Frontify for good

1. Frontify at a glance

1.1 Who we are

Frontify is Where Brands Live – In today’s world, your brand is your bottom line. Our software helps everyone and everything brand-related come together and thrive under one roof.

Collaborative projects get off the ground with clarity and ease with one shared project platform. With workflows and project overviews, everyone can stay involved and up to date, moving things forward together, from everywhere.

From start to finish, our brand management platform covers every aspect of the brand journey.

1.2 Our mission

With our best-in-class brand management platform, Frontify is on a mission to create a home where all brands can thrive.

1.3 Our vision

We envision a world where everyone is a part of building beloved brands.

2. About this document

“Frontify for Good” is our living document to communicate with all stakeholders on our commitments to corporate responsibility. We believe that raising employee awareness on essential responsible practices and sharing them with business partners can foster relationships of mutual respect and trustworthiness.

This document provides an overview of Frontify’s internal initiatives and programs to ensure the integration of certain fundamental ethical principles into our daily operations and compliance with the law. It includes information concerning five identified main pillars, namely: Human & Labor Rights, Ethics & Integrity, Privacy & Data Protection, Environmental Responsibility, and Customers’ Interests.

3. The cornerstone of our corporate responsibility

3.1 Our inspiring culture

3.1.1 Our personality

We value authentic connections. This is reflected in the way we communicate with employees and customers alike. We’re welcoming, supportive, and encouraging. It shows in the way we onboard people and celebrate success. We’re inherently inviting because we seek to always grow and experience more.

We approach problem solving with optimism and energy. This is reflected in the way we proudly share and showcase our differences and personalities with each other and with the outside world. This vibrance brings a natural enthusiasm to all we do, from exchanges with customers to our internal events that bring energy and build optimism.

We are inspired by challenges, eager to learn, and motivated to innovate. We’re lifelong knowledge-seekers, always looking for opportunities to learn and develop as individuals. In turn, we share our findings with one another, imparting insights for our collective growth. It’s apparent in the way we handle situations where we might say, “I don’t know” when we don’t, but follow through with queries to gain answers. It’s also the reason we might stop by someone’s desk just to see what they’re working on.

3.1.2 Our shared beliefs

We believe in the potential of highly engaged, connected, and collaborative teams. We work together, share ideas, and support each other. We value openness, participation, and connection, bringing different perspectives together and breaking mental barriers. We ensure every voice is heard, regardless of role or background, through frequent feedback loops.

We believe in staying true to oneself. We’re true to ourselves, always. We know who we are and why we’re here. We value authenticity, focus, and clarity. We communicate honestly, internally, and externally. We don’t sell what we don’t have or what clients don’t need.

We shape the future. We believe great brands, and the people behind them, have the power to shape the future. We’re eager to challenge the status quo, innovate, and develop sustainably. This means we value growth, adaptability, and innovation.

3.1.3 Our behaviors

We strive for balance. We work smart, balancing freedom and responsibility. This means we perpetually foster self-determination, setting expectations clearly and aligning on ways of working. Our policies allow for autonomy and flexibility, from flexible hours to general work/life balance. We do periodic checks to ensure employees feel balanced, empowered, and self-directed.

We unite the power of the collective. By amplifying the potential of individuals we achieve the extraordinary and trust that only together we can realize our shared vision. We’re transparent with information, sharing anything from project processes to budget numbers, almost weekly. We bring people together, from our own teams to those of our clients, their brands, sub-brands, experts, and new team members. Our teams span a wide range of roles, backgrounds, lived experiences, and more. This makes us stronger, more informed, and more understanding of the world we operate within.

We seek new directions. We love seeking new directions and aspiring for better. Fostering an environment where practices are challenged, solutions evolved, and unconventional ideas explored. We celebrate the challengers – those who question

3.2 Our five pillars of ethics

3.2.1 Preamble

At Frontify, our inspiring culture and shared values represent an essential framework against which all our business operations are assessed. The same applies for our commitments to corporate responsibility – our policies and procedures in the identified pillars are consequential to an overall commitment to act responsibly towards employees, business partners, customers, society, and the environment.

