People

The success of our business is underpinned by our strong collaborative culture. We recognise the importance of how we work together, with our colleagues as well as our customers, suppliers, and other external stakeholders.

Our culture is founded on our core values. The values of Accountability (taking responsibility and delivering what we promise) and Integrity (building trust in all our relationships through openness and fairness) remain at the heart of how we engage with each other and underpin how we conduct all our external business relationships.

Whilst our policies and procedures provide the framework for how we conduct ourselves and our business activities, it is this strong, values-based culture and the ethical approach embodied within it, which encourage us all to ‘do the right thing’ from an ethical perspective as we go about our day-to-day business activities.

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Regular engagement with our stakeholders is an integral part of how we operate as a business. We actively seek to understand the concerns and aspirations of our employees, how they perceive the business and their levels of engagement.

The Group’s Senior Leadership Team (‘SLT’) engages regularly with employees and monitors their views and any concerns raised closely.

We participate in the Great Place to Work^® survey and are proud to be certified as a Great Place To Work^® in the UK, China and Singapore.

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Alliance operates in eight countries around the world, embracing the differing perspectives and diversity of thought that people from different backgrounds and geographies can bring in addressing the challenges we face as a global business.

We believe in providing equal treatment for all employees, and those seeking employment with the Group, regardless of gender, marital status, race, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, religion or age, geographical origin, social status or areas of abode.

The Group is committed to complying with all current legislation concerning unfair discrimination and to encouraging good practice in equality of treatment.

In furtherance of this commitment, Our Equal Opportunities Policy Statement sets out our commitments, and the expectation we have of all our employees to ensure we treat others with fairness, respect, and integrity.

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We are committed to offering all permanent employees appropriate opportunities for training, development, and career enhancement. We actively encourage and support the development of their skills and knowledge through internal and external short courses and formal training programmes.

Annual development reviews are carried out for all employees to identify job-specific training needs, and future career progression aspirations. These run alongside our annual performance appraisal process, which provides an opportunity to assess progress and performance against pre-agreed goals and objectives.

We also have several leadership and management development programmes.

Find out more in our Online Sustainability Report

The health and well-being of all our employees is vitally important to us. We provide schemes such as Healthcare insurance that are reviewed annually to ensure they meet the needs of the business and our employees across geographies. The Group has a formal work/life balance policy under which eligible employees can request a change to their working hours, or working patterns.

We have given all our employees increased flexibility over office and home working. The majority of employees now spend two or three days a week in the office, allowing them to combine the benefits of individual focus time with the increased connection and collaboration opportunities from being physically present with colleagues in the office.

We believe that good health and safety practices are an integral part of achieving our aims as a business. We provide a healthy and safe working environment for all our employees around the world, as well as all contractors, visitors, customers, and the public with whom we work with. We comply and monitor for changes in all applicable laws and regulations and, where necessary, take appropriate actions to minimise any risks identified.

Our culture promotes collective responsibility, as embodied in our value of Accountability – all our employees are expected to remain accountable for behaving safely when discharging their obligations, including complying with all applicable working procedures and safe working practices. It is the responsibility of all employees, and those working with us, to take steps to prevent accidents, to be attentive to safety and to report hazards, injuries or behaviours and practices that may cause harm.

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All Alliance employees share in the collective success of our business through our share options scheme. As a public company, we have an appropriate Share Dealing Policy in place which applies to all employees and covers their dealing in the Company’s shares. This includes the exercise of share options and sale thereafter of the shares derived from them which may be granted to our employees. The Share Dealing Policy includes guidance on the Market Abuse Regulation and “price sensitive information”, as well as the procedures for seeking consent to deal in the Company’s shares. All employees are given an induction by the Legal Department on the Market Abuse Regulation, “price sensitive information” and share dealing, as well as undergoing annual desktop refresher courses.

Find out more in our Online Sustainability Report

We operate our business in an ethical and sustainable way. We have formal policies around Modern Slavery and Bribery and Corruption, together with training for all employees and contractors, to ensure these policies are understood and adhered to.

Modern slavery

Alliance has an anti-slavery and human trafficking policy, designed to promote compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The policy provides guidance to employees, contractors and other business partners on slavery and human trafficking and the measures taken by Alliance to tackle any slavery and human trafficking in its business and its supply chains.

We are committed to ensuring that we and those whom we deal with respect human rights and all applicable laws and regulations relating to the same. All employees and contractors are required to comply with this policy, with training on the policy, and on the risk the business faces from modern slavery in its supply chains, forming part of the induction process for all individuals who work for Alliance. Regular refresher training on this and other compliance matters is provided to all employees on an annual basis.

We are constantly striving to evolve our supply chain to ensure that our partners not only commit to comply but actually comply with our Anti-Modern Slavery Policy. We use a number of external research tools to allow us to monitor the publicly available information relating to our partners and continue to evolve or methods of auditing our partners.

Anti-Bribery, Corruption, Fraud and Anti-Tax Evasion Facilitation

It is our policy to conduct all business in an honest and ethical manner. We take a zero-tolerance approach to bribery and corruption and are committed to acting professionally, fairly and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships wherever we operate and implementing and enforcing effective systems to counter bribery and corruption.

We will uphold all laws relevant to countering bribery and corruption in all the jurisdictions in which we operate. However, as a UK registered Group, we remain bound by UK laws, including the Bribery Act 2010, in respect of our conduct both at home and abroad. Alliance has an anti-bribery and corruption policy, designed to assist in the prevention of bribery and corruption by or involving the Group’s employees. The policy provides guidance both to the Group and its employees and contractors, with respect to their respective obligations and potential liabilities under the Bribery Act 2010. All employees and contractors are required to comply with this policy.

We do however recognise that, as part of our wider business operations, there may of course be occasions where we need to offer actual or potential customers things of value, such as free samples of our products. In these circumstances, we will carefully assess any such gestures to ensure that they are sensible and proportionate.

Alliance does not make and/or accept/request any form of improper payments, and we have procedures in place to help employees identify potential facilitation payments. Employees undergo annual refresher training on Anti-Bribery, Corruption, Fraud and Anti-Tax Evasion Facilitation and as part of our internal policies, all employees are required to report any requests or offers of improper payments which are either made to them or which they become aware of.

Alliance has in place policies to allow it to adhere to applicable legal requirements including the UK Bribery Act, the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the UK Criminal Finances Act.

Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest may arise when two or more competing interests could impair one’s ability to make objective or unbiased business decisions. Conflicts of interest may take the form of financial interests in a competitor, supplier or customer business, recruiting a close family member, close or longstanding friendships or relationships with competitors, suppliers or customers or engaging in employment outside Alliance.

Our policies require our employees, business partners, suppliers, agents and anyone else working on behalf of Alliance to disclose or seek direction on any issues that could potentially conflict with their responsibilities to Alliance. Pursuant to our policies, we require all cases of potential conflicts of interest to be disclosed to Alliance, discussed openly and recorded, and appropriate actions are taken to manage any potential impact on Alliance of the same. Annual updates on the status of any such conflict is required.

Competition Law

We are fully committed to complying with competition law. We take our compliance obligations seriously and have a zero-tolerance approach towards competition law infringements. Alliance has a robust competition law compliance programme in place to ensure that we uphold the highest standards of conduct in this regard.

Whistleblowing

We also operate a formal Whistleblowing Procedure, to support employees in raising any concerns they may have around any suspected wrongdoing. The process is managed by the Company Secretary, who is the Whistleblowing Officer for the Group.

In certain circumstances, provided it is appropriate to do so, Human Resources may also be involved in concerns which are raised. The outcomes of any investigations carried out in accordance with the Policy are reported to and reviewed by the Audit and Risk Committee, as well as to the employee who has raised the issue.

Find out more in our Online Sustainability Report

We are committed to making a lasting social contribution to communities at home and around the world.

Alliance has always been a strong and consistent supporter of the wider community, from our value-based PRAISE awards to employees, which give recipients the opportunity to nominate a charity to receive a cash donation, to our volunteering days, fundraising activities, cash and product donations, which support both local and international charities.

Our work with International Health Partners

International Health Partners (IHP) is a non-profit organisation that supports people in disaster-hit and vulnerable communities to get the medicines they need, by coordinating the safe and responsible donation of long-dated medical products. Alliance has been a long-term supporter of IHP. In 2021, we enabled almost 32,000 treatments to be sent to 13 countries around the world, helping to provide around 10,600 people with the medicine they need.

Find out more in our Online Sustainability Report