2020 nielsen global responsibility report

At Nielsen, data drives everything we do—even art. That’s why we used real data to create this image.

2020 NIELSEN GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT

FOCUSED ON THE FUTURE.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................3-5

OUR COMPANY

Governance ....................................................................................................................... 7

Diversity and Inclusion .................................................................................................. 8-9

Human Capital ...........................................................................................................10-11

Data Privacy and Security .............................................................................................. 12

Environment ..............................................................................................................13-14

Community Engagement ..........................................................................................15-16

DETAILED DISCLOSURES

Governance Disclosure .............................................................................................18-47

Diversity and Inclusion Disclosure ...........................................................................48-59

Human Capital Disclosure ........................................................................................60-77

Data Privacy and Security Disclosure .......................................................................78-83

Environment Disclosure ..........................................................................................84-108

Community Engagement Disclosure ................................................................... 109-117

THIS REPORT

Report Overview ...........................................................................................................119

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Report ............................... 120-127

Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Report ............... 128-140

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards ........................................................ 141-161

Appendix ............................................................................................................... 162-165

INTRODUCTION

“THE BUSINESS OF DATA CREATES RESPONSIBILITY—TO PROTECT THE

CONSUMER, TO PROTECT THE MARKETING ECOSYSTEM, AND TO MANAGE IT

ALL WITH INTEGRITY AND TRANSPARENCY. THE ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND

GOVERNANCE (ESG) ISSUES COVERED IN THIS GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT

BUILD ON OUR FOUNDATION OF INTEGRITY AND TRANSPARENCY.”

David Kenny

Chief Executive Ocer & Chief Diversity Ocer, Nielsen

MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO

The truth matters.

For nearly a century, Nielsen has provided data and analytics based on scientic rigor and cutting-

edge innovation, continually developing new ways to answer the most important questions facing the

media, advertising, retail and fast-moving consumer goods industries. Since data powers Nielsen’s

business, it must be of the highest quality: consistent, reliable and representative of all consumers

and channels. The business of data creates responsibility—to protect the consumer, to protect the

marketing ecosystem, and to manage it all with integrity and transparency.

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues covered in this Global Responsibility Report

build on our foundation of integrity and transparency. Whether it’s our commitment to engaging and

developing our employees, leading with diversity and inclusion across our workforce and approach to

measurement, or leveraging our data and people to make a positive impact—we are committed as a

company to delivering greater value for all of our stakeholders. This responsibility is shared by every

member of our Nielsen team around the globe.

The truth matters most in times of change. As we navigate the changes that happen every day in our

communities and industries, we are honored by the trust that our employees, communities, clients,

investors and suppliers place in us. This trust underpins all that we do at Nielsen and ultimately enables

us to serve as a market-moving provider of the truth across the industries we’re proud to support.

I am energized by the work our associates do every day in pursuit of the truth. And I am excited by

the open horizon of opportunity, evolution and innovation for Nielsen, and all that we will build and

create—together.

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“I AM PROUD OF NIELSEN’S LEGACY OF HARNESSING THE POWER OF OUR DATA

AND INSIGHTS TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT ON OUR WORLD.”

David Rawlinson

Chief Executive Ocer, Nielsen Global Connect

Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides

the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Nielsen is

divided into two business units. Nielsen Global Media, the arbiter of truth for media markets, provides

the media and advertising industries with unbiased and reliable metrics required for markets to

function. Nielsen Global Connect provides consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers

with accurate, actionable information and insights and a complete picture of the complex and

changing marketplace that companies need to innovate and grow. Our approach marries proprietary

Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what’s happening

now, what’s happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge. An S&P 500 company, Nielsen

has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world’s population.

I am proud of Nielsen’s legacy of harnessing the power of our data and insights to make a positive

impact on our world. The work we do resonates with our clients, consumers, and most importantly,

our associates—the heart and soul of Nielsen. There isn’t another organization in the world that can

do what we do at our scale. I look forward to continuing to build on this incredible legacy, and I’m

proud to lead Nielsen Global Connect into an exciting new chapter of growth and innovation.

This Nielsen Global Responsibility Report serves as the comprehensive hub for how our

environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and strategy connect to our business, with

a focus on 2018-2019. We have organized the content according to six main topic areas, listed below

and available via the “Our Company” dropdown menu, with complementary narrative and Detailed

Disclosure pages for each. We have also provided specic reports for each of the reporting standards

most relevant for Nielsen: the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Task Force on

Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

If you’re looking for information about our response to COVID-19, please go here.

WHO WE ARE

ABOUT THIS REPORT

MESSAGE FROM NIELSEN GLOBAL CONNECT CEO

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ADDITIONAL DISCLOSURES

GLOBAL REPORTING

INITIATIVE (GRI) CONTENT

INDEX

SUSTAINABILITY

ACCOUNTING STANDARDS

BOARD (SASB) REPORT

TASK FORCE ON CLIMATE

RELATED FINANCIAL

DISCLOSURES (TCFD) REPORT

We mobilize our data, expertise and time to positively impact our communities and

ensure every voice counts as we strive to help shape a smarter market and drive one

media truth.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Our clients—and the industries we support—depend on us to be an unbiased arbiter.

To serve as a source of truth, integrity must be part of the foundation of everything

we do.

Data is the core of our business and how we generate value for the world. Providing

methodologically sound measurement while protecting the privacy and security of all

client and consumer information is the centerpiece of what we do everyday.

We take seriously the role we can play in minimizing environmental impacts while

maximizing environmental eciencies and benets. Given the pressing global issues

of climate change and its increasing ramications for social justice and equity, we

know that we can and must continue to operate with the environment in mind.

We believe that diversity in people and ideas allows us—and our clients—to be

successful. Fostering diversity and inclusion isn’t just a good thing to do—it’s crucial to

the success of our business and all businesses.

Integrity. Honesty. Fairness. Respect. Reliability. Our company was founded on these

values, and they also underpin our approach to managing our most important asset:

our people.

GOVERNANCE

DATA PRIVACY AND SECURITY

ENVIRONMENT

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

HUMAN CAPITAL

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OUR COMPANY

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GOVERNANCE

Because Nielsen serves as an independent data and measurement company, our clients—and

the industries we support—depend on us to be an unbiased arbiter. To serve as a source of truth,

integrity must be part of the foundation of everything we do.

Nielsen is committed to ensuring that we operate with the highest standards of corporate

governance, ethical conduct and corporate citizenship. Our commitment to integrity underpins the

way we work everyday. From our Board of Directors to every Nielsen associate to our supply chain, we

work to establish a culture of ethics and good governance through policies, clear procedures, training

and a commitment to transparency.

Our Nielsen Code of Conduct establishes our expectations and guidelines for positive behaviors,

including treating everyone with respect, valuing diversity, protecting human rights and speaking

up to report Code violations without fear of retaliation. The Code also denes acceptable behavior,

including prohibiting corruption, bribery, discrimination, anti-competitive practices and conicts of

interest. Underlying the expectations and guidelines of the Code are more detailed internal policies

to guide associates in their day-to-day activities. Our Supplier Code of Conduct conveys similar

expectations and guidelines for our suppliers.

Hear more about our approach to corporate governance and compliance and integrity from Emily

Epstein, Deputy Chief Legal Ocer, Nielsen.

Our commitment to good governance, ethics and compliance, by the numbers:

• We ask our Board and all employees—except where not permitted by local laws—to annually

certify that they understand and will abide by our Code of Conduct.

• Our standard contract terms request that all suppliers abide by the Nielsen Supplier Code of

Conduct. Starting in 2019, 100% of our new suppliers provide written acknowledgment of our Code.

External recognition for good governance and environmental, social and governance (ESG)

performance:

• Nielsen was recognized as the industry leader among media companies in JUST Capital’s and

Forbes’s annual ranking of the “JUST 100” for the third year in a row.

• We were included in both the FTSE4Good index and the Dow Jones Sustainability North America

index for the third time.

• See 2018 and 2019 highlights for additional details about these recognitions, among others.

DETAILED DISCLOSURE: GOVERNANCE

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DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

We believe that diversity in people and ideas allows us—and our clients—to be successful. We focus

on driving impact by increasing diverse representation among our associates, utilizing diverse slates,

hiring from diverse talent pools and expanding our inclusive hiring practices.

We believe that fostering diversity and inclusion isn’t just a good thing to do—it’s crucial to the success

of our business and all businesses. To underscore the importance of this issue at Nielsen, our CEO

has taken on the additional role of Chief Diversity Ocer.

Our diversity and inclusion journey began nearly 15 years ago, and we’ve established a strong, global

reputation, marked with external benchmarking recognitions. In 2020, for the seventh consecutive

year, Nielsen earned a 100% score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality

Index and was recognized as a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality. Also in 2020, we ranked #20

on DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity; in 2018 and 2019, we were ranked #19 and #17,

respectively. We were also recognized by the Disability Equality Index as a Best Place to Work for

Disability Inclusion. Finally, we’re proud to have been included among other leading companies on

Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index for both 2019 and 2020.

“WE RECOGNIZE THAT INCLUSION HELPS US CREATE A HEALTHY ORGANIZATIONAL

CULTURE, CONTRIBUTES POSITIVELY IN OUR COMMUNITIES AND HAS A

BENEFICIAL EFFECT ON OUR ASSOCIATES WHO SEEK TO DEEPEN THEIR SKILLS AND

GROW THEIR CAREERS WITH US. EMBRACING AND LEVERAGING ALL THE LAYERS

OF OUR ASSOCIATES’ DIVERSITY IS PART OF HOW WE BRING INCLUSION TO LIFE.”

Sandra Sims-Williams

Senior Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion, Nielsen

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DETAILED DISCLOSURE: DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

We regularly share research and insights about multicultural communities through our Diverse

Intelligence Series of comprehensive thought leadership reports and special events focused on Asian

American, Latinx and African American consumers. We are also proud to support initiatives that

increase representation of multicultural communities, such as Project TrueCount, Nielsen’s nationwide

initiative to support a fair and accurate 2020 U.S. Census. Once every 10 years, the Census count gives

us a comprehensive portrait of America. Businesses rely on this information to nd opportunities for

growth, and our government uses it to decide where to invest its resources. Inaccurate Census data

will result in bad decisions and ultimately, in bad business. That’s why we must all do everything we

can to ensure the 2020 Census is accurate, fair and complete.

All Nielsen associates are held to Nielsen’s Code of Conduct and all Nielsen policies, including our

Global Nondiscrimination Policy, which precludes discrimination in our workforce on the basis of race,

color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics,

disability status, age, marital status, protected veteran status or any other protected class.

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HUMAN CAPITAL

Integrity. Honesty. Fairness. Respect. Reliability. Nielsen was founded on these values, and

they also underpin our approach to managing our most important asset: our people. We want our

associates to feel appreciated and empowered to reach their full potential. We do this by dening

clear objectives and success metrics, and by developing leaders who can forge cohesive and engaged

teams. Behind all of our human capital eorts is our commitment to diversity and inclusion, as we

seek to build a workplace that values and includes everyone’s unique perspectives and contributions.

Nielsen’s talent management strategy is designed to support our long-term business strategy and the

success of our associates. Our human capital priorities are to:

• Foster a fair, diverse and inclusive work environment for employees in which innovation, open-

mindedness, and fresh thinking are rewarded.

• Lead a people-rst transformation of our talent base, ensuring that it aligns with and supports

the ongoing changes in our business.

• Attract, engage and retain our top talent, making a clear and compelling case for why they

should be at Nielsen now.

• Promote personal and professional growth for associates by creating internal opportunities and

developing leaders.

• Encourage associates to contribute their time, talents and energy to make a positive impact

on the communities where we live and work, embedding this expectation as a formal part of

Nielsen’s performance review process for all associates.

• Invest in our people analytics capabilities, to drive even more impact for the business and

deliver on our employee value proposition.

“AT NIELSEN, WE ARE CREATING A COMPANY WHERE PEOPLE WANT TO COME TO

WORK, WHERE THEY KNOW HOW THEIR ROLE CONNECTS TO OUR MISSION AND WHY

THAT’S IMPORTANT. WE WANT OUR PEOPLE TO FEEL VALUED, TO KNOW THEIR WORK

MATTERS, AND TO BE EMPOWERED TO LEARN, GROW AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE.”

Nicole Helprin

Senior Vice President, Talent Engagement & Development, Nielsen

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NIELSEN HUMAN CAPITAL SNAPSHOT

2019 TOTAL HEADCOUNT

FULL-TIME HEADCOUNT

VOLUNTARY TURNOVER RATE INTERNAL MOVEMENT TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

46,711 (UP FROM 46,650 IN 2018)

BY REGION

2018

16%

15%

0 20 40 60 80 100

Asia Paciﬁc

2018

2019

34%

36%

28%

15%

22%

21%

Europe, Middle

East & Africa

Central &

South America

North America

Positions Filled by Internal Candidates

2019

27%

28%

Since the launch of

MyLearning by Degreed in

September 2019, we have

engaged more than 16,000

employees through this new

platform.

100% of associates have

access to comprehensive

career development

resources, including training

and performance reviews.

DETAILED DISCLOSURE: HUMAN CAPITAL

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DATA PRIVACY AND SECURITY

Data is the core of our business and how we generate value for the world. Collecting, analyzing and

providing methodologically sound measurement is the centerpiece of what we do everyday. It’s no

surprise, then, that data privacy, security and integrity have been among the top issue areas identied

by our nonnancial materiality analyses since we began regularly conducting those analyses in 2014.

Data privacy, security and integrity are also central to our risk management eorts.

We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of all client and consumer information. Our

approach is grounded in internationally recognized data protection principles and includes strict

and detailed policies and controls, comprehensive and recurring training, and regular performance

reviews focused on continuous improvement. Data privacy and security are central priorities for

everyone at Nielsen—from the Board through to every associate.

“CONSUMER INTEREST IN PRIVACY HAS NEVER BEEN HIGHER, AND NIELSEN

CONTINUES TO UPHOLD A CULTURE THAT VALUES AND PRIORITIZES PRIVACY.

WE ARE COMMITTED TO MAINTAINING THE TRUST OF CONSUMERS, CLIENTS

AND OUR EMPLOYEES, AND WE DO THIS BY PROMOTING PRIVACY TRAINING AND

AWARENESS, CONDUCTING PRIVACY IMPACT ASSESSMENTS OF OUR PRODUCTS

AND PROVIDING TRANSPARENT NOTICE AND CHOICES ABOUT HOW DATA IS USED.”

“TRUST, INTEGRITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY ARE ALL AT THE CORE OF WHAT WE

DO AT NIELSEN. OUR COMPANY IS FULLY COMMITTED TO SAFEGUARDING OUR

CLIENTS’ DATA AND THE DATA OF THOSE WE MEASURE. AS THE CYBER SECURITY

LANDSCAPE EVOLVES, WE CONTINUE TO BUILD OUR PROGRAM TO ESTABLISH A

CULTURE IN WHICH CYBER SECURITY AND DATA PRIVACY COME FIRST.”

Meredith Grauer

Chief Privacy Ocer, Nielsen

Chris Hatter

Chief Information Security Ocer, Nielsen

DETAILED DISCLOSURE: DATA PRIVACY & SECURITY

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ENVIRONMENT

At Nielsen, we take seriously the role we can play in minimizing environmental impacts while

maximizing environmental eciencies and benets. As a global measurement and data analytics

company, our operations do not have very resource-intensive processes such as manufacturing plants

or mines, and our physical footprint is primarily our data centers and data collection operations.

Given the pressing global issues of climate change and its increasing ramications for social

justice and equity, as well as dwindling natural resources globally, we know that we can and must

continue to operate with the environment in mind. We seek to do this both in the course of our

day-to-day business and by harnessing the power of data to help unlock new solutions to social and

environmental challenges. We carefully assess our environmental impacts and risks—for example,

through our formal Enterprise Risk Management process, our nonnancial materiality assessment

and a climate-specic risk analysis—and develop management systems, goals and programs to reduce

our footprint and maximize our positive impacts.

Sustainable options are a fundamental part of the decision-making process at an individual and

organizational level throughout Nielsen.

To continuously identify, bring awareness to and advocate for sustainable options, in an eort to

manage and reduce Nielsen’s impact on the environment by driving operational eciencies while

increasing our eectiveness.

Goal:

Reduce global energy use per square foot of facility space by up to 5% by the end of 2020.

Goal:

By the end of 2019, upgrade our live data storage in our data centers to all-ash for

energy reduction and enhanced eciency.

Status:

On track. As we go into 2021 with the Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 baselines, we will

investigate setting absolute emission reduction targets, referencing the Science Based

Targets (SBT) model.

Status:

At the end of 2019, this eort was 64% complete; in 2020, the goal is to achieve

95% completion.

ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS AND PERFORMANCE

OUR VISION

OUR MISSION

ENERGY AND EMISSIONS

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Goal:

Include sustainability criteria in 100% of our major, centrally managed, global travel

requests for proposals (RFPs).

Goal:

Ensure that virtually none of our global e-waste is sent to landlls by the end of 2020.

Source: Nielsen

Goal:

Engage 100% of our travel suppliers on overall sustainability practices. Also, formally

assess 80% of our major, centrally managed travel suppliers on environmental, social

and governance (ESG) practices through our third-party sustainability scorecard process.

Status:

For 2018-2019, we met our goal of 100% of travel RFPs addressing multiple questions

on sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

Status:

On track for completion by the end of 2020, with a commitment to continue the same

e-waste management processes going forward.

Status:

For 2018 and 2019, we requested complete corporate social responsibility and

sustainability assessments from 100% of our major travel suppliers, covering all

three major categories of Nielsen’s travel spend (air travel, auto travel and hotels/

accommodations); 86% of those suppliers completed assessments, exceeding our goal

of 80%.

TRAVEL

WASTE

DETAILED DISCLOSURE: ENVIRONMENT

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

At Nielsen, we mobilize our data, expertise and time to positively impact our communities and

ensure every voice counts as we strive to help shape a smarter market and drive one media truth.

Through our Data for Good projects, we strategically donate Nielsen data and services to help solve

critical social and environmental challenges, while also engaging our employees and expanding our

capabilities in new ways across our clients and communities. Through our Nielsen Cares volunteering

program, our employees make a dierence with their 24 hours of annual dedicated volunteer time,

through which they can connect to nonprot organizations in their communities.

We pledge at least $10 million each year in pro bono data and in-kind products and services—part

of a larger goal to contribute a cumulative $50 million in-kind from 2016 through the end of 2020.

And we committed to achieve at least 300,000 volunteer hours from 2016 through the end of 2020.

We have achieved both goals early. As of June 2019—a year and a half before our deadline—we had

logged almost 370,000 volunteer hours since 2016 across our global employee base. And from 2016

through the end of 2019, Nielsen delivered almost $69 million in pro bono and in-kind services for

social causes.

The Nielsen Foundation, a private foundation funded by Nielsen, seeks to bridge divides and enhance

the use of data by the social sector to reduce discrimination, ease global hunger, promote eective

education and build strong leadership.

NIELSEN CARES COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

IN-KIND GIVING & SKILLS BASED VOLUNTEERING VOLUNTEER HOURS

2016-2019 EXCEEDED OUR 2020 GOAL

$68.9 million in pro bono

and in-kind projects

delivered to nonprofits

across the world

$10 million annually

pledged by Nielsen in pro

bono data, products and

services, for a cumulative

goal of $50 million

donated from 2016-2020

In 2018:

$21.2 million

In 2019:

$24.5 million

2016-2019 EXCEEDED OUR 2020 GOAL

24 hours of paid,

dedicated volunteer time

allocated to each Nielsen

associate annually

388,000 volunteer hours

logged since 2016 toward

our goal of 300,000 by

2020

In 2018:

91,000 hours logged

In 2019:

132,000 hours logged

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NIELSEN GLOBAL IMPACT DAY ACROSS BOTH 2018 AND 2019 FEEDBACK FROM OUR ASSOCIATES

49,000

associates

volunteered

in more than

2,950 projects

in over 90

countries

of Nielsen associates say that

volunteering helps them build new

relationships with their colleagues,

according to our latest Nielsen

Cares survey.

of associates say that volunteering

is a positive inuence on their

employee experience at Nielsen.

DETAILED DISCLOSURE: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

87%

74%

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DETAILED

DISCLOSURES

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INFORMATION REQUESTED NIELSEN DISCLOSURE

Approach to corporate

governance, including

the organization’s values,

principles, standards and

norms of behavior

See the Governance section introduction for an overview of our approach. Also, see our

Corporate Governance Guidelines, our Code of Conduct and the charters of each of our

Board committees, all of which provide the framework for corporate governance at Nielsen.

All employees* and Board members are asked to certify annually to the Code of Conduct,

which outlines our values, principles, standards and norms, as well as the core values that

underpin our strong, unied and unique company culture. Integrity guides the way we work

and interact with one another and helps to drive our growth. All of our standard supplier

agreements include a requirement to abide by our Supplier Code of Conduct.

*Except where not permitted by local laws.

Governance structure The Board of Directors is elected by Nielsen’s shareholders to oversee management and

ensure that the long-term interests of all our stakeholders are being served. See the

Corporate Governance section of our website for details on our management team and

Board of Directors, as well as the composition and responsibilities of our Board and its

committees. See also our Corporate Governance Guidelines.

External initiative

endorsements on

economic, environmental

and/or social issues and

business ethics

Nielsen is involved with many initiatives and trade associations that have a social or

environmental component. One recent example is our endorsement of the LEAD pledge. For

a detailed list of our memberships, see the Stakeholder Engagement subsection.

Board structure and

committees

2019 Proxy Statement, p. 10. 2020 Proxy Statement, p. 10.

Corporate Governance Guidelines

Board leadership and

independence, including

CEO and nonexecutive

roles and committee

member independence

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 10-12. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 10-13.

Corporate Governance Guidelines

Board committees

and roles, including

Audit Committee role

in overseeing controls

and Audit Committee

membership

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 10-12. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 10-13.

See also the committee charters available on our Corporate Governance website.

GOVERNANCE DISCLOSURE

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

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INFORMATION REQUESTED NIELSEN DISCLOSURE

Director experience 2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 4-8. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 4-9.

Director nomination

process, including

consideration of diversity

and experience

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 2-3. 2020 Proxy Statement, p. 3.

Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee charter

Board education 2019 Proxy Statement, p. 18. 2020 Proxy Statement, p. 18.

Board members’ terms in

oce, length of terms and

frequency of elections

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 2-8. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 2-9.

Board evaluation process,

including self-evaluation

and independent

assessments

2019 Proxy Statement, p. 13. 2020 Proxy Statement, p. 13.

Corporate Governance Guidelines

Board members’ ages,

including age of oldest

and youngest Directors

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 4-8. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 4-9.

Nielsen does not have an age limit for Directors. As of April 2020, the median age of our

Directors is 64; 44 is the age of the youngest Director, and 73 is the age of the oldest Director.

Board diversity In our 2019 Proxy Statement, see p. 2 for our Diversity Policy, as well as p. SUMM3 for

details on the diversity of our Board. In our 2020 Proxy Statement, this information is

available on p. 3 and p. SUMM3, respectively.

The charter of our Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee requires that

committee to consider all factors it deems appropriate—which may include age, gender,

nationality and ethnic and racial background—in nominating Directors and to review and

make recommendations, as the committee deems appropriate, regarding the composition

and size of the Board, to ensure the Board has the requisite expertise and its membership

consists of persons with suciently diverse and independent backgrounds. Over time, the

Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee and the Board as a whole will assess the

eective ness of this policy and determine, how, if at all, our implementation of the policy,

or the policy itself, should be changed.

Board member

participation on other

corporate boards/

overboarding

2019 Proxy Statement, p. SUMM4 and pp. 4-8. 2020 Proxy Statement, p. SUMM4 and pp.

4-9.

Board mandates Corporate Governance Guidelines

Board oversight of

environmental, social and

governance (ESG) issues

The Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee of our Board reviews the company’s

policies, practices and positions relating to corporate citizenship and sustainability.