The following sections document our approach to those areas of corporate responsibility which we believe require special attention, as well as provide some guiding principles to help to act in line with corporate responsibility. Any conduct in contradiction to the ethical framework provided herein is in contradiction to our corporate culture.

3.2.2 We uphold human and labor rights

Every person counts, every voice is heard. We are a community of caring and supportive people who respect each other, in a spirit of collaboration. Everyone has a place in the whole, with its fundamental rights and freedoms being upheld without distinction or limitation of any kind. We believe that every personality can only flourish where the surrounding environment is secure and respectful of its uniqueness. Hence, we fight any form of discrimination and any conduct which might be detrimental to the individual as such.

Everyone “Feels at home” and supported within their growth paths. We care about our employees and make sure that everyone feels welcome and engaged from day one. We build relationships which are based on trust and make sure everyone receives adequate training and support to achieve their full potential. Our office spaces are designed to suit the needs of every employee and subject to regular controls to ensure that people are safe and comfortable at work. This goes for our remote employees as well, through proper equipment and virtual connectivity that builds confidence, support, and comfort, in their roles and as valuable members of the company.

Everyone contributes to maintaining a healthy and safe working environment. We take the health and safety of our employees seriously; thus, we are fully committed to complying with the applicable laws, regulations, and standards. We adopt preventive measures and perform regular risk assessments, to be able to identify hazards and mitigate accidents in a timely manner. With the purpose of ensuring a comfortable work environment, we leave our employees the freedom to organize their working schedule and to take time off whenever they feel the need. We conduct ongoing employee surveys to identify and potentially prevent overwhelming working conditions. We define specific programs to support employees facing health issues and to reintegrate them gradually. All team leads are trained to address such situations, from how to best communicate with employees needing additional care, to practical methods for supporting the employee with a suitable program. Additionally, we train employees on the importance of maintaining safety conditions at work and call upon them to act responsibly and leave feedback around safety matters.

Every employee’s rights and freedoms are guaranteed and protected. We endorse all universally recognized labor standards and guarantee full respect of the employee’s fundamental rights. Specifically:

• On child labor. We prohibit child labor and protect the right of young employees to schooling and education in general. We observe the applicable national regulations regarding the minimum age for admission to employment, and where no such national regulation exists, we refer to the relevant guidelines of Convention C138 of the International Labor Organization (ILO). According to this Convention, in no occasion, except under the specific circumstances set out in Articles 6 and 7 of the Convention, a child under 15 years of age may be employed. Additionally, we ensure that the health, safety and developments of our young employees under 18 years of age, are safeguarded through employment agreements approved by the competent national authority. This specifically applies to our apprenticeship programs organized from time to time.
• On forced labor. We reject all forms of forced and compulsory labor, as well as all forms of modern slavery and human trafficking. We refuse the practice of bonded labor, including the use of employment bonds to recover costs borne for employee trainings or other educational activities. There are no restrictions on employees regarding the use of the office space: everyone is encouraged to organize his weekly plan between days to be spent at the office and days of remote work. Lastly, every employment relationship is concluded on a voluntary basis and employees are entitled by contract to terminate at their own discretion and within a reasonable notice period.
• On freedom of association. We acknowledge every employee’s freedom to form trade unions and employee representations; to join or not to join them, as well as, the employee’s right to collective bargaining. In consequence of any such free choice, we do not penalize, discriminate, or harass employees and use our best efforts to foster an environment where no such discriminatory behavior is ever held and/or tolerated among employees themselves.

Additionally, great focus is on guaranteeing fair incomes, protection and security in the workplace, support for personal and family development, employee engagement, equality of opportunity and anti-discrimination practices, and working time flexibility. For each area we set clear goals and relevant strategies, most of which are detailed in the different sections of this report.

Everyone’s efforts and motivation are rewarded fairly.

The salary system. Our salary system combines elements of flexibility and clarity and is meant to be fair, meaningful, competitive, and sound. We defined certain objective criteria and processes which apply equally to each employee, while still allowing for adaptation as the circumstances may require. The evaluation phase is meant to assess each employee’s performance according to the expectations of its role, as well as, its growth within the position. At this stage, employees are engaged in a constructive conversation with their team leads, with the purpose of exchanging expectations and aligning on future career steps. The combination of role and growth evaluation leads eventually to the definition and the evolution of the salary.

