teams and relationship managers
  • Customer surveys
  • Customer feedback from branches 
Employees
  • Quarterly Surveys
  • Yammer (internal social media)
  • People leader forums
  • CEO check-ins
  • Ongoing team meetings
Investors
  • Surveys
  • Briefings and meetings
  • Annual General Meeting
  • Round tables
Government and regulators
  • Policy and trend analysis
  • Industry forums
  • Submissions
  • Reform proposals
  • Meetings
  • Media Updates
Suppliers
  • Supplier forums
  • Meetings
  • Surveys
  • Assessment against our Responsible Sourcing Code of Conduct
Non-governmental organisations
  • One on one meetings
  • NGO participation in industry meetings
Communities
  • Ongoing dialogue with community partners
  • Local branch engagement
  • Skill-based volunteering, mentoring and secondments
  • Strategic workshops and working groups
  • Grants and sponsorships

Our sustainability materiality process

Through our annual sustainability materiality assessment process and ongoing stakeholder engagement, we identify the issues and opportunities that matter most to our stakeholders. 

Our sustainability materiality assessment is based on the updated Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Material Topics Universal Standards 2021 and defined by the significance of the impacts of our business activities on the economy, environment, and people, including impacts on their human rights.

In 2022, in consideration of global sustainability reporting developments, we enhanced our approach to further consider the information needs of financial stakeholders and increased our sustainability disclosures in our Annual Report.

 

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For information on our latest materiality assessment, see our 2022 Sustainability Supplement.

Your feedback

We know how important it is to listen and respond to customer and community concerns on a wide range of issues and we are committed to doing business in a responsible manner.
 

If you would like to provide feedback or raise an issue, you can contact sustainability@westpac.com.au.

 

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