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Daily CSR
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PayPal Has Published ‘Global Impact Report’ For 2019



05/11/2020

PayPal’s “responsibility of corporations has moved beyond simply delivering shareholder profits”.


Dailycsr.com – 11 May 2020 – PayPal Holdings, Inc. has published its 3rd “annual Global Impact Report” which gives an update about its ESG, namely Environment, Social and Governance, strategies as well as its global operation details for 2019. Moreover, the report further highlights the company’s progress made on the development “financial health”, minimization of its environmental impact, promotion of “inclusive and diverse workforce” while ensure responsible business operations.
 
PayPal, like other, has taken steps to address the global pandemic called COVID-19 that is spreading across the world. As a result, it has endorsed its commitments towards “employees, customers, and communities” across the globe. Moreover, it has introduced measures for its employees’ “well-being and financial security” like “remote working policies” and “Crisis Leave Program” which the increases “paid time off” limit.
 
According to PayPal’s press release:
“It took steps to help its more than 24 million merchants impacted by COVID-19, including waiving certain fees and deferring repayments on select business loans. Additionally, PayPal supported community relief efforts through new employee giving programs, launched fundraising campaigns around the world through PayPal Giving Fund, and made donations to relief efforts in highly impacted regions”.
 
PayPal has also been active in collaborating with governments and regulatory bodies for providing “loans to small businesses through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program”, while also being a distributor of “government stimulus payments”. In the words of the President as well as the Chief Executive Officer of PayPal, Dan Schulman:
“The responsibility of corporations has moved beyond simply delivering shareholder profits. The growing expectation from stakeholders is that companies need to take action to effect positive social and environmental impact. Purpose and profit are becoming increasingly intertwined. Given the challenges the world is facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are committed to supporting the needs of our employees, customers, and communities and helping them navigate this unprecedented time. Our products and services are perhaps more critical than ever before, and our PayPal community has come together during this crisis to take meaningful action to help the most vulnerable in our society.”
 
PayPal’s has “four key priority areas”, namely “Social Innovation, Employees & Culture, Environmental Sustainability, and Responsible Business Practices”, while the company’s “2019 Global Impact Report” talks about all these four fields. Here are the highlights from the report in all the above mentioned categories, as mentioned by PayPal’s press release:
  • Social Innovation: PayPal contributes to a more inclusive global economy by improving financial health, powering charitable giving, and strengthening its communities. In 2019, PayPal:
  • “Leveraged the power of its giving platform to process $16 billion in contributions, including well over $10 billion in contributions to charitable causes, from more than 40 million people around the world.
  • “Utilized the power of its global workforce for good with employee giving and volunteer programs, including more than 43% of employees participating globally in the Kiva lending campaign – empowering ~10,000 entrepreneurs across 36 countries.
  • “Developed products and services to help individuals and businesses improve their financial health, including the PayPal Commerce Platform and PayPal’s business financing solutions, as well as investments in companies driving financial wellness.
  • Employees & Culture: PayPal fosters a strong employee-centered culture that is reinforced by its core values of Collaboration, Inclusion, Innovation, and Wellness. During 2019, PayPal:
  • “Made it a strategic priority to strengthen the financial health of its employees by establishing an Employee Financial Wellness Program. Through this program, PayPal raised wages, expanded benefits, reduced healthcare costs, and gave every employee an ownership stake in the company.
  • “Maintained 100% pay equity for women globally and ethnic pay parity in the U.S. for the fourth year in a row, and advocated for inclusive public policies such as signing onto amicus briefs in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
  • “Continued to build a diverse and inclusive workforce through programs such as Conscious Inclusion Training, completed by over 90% of all global employees. PayPal’s total diversity in 2019 was 57% globally, and experienced a 6% year-over-year increase in females in tech roles and 12% increase in ethnic minorities at Director+ roles since 2015.
  • Environmental Sustainability: PayPal is focused on responsibly managing and reducing its environmental impact. Over the past year, PayPal:
  • “Matched 65% of the energy in data centers with renewable generation, representing significant progress toward the company’s goal of 100% by 2023.
  • “Made meaningful progress toward setting a Science-Based target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions that aligns with the Paris Climate Agreement, and joined the United for Paris coalition to reinforce support for meeting the goals set forth in the agreement.
  • “Brought together passionate employees to volunteer their time and talent to address climate-related issues and develop innovative, sustainable products, including the development and launch of the iZettle Ocean Reader: the world’s first card reader made from recycled ocean plastic.
  • Responsible Business Practices: PayPal’s approach to operating its business is one that is ethical and responsible, including:
  • “Partnering with organizations to combat global financial crimes, including Polaris to fight and disrupt human trafficking cash flows and the Center on Crime and Community Resilience at Northeastern University and the University of Chicago Crime Lab to better understand the financing mechanisms of illegal firearm sales.
  • “Continuing to build a strong culture focused on customer privacy and security, including certifying its information security program to ISO 27001 standards.
  • “Continuing to evaluate it approach to privacy and identify ways to best protect customer data through its eight privacy principles that serve as the basis or enterprise-wide standards for collecting, using, disclosing, storing, securing, accessing, transferring, and processing personal data”.
 
The said report can be downloaded here.
 
References:
3blmedia.com