The bonus and other benefits. All employees participate in a company wide bonus program. It is based on the attainment of our commercial goals and is meant to let employees participate in the extraordinary success of the company. If we achieve our realistic/ambitious goals, the bonus should replicate a month’s salary (8% of a yearly salary).

We award educational grants (programs, courses, coaching, conferences, etc.) on a case-by-case basis to support employees’ professional development.

Some other benefits include:

1. For the Swiss-based employees: supplementary accident insurance worldwide; maternity leave 100% paid for sixteen weeks.
2. For the NY-based employees: remote flexibility; core benefits (medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance); life management (Employee Assistance program, Health Advocate); we observe up to 11 days of federal holidays. We’re in the process of defining our US-based maternity policy with a view to make it resemble Switzerland’s.
3. For remote employees: additional benefits depending on the type of contract and working location.

Every employee's needs are different, therefore, flexibility is key. We believe that a healthy and productive work environment only exists where employees have enough autonomy to identify their work-life integration. As a result, a great part of our internal policies and processes is aimed at fostering everyone’s self-determination in a context of mutual respect within the team, towards customers, and the company as a whole. Thus, every employee has the freedom to organize its working schedules according to his specific life needs and align with its team on expectations and ways of working.

Everyone feels engaged and contributes to the company’s growth. We believe in the potential of highly engaged, connected, and collaborative teams. Thus, we communicate openly with employees on the company’s goals and strategies, and encourage them to share their thoughts, ideas and concerns. We use a third party tool to run internal surveys and collect anonymous feedback on how the employees feel about the company culture, their role, the team, and the overall company direction. The results are then discussed within the relevant teams – or, where more appropriate also in the management – and relied on to define effective action plans.

Every employee’s goals and expectations are backed up by career paths and directions. We want our employees to grow with the company and we know that each person has specific views and expectations about its ideal career. Hence, we carry out several initiatives with the purpose of offering our employees guidance about different career options and steps to pursue them. Being a fast-growth company, we constantly create new positions which give employees the opportunity to explore new fields of interest or take on more responsibility in leadership roles. We listen to employees’ preferences and support inter-departmental transitions as well as their ambitions to pursue new career paths. We make sure that the internal application process is an objective one and accompanied by the Employee Success Team. All team leads are responsible for scheduling development slots with every team member regularly and help them define tangible directions. We use OKRs to help us define and measure company and team goals quarterly.

Everyone feels included and respected for their uniqueness. Our teams bring together a wide range of roles, backgrounds, and lived experiences which allow us to be more creative and inventive. It’s through a mutual respect and reverence for individual points of view, alongside an open ear and consideration for others, that we contribute to a healthy and exciting environment to work.

Some of our DE&I initiatives include:

• Objective recruiting process with diverse interviewers
• Unconscious bias training for hiring managers
• Data collection in weekly surveys around diversity, inclusiveness, and non-discrimination
• Group analysis around workplace engagement and DE&I surveys to identify whether some groups have a different experience than others
• Opportunity to comment anything anonymously in Peakon and in the weekly all-hands meeting
• Pay equity analysis together with PwC and the Swiss Federal Statistical Office
• Introduction of an employee powered group for DE&I topics (welcome everyone)
• Analysis of workforce/leadership/applicant diversity
• Structured strengths assessments and review sessions with individuals and teams to celebrate differences
• Integration of apprentices and employees with difficulties to integrate in the primary labor market (we also work with an agency, Förderraum, who supports people with disabilities / difficulties to integrate in the primary labor market).

DE&I outlook:

• Additional resources with DE&I in their job-descriptions (already hired, starting in the next 2 months) and external partners – and consequently, a more strategic approach to DE&I in Q4/Q1.
• Additional data analysis around DE&I in the recruitment process, around workforce diversity and experience, and pay equity.

3.2.3 We embrace ethics and integrity

We comply with the law. We’re committed to the highest standards of integrity and responsibility towards all our stakeholders. To meet those standards, we, foremost, abide by applicable laws and regulations in force in the countries we operate. Additionally, we perform internal awareness trainings to ensure every employee takes compliance seriously and follows the relevant internal policies and procedures. We communicate frequently and transparently, internally and externally, around any change to the applicable regulations which would require an adaptation in our daily operations accordingly. We monitor compliance with applicable laws and regulations constantly and take immediate action to remedy any spotted violations.

We handle our supply chain responsibly. We apply objective criteria when engaging with external third parties, such as competitiveness, quality, objectivity, correctness, and respectability. We do business exclusively with those external parties who can ensure high standards of compliance, ethics, and integrity which are substantially equivalent to our own standards; this being essential precondition to the establishment and continuation of any business relationship. We keep records of all our existing contractors, monitor our business relationships regularly, and instruct employees to abide by the internal processes for the engagement of any new contractor. Such engagement may only be finalised once the legal, financial, and security assessments have been concluded successfully and certain key contractual provisions have been negotiated and secured. These latter include, at a minimum, the right to audit the contractor’s compliance with the law and the contractual agreement, as well as the right to terminate our contractual relationship at any time.

We take a firm and principled stand against all forms of corruption. We do not knowingly engage in or tolerate any corrupt practices, including kickbacks, facilitation payments, charitable and political donations sponsorship, travel and promotional expenses, conflict of interest, or collusion, regardless of where our operations take place and of any local established practices. We comply with national and international legal standards and regulations, and with the relevant laws countering bribery in all jurisdictions in which we operate. We set high standards of transparency and behavior as the norm, so that incidents of non-compliance are reduced and easier to identify and correct. This involves primarily maintaining accurate books and records that properly and fairly document all our financial transactions.

We promote employee awareness of our anti-corruption policy through regular trainings. All employees are aware of and expected to abide by certain fundamental ethical principles and to comply with our internal procedures. In particular, they shall:

1. Avoid situations where private interests are in conflict or could come into conflict with the interest of Frontify as a company. Where employees find themselves in such circumstances, they should disclose the situation to their direct manager and the management. Eventually, they can refer to the legal team for counselling. Since not all circumstances where private interests are involved in a business situation qualify as a conflict of interest, documenting the private interests and showing transparently why there is no conflict can help to resolve most of these cases.
2. Not be involved in the offering, giving or receiving of benefits whenever they could influence or reasonably be perceived to influence improperly the outcome of a business decision process. On the other hand, the employee shall be allowed to offer, give or receive reasonable and good faith gifts, hospitality expenditures or other benefits which may be strictly driven by local customs, traditions and morals and make sure to respect our stakeholders internal policies applicable from time to time. In every case the benefit must be legal, appropriate, proportional, and transparent. In case of uncertainty, the latter should always ask the legal team for advice.
3. Not be involved in the offering or making of facilitation payments.
4. Register every financial transaction performed on behalf of the company by using approved company-wide tools.

We acknowledge that these guiding principles shall be accompanied by training and follow-up to make sure that our ethical culture is preserved and adequately adjusted as we grow. Therefore, we commit to strengthen our use of the company communication channels to raise awareness of the topic, and train and encourage every employee to raise concerns and report violations through the use of secure and confidential channels.

3.2.4. We prioritize privacy and data protection

Our primary goal is to collect as little information as possible. Frontify commits to only processing as little information as possible as we firmly oppose the misuse of provided information. We comply with domestic data privacy laws, in parallel with, and additionally to, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016/679. This means at a minimum, that in our capacity as processors, we process personal data according to the specific instructions of the data controller and only to the extent strictly necessary to provide our services; whereas, in our capacity as controllers, we make sure that the processing is always justifiable on one of the lawful basis recognized by art. 6 GDPR.

