Informing, educating and training

Dedicated intranet sites

Total relies for much of our communication on an internal network (intranet) of several hundred sites that can be accessed by nearly 70,000 of our employees.

Our intranet is essentially organized into functional and professional discipline sites at the level of holding company and businesses and into regional sites for our decentralized units. Besides disseminating information internally, our intranet sites also provide reference materials and serve as forums for discussion and contact.

They are interconnected and cascade the common information outlined in internal information and education programs. Many sites permanently host pages dedicated to ethics and our principles, as well as direct links to the Code of Conduct.

The primary dedicated reference site is the Ethics site. Besides providing access to different reference documents and the Ethics Committee, it has tabs for specific topics such as human rights and integrity.

Other valuable resources include the Legal Affairs (free competition, integrity), Sustainable Development and Environment, Human Resources (diversity, respect for employees, etc.), Industrial Safety and Audit Departments Web sites. In addition, the Industrial Safety Web site provides content on the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR).

Total University

Dedicated to education and cross-disciplinary training, Total University’s primary vocation is to offer opportunities for discussion and reflection on contemporary issues related to our businesses and operations.

Its programs consist of classes, conferences and lectures held in France and worldwide, designed to promote a fertile mix of ideas and a cross-disciplinary approach to economics, history, sociology and science.

Total University also advances Total’s educational and academic relations initiatives through the Total Summer School and Total Energy and Education Seminar programs for students and professors from around the world.

It offers dedicated in-house programs in the fields of ethics, the environment, industrial safety and corporate social responsibility, which reach several thousand people each year.

Auditing and monitoring

Internal control and risk management

The internal control process is designed to provide reasonable assurance that we are achieving the following objectives : effective and efficient operational control, accurate reporting of financial information, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Our internal control procedures are based on the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) framework. It has five components: the design and implementation of internal controls, risk evaluation process, internal control operations, documentation and communication of internal control rules, and supervision of the internal control system.

Ethical assessments

Total has implemented a program, coordinated by the Ethics Committee, to ensure that the Code of Conduct is being properly applied. Known as ethical assessment, the program is based on an innovative methodology developed by U.K. accreditation company GoodCorporation and validated by the Institute of Business Ethics in London.

To develop a benchmark for the process, the action principles in the Code of Conduct were divided into six stakeholder categories — shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers and contractors, business partners and host countries — and then broken down into 87 compliance criteria, known as evidence points, whose front-line application is verified externally by an external team.

Listening and advising

We implement a process for listening to and dialoguing with employees through our human resources policy. Its centerpiece is the annual performance review most employees ⁽¹⁾ have with their managers. One aspect of this review deals directly with issues related to the Code of Conduct.

A survey is also conducted every two years to find out how employees feel about the major areas of conduct within the company. In 2011, nearly 70,000 people working at 324 sites in 94 countries were surveyed. The response rate was 65%.

Listening is one of the four Total Attitude cornerstone behaviors introduced in 2007. The others are mutual support, cross-functionality and boldness.

Lastly, backing up the primary role of managers in the application of our business principles, the Ethics Committee is available to help Total employees with questions or concerns related to the Code of Conduct. Its confidential assistance is a core focus of the Committee’s ethics process.

(1) In 2010, 99% of Total affiliates had introduced such a process.