DocuSign Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement
Adopted August 29, 2023
Introduction
This Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement (“Statement”) of DocuSign (entities outlined below) addresses the reporting requirements set out in section 54(1) of the UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015, the Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) (the “Australian Act”) and all other applicable laws and regulations as the case may be for the financial year ending 31 January 2023.
DocuSign is committed to operating ethically and responsibly and strives to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in any part of our business or our supply chains. We encourage and expect our employees and suppliers to take this same approach and uphold these values.
We welcome the transparency and diligence that the legislation mentioned above encourages and this Statement sets out the steps DocuSign has taken to comply with its obligations under that legislation.
Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking
The term “modern slavery” describes a range of situations in which coercion, threats or deception are used to exploit individuals and undermine their freedom. These situations include slavery, servitude, forced marriage, forced labor, debt bondage, deceptive recruiting for labor and the worst forms of child labor.
“Human trafficking” occurs when a person arranges or facilitates the travel of another person with a view to the other person being exploited.
Entities covered
This Statement covers the following DocuSign group entities:
DocuSign, Inc.;
DocuSign UK Limited;
DocuSign France SAS;
DocuSign Canada ULC; and
DocuSign International, Inc.,
together referred to in this Statement as “DocuSign”.
Where it is the case that any of the aforementioned legislation does not apply to one of these group entities or does not require that group entity to provide this statement, that group entity has chosen to provide this statement anyway as part of its responsible approach to business conduct.
Reporting entity for the purposes of the Australian Act
For the purposes of the Australian Act, DocuSign International, Inc. is the relevant reporting entity and the relevant reporting period is 1 February to 31 January.
DocuSign International, Inc. has limited its initial reporting in this Statement to its Australian operations. DocuSign will review this approach to reporting in subsequent reporting periods.
Our business, structure and operations
DocuSign is the global leader in the eSignature category. We offer products that address broader agreement workflows and digital transformation, including the world’s leading electronic signature product, enabling agreements to be signed electronically on a wide variety of devices, from virtually anywhere in the world, securely. DocuSign’s product offerings, including DocuSign eSignature, allow organizations to do business faster with less risk and lower costs, while providing better experiences for customers and employees. We offer applications for automating pre- and post-signature processes, including automatically generating an agreement from data in other systems, supporting negotiation workflow, verifying identities, enabling remote online notarization, collecting payment after signatures, and using artificial intelligence (“AI”) to analyze a collection of agreements for risks and opportunities. DocuSign has over 400 partner integrations with the world’s most used applications, so agreement processes can integrate with larger business processes and data where work happens.
Every agreement has an agreement process: how it is prepared, signed, acted on, and managed. Traditional agreement processes are slow, expensive and error-prone because they involve many manual steps, disconnected systems, and paper signing. Our value proposition is simple to understand: eliminate the paper, automate processes, and connect to the applications and systems where work gets done. This allows organizations to reduce turnaround times and costs, largely eliminate errors, and deliver a streamlined customer experience.
As of January 31, 2023, over 1.3 million customers and more than a billion users in over 180 countries use the DocuSign platform to accelerate and simplify the process of doing business. Further details of our company can be found in our annual report and accounts available at investor.docusign.com.
DocuSign’s group’s parent company is DocuSign, Inc., a Delaware corporation. DocuSign, Inc. has subsidiary companies operating in over 19 countries with 7,336 employees as of January 31, 2023.
In Australia, DocuSign operates through the following branch office:
Sydney branch office: Level 8, 126 Phillip Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
DocuSign operates sales and customer success/support activities through its Australian branch offices and employs over 200 employees in its Australian branch offices as of the date of this statement. The Australian branch offices do not own, operate or control any subsidiary entities in Australia.
Our suppliers and supply chains
Our key suppliers are concentrated in the supply of open source software, software as a service, hardware products, and standard physical items for internal business operational use such as computer hardware.
Risks of modern slavery practices in DocuSign’s supply chains
DocuSign does not have long or complex supply chains. DocuSign does not manufacture any products. We do source “off the shelf” physical products for a handful of customers, but this is not a large revenue stream or significant part of our business. Our major vendors and suppliers (other than those that meet our physical operating requirements, such as office space, physical office supplies, etc.) are mostly “software as a service” and service-based. We have determined that, in light of these characteristics, there is minimal risk of modern slavery occurring in our supply chains.
Actions taken by DocuSign to assess and address those risks
We expect our suppliers to act with the utmost integrity and treat their employees fairly. Our supplier relationships are governed by written contracts which set out how we expect our suppliers to act and conduct themselves. We expect our suppliers to act with the utmost integrity and ensure that their employees and staff do the same. When we contract with a new supplier, we carry out due diligence on the supplier and make a comprehensive risk assessment. Our supplier relationships remain subject to ongoing review and we will not knowingly work with any business involved in (or suspected to be involved in) modern slavery or human trafficking.
Our policies and training
We have the following policies in place which reflect the robust governance of our business and the importance we place on adopting an ethical and legally compliant approach to business conduct as well as a diverse and safe workplace:
Anti-Harassment and Discrimination Policy;
Legal Compliance Policy;
Global Anti-Corruption Compliance Policy;
Employee handbooks (which are country-specific);
Global Supplier Code of Conduct;
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (the “Code”); and
Whistleblower and Complaint Policy.
These policies are made available to our employees globally. Our Code and our Whistleblower and Complaint Policy exemplify our commitment to preventing human rights violations and actively encourage our employees to take issues of illegal and unethical conduct seriously and report in good faith all known and suspected improper activities. Our Code clearly states that we do not tolerate an abusive or harmful work environment (including modern slavery and human trafficking) and that this standard applies to our relations with our customers, partners, co-workers, and fellow community members around the world. Our Code addresses issues in relation to modern slavery and to underline the importance of having a work environment that is free of slavery and human trafficking where our employees take these issues seriously and raise any concerns without fear of retribution or victimization. We are committed to ensuring that the letter and spirit of our Code is upheld across our business and will continue to monitor and remedy violations if they should occur.
Our Whistleblower and Complaint Policy provides our employees with a confidential or anonymous avenue of communication for reporting any violations of the law or the company policies, including violations by third parties who provide services to our business. If employees become aware of any potential issues regarding modern slavery and/or human trafficking in either our own business or in that of our suppliers, the whistleblowing policy and procedures give employees the opportunity to safely raise these issues without fear of retribution or victimization.
Our employee handbooks also encourage our employees to uphold the highest standards of integrity and act in compliance with the law and our policies.
Our Global Supplier Code of Conduct requires our distributors, resellers, solution and consulting partners, suppliers, vendors, service providers, and other third parties to provide safe and healthy work environments that comply with all applicable labor, health and safety laws and regulations, including those related to lawful employment, wages and benefits, collective bargaining, child labor, prison labor, modern slavery, and human trafficking.
We provide all of our employees with training on our Code to ensure a unified approach to upholding DocuSign’s values. We also make training available to our employees on our other company policies and provide additional role-specific training.
Assessment of policies and practices and further steps
We recognize the need to continually review the effectiveness of our policies and practices in preventing slavery and human trafficking within the business and our supply chains. We do not currently have in place any key performance indicators to measure the effectiveness of the steps being taken but continue to monitor risks and continually develop and progress our approach.
Approval
This Statement was approved on the date set forth below by the boards of directors (or an authorized committee of the board of directors) of DocuSign, Inc., DocuSign UK Limited, DocuSign France SAS, DocuSign Canada Ltd., and (for the purposes of the Australian Act) by the board of directors of DocuSign International, Inc. The foregoing boards of directors have authorized Hugo De La Torre to sign this Statement on behalf of DocuSign in his capacity as an officer or director, as applicable, of the DocuSign group entities making this Statement.