We guarantee the privacy of personal data. Protecting the personal information we collect in the context of our operations is our core responsibility, therefore, we set the highest standards of security and transparency. We have a comprehensive publicly available Privacy Policy as well as a Cookie Policy which thoroughly describe the categories of personal data we collect and how we use, store, and access them. They both provide a good overview of all the basic principles – such as the principle of least privilege – and responsibilities we integrate into our daily activities and across the entire organization, to ensure full compliance with the applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Privacy and security is an integral part of our product. During our development process we make sure to follow privacy and security standards which include measures like not using any real information during the development process and continuous manual as well as automatic testing. We also test our standards through several third parties on a regular basis so we have a view from the outside too.

We actively participate in industry initiatives and collaborations. Earning and maintaining our customers’ trust is – and always has been – at the core of Frontify. Since day one, IT and information security were included in every aspect of our system development, internal operations, and how (customer-) data is handled. Our efforts go beyond just legal regulations. We therefore actively follow industry standards and have worked towards obtaining the ISO 27011:2013 certification. Because Information Security is dependent on the whole company, our Frontify Information Management Security System (FISMS) scope covers all essential assets, processes, and services which are connected with the Frontify application and the company’s business operations, irrespective of where the process or service is carried out. In addition to that, we actively participate in initiatives and communities on a regular basis to get the latest news and have interactions within the industry.

Privacy and data protection is at the core of Frontify’s culture. We are committed to a culture of privacy, data protection, and information security. We therefore appointed a dedicated team leading initiative such as awareness training. No matter which hierarchy or job profile, all employees have to participate in regular awareness training and have to state their compliance through a statement of acceptance.

We work with trustworthy third parties only. In order to provide parts of the services available on the Platform and/or the Site (our website), we engage with trusted third parties. We however commit to our own standards. This is why we have introduced a vendor management process where all third parties have to participate in and prove their commitment and compliance with our own guidelines.

We actively listen and respond. All employees, customers and third parties are encouraged to provide any incidents or issues when it’s about privacy and data protection. We actively source for industry insights and news ourselves but also ask for everyone’s cooperation by sending us any insights and concerns to privacy@frontify.com.

3.2.5 We promote environmental responsibility

We encourage environmentally friendly behaviors. Besides complying with domestic and international laws on environmental protection, we strive to do our part every day to keep our impact on the environment to a minimum, and to always look for better practices. Today, some of our small initiatives with a significant impact include:

• Efficient use of energy (e.g. assessing heating usage and setting a central thermostat to a specific, comfortable temperature)
• Separation of waste before collection and recycling as far as possible
• Promotion of public transport for commuting • Home office whenever possible
• Near sourcing (e.g. local food providers)\

3.2.6 We respect customers’ interests

We provide clear and correct information and adopt fair business practices. In full respect of consumers’ fundamental right to make informed purchasing decisions, we adopt fair business and marketing practices, and guarantee the quality of our products and services. We provide our customers with clear and correct information about our products and services. Among other things, this information includes prices, content, risks, support provided, etc. Additionally, we remain at our customers’ disposal for any further information they might need according to their specific business segment, and ensure they can easily reach out to us in case of questions or complaints. We always do our best to make sure customers’ requests are handled rapidly and efficiently.

We ensure confidentiality of information. In the course of our operations, we may receive or gain access to information that is confidential and/or proprietary to our customers. Regardless of how we receive such information, if through physical means or through conversations to which we are a party, we protect them from disclosure to the public. As a general rule, our employees are aware that any information they receive about the company or customers is confidential and must be protected from disclosure. Additionally, they are bound by an internal confidentiality agreement to safeguard confidential information, whether generated internally or acquired from external sources and to use it only in the performance of their employment responsibilities. The handling of confidential information among employees and with contractors is regulated by one core principle according to which, confidential information may only be communicated to those persons that have a need to know it for a legitimate business purpose.

4. Looking ahead: A sneak peek at our future commitments

Looking ahead, our main goal is to continue to invest great part of our time and resources in monitoring our existing programs and initiatives with a view to make every day a little better. We’ll continue to do research on key topics and update ourselves around the industry best practices, and where appropriate, we’ll take action to internalize them in harmony with our culture. We’ll work to identify ways to address any spotted gap or inefficiency rapidly and comprehensively. We’ll do our best to update this document on a regular basis and to clearly communicate any new initiative concerning our Five Pillars of Ethics.