Human Rights

Human Rights Statement

We recognize that we can impact the human rights of our team members, guests, workers in the supply chain and people in the communities in which we operate. Aligned with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labor Organization Core Conventions, we are committed to respecting human rights throughout our operations. 

In alignment with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we respect human rights and seek to avoid adverse human rights impacts resulting from our business activities. We are continuously working to do better and improve our impact. However, if adverse impacts arise, our approach focuses on mitigation and remediation through effective remedies.

At Target, we help all families discover the joy of everyday life. In adhering to our purpose and as part of our ongoing commitment to human rights, we conducted a mapping exercise to identify salient human rights issues across our business. Based on this assessment, we understand that we can impact human rights in the following ways:  

Our team members

• We value the more than 400,000 team members who work together to serve our guests, and we develop practices and policies to help them thrive in the workplace, such as our Code of Ethics.
• We invest in our team by giving them opportunities to grow professionally; take care of themselves, each other and their families; and to make a difference for our guests and our communities.
• We embrace diversity and strive to give everyone access to the same opportunities. We do this through inclusive guest experiences, inclusive work environments, workforce diversity and societal impact, in addition to our Equal Employment Opportunity and Harassment-Free Workplace Policy.
• We’re committed to providing a safe environment for both team members and guests, with dedicated safety programs to reduce or eliminate workplace hazards, including our Injury and Illness Protection Program.
• We believe that engaging directly is the best way to meet our team members’ needs, as we respect the rights of workers to make an informed decision as to whether or not to associate with any group, consistent with all applicable laws.

Our guests

• We are committed to offering guests products, services and experiences that meet their diverse needs — regardless of size, body type, race or abilities. To meet this commitment, we have dedicated inclusivity training for all of our product designers, merchandising teams and marketing teams, in addition to processes for reviewing assortment decisions.

Our supply chain

• We are committed to respecting the human rights of workers within Target’s supply chain, especially at-risk groups including women, young workers, domestic migrant workers and foreign contract workers. 
• We expect all our domestic and international business partners to respect human rights, and to comply with Target’s Standard of Vendor Engagement and all applicable laws pertaining to human rights including, without limitation, all laws applicable to workplace health, safety, labor and employment. Target’s Responsible Sourcing Audit Program monitors worker safety and labor compliance in facilities that produce Target owned brand or exclusive products, as well as those that produce nationally branded products for which Target is the importer of record.
• We do our part to ensure that workers have decent working conditions, including validating that clean, drinkable water and sanitation are accessible for the workers in Target’s supply chain. 
• Target is a member of the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) organization, and we adopted its wastewater guidelines to help reduce unwanted chemicals in the manufacturing process for Target’s products and to help prevent our suppliers from discharging wastewater into surrounding communities.
• We empower our suppliers to support their workers through capability building programs, including the Supplier Engagement program which aims to bring innovative labor management practices and a continuous improvement culture to our strategic vendors and factories. The program provides train-the-trainer support in key focus areas: management systems, building worker-management social performance teams, supervisory skills, workplace communication, negotiation skills and grievance mechanisms. 
• We take a risk-based approach to supply chain management, and we continually assess and address the risks that emerge and evolve over time.

Responsible Sourcing and Sustainability Human Rights Strategy 

In 2022, we created a Responsible Sourcing and Sustainability Human Rights Strategy to strengthen human rights due diligence in our supply chain in response to the salient human rights risks identified in our human rights impact assessment. As part of this strategy, we are piloting human rights due diligence tools in new areas of our supply chain, including indirect spend, produce farms and the distribution supply chain. This work is still in the early stages, and we anticipate scaling and institutionalizing this work, with the objective of enhancing Target’s human rights due diligence while also amplifying industrywide impacts. 

Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA)

In 2022, Target partnered with Article One, an expert business and human rights consultancy, to refresh our human rights impact assessment (HRIA) for our operations, supply chain, and business relationships. The refresh identified key salient risk areas relevant to Target, our team members, guests, supply chain workers, and communities we serve. This year, our partnership with Article One continues as we further refine our strategy to develop and build an impactful human rights program and further our focus on our key salient risk areas relevant to our business.

Supply Chain: 2022 Salient Human Rights Risk Areas

• The 2022 updated assessment began with the extended supply chain and identified the following impact areas: 
  • Continuing to strengthen our policies and programs to maintain safe working conditions and fair labor standards, and further protect workers from discrimination, harassment and abuse. 
  • Respecting human rights for all workers, including workers in the distribution, indirect, and informal supply chains.  
  • Expanding continuous improvement and worker wellbeing efforts, categories that may be higher risk. 

2022 Salient Human Rights Risk Areas

Our communities

• We believe in being good neighbors wherever we operate, focusing on creating opportunities for our teams, accelerating economic development and vitality, and helping power the prosperity and well-being of our communities.
• We are focused on nurturing a diverse workforce in the communities where we do business with equitable access to hiring, development and advancement.
• One of our greatest opportunities to foster communities is through our philanthropic efforts. We give 5% of our profits back to the communities we call home, as we have since 1946.

Governance

Target’s Board of Directors, including its Committees, oversee multiple aspects of our Human Rights Commitment, as follows: 

• The full Board oversees our overall sustainability strategy, including the organizational team health aspect of human rights. 
• The Governance & Sustainability Committee oversees external reporting on human rights. 
• The Audit & Risk Committee oversees our compliance and ethics programs and supply chain matters, including vendor human capital and responsible sourcing practices. 
• The Compensation & Human Capital Management Committee oversees a variety of human rights topics, including DE&I, culture and employee engagement, pay equity, broad-based compensation and benefits, growth and development and purpose and values. 

In addition, our Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility leads this work at the management level, with day-to-day implementation of our human rights commitments driven by numerous teams, including but not limited to dedicated team members in Corporate Responsibility and Responsible Sourcing. These teams work together to advance our human rights program for our owned operations and supply chain.

Implementation

We conduct ongoing due diligence, as well as engage with our stakeholders, to continuously strengthen our understanding of our salient human rights issues within our operations and in our supply chain. 

In 2022, we rolled out our first human rights training to key business areas including merchandising, owned brands (including Sourcing), and Corporate Responsibility. These teams are now automatically enrolled in the training annually and cover topics including the foundations of human rights; human rights risks in business operations worldwide; and Target’s Human Rights Commitments, including our alignment with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Declarations on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We plan to build on the success of this training in the future. 

Additionally, Target’s Integrity Hotline is available to team members and suppliers to report any  concerns about potential violations of our Code of Ethics.