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INFORMATION REQUESTED NIELSEN DISCLOSURE

As such, the committee oversees corporate social responsibility, environmental quality,

climate change and diversity and inclusion, among other ESG areas. While we maintain open

lines of communication and engagement, the Board does not directly approve this Global

Responsibility Report or other ESG reporting.

See also:

Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee charter

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 12, 15. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 13, 16.

Climate Change subsection of this report

Nielsen’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) report

Board meeting numbers

and attendance, including

committee meetings

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 10-12. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 11-13.

Corporate Governance Guidelines

In 2018, all Directors attended at least 88% of Board meetings. In 2019, Directors attended

at least 80% of Board meetings. Committees held 22 meetings in 2019 with all directors

attending 100% of applicable meetings.

Board member legal

proceedings and conicts

of interest

Code of Conduct

2019 Proxy Statement, p. 21. 2020 Proxy Statement, p. 21.

Per the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation S-k, Item 103, there are no

material proceedings to which any Director, ocer or aliate of the registrant, any owner

of record or beneciary of more than 5% of any class of voting securities of the registrant,

or any associate of any such Director, ocer, aliate of the registrant, or security holder is

a party adverse to the registrant or any of its subsidiaries or has a material interest adverse

to the registrant or any of its subsidiaries.

Executive compensation,

including xed and

variable short- and

long-term incentives

and inclusion of ESG

incentives

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 30-71. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 30-69.

Diversity is a formal aspect of the job responsibilities, and thus the compensation, of

our CEO & Chief Diversity Ocer, David Kenny. The Compensation Committee of our

Board of Directors makes its decisions based on its assessment of both Nielsen and

individual performance against goals, as well as on its judgment as to what is in the best

interests of Nielsen and its shareholders. This includes a comprehensive assessment of

both quantitative and qualitative measures, which include advancing a truly diverse and

inclusive workforce.

Use of external

compensation consultants

2019 Proxy Statement, p. 52. 2020 Proxy Statement, p. 53.

Fixed and variable

compensation for

nonexecutive Board

members

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. A-5, A-9, B-8, B-9. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. A-2, A-3, A-4,

B-8, B-9.

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Approach to managing

ethics and compliance,

including anti-corruption

policies and management,

anti-competitive behavior,

professional integrity and

duty of care, and Code of

Conduct implementation

Our global Compliance & Integrity program is dedicated to ensuring ethical and legal

behavior across Nielsen—from the C-suite through to the most junior associates all over the

world. While upholding our high ethical standards is the responsibility of all our associates,

functional responsibility for managing our Compliance & Integrity eorts sits with a

dedicated group within our Legal & Corporate Aairs team, reporting directly to our Chief

Legal & Corporate Aairs Ocer and with oversight from our Board of Directors.

Our Code of Conduct is a core element of this program. The Code establishes clear

expectations and guidelines for all associates, prohibiting corruption, bribery, facilitation

payments, fraud, discrimination, anti-trust/anti-competitive practices, money laundering,

insider trading and more; it also requires associates to avoid and disclose conicts of

interest. The Code also sets forth expectations and guidelines for positive behaviors,

including treating everyone with respect, valuing diversity, protecting human rights and

speaking up to report Code violations without fear of retaliation. Underlying the Code are

more-detailed internal policies—for example, a Global Anti-Corruption Policy—to guide

associates in their day-to-day activities. The Compliance & Integrity program partners with a

cross-functional team of stakeholders to ensure that global, internal Nielsen policies are up

to date and relevant for current business activity. Our Board of Directors has approved our

Code, and it is available in more than 40 languages.

The Code applies to everyone at Nielsen, including our subsidiaries and aliates that we

control. The Code also applies equally to the members of our Board, our senior ocers and

every employee, whether full time, part time or temporary. Nielsen independent contractors

and contingent workers are expected to be familiar and comply in full with the Code when

acting on Nielsen’s behalf. We choose to do business with other companies that follow

these same principles. Nielsen suppliers are expected to know and follow the guidelines in

the Nielsen Supplier Code of Conduct and in turn to hold their suppliers and subcontractors

to the same high standards.

Ethics and anti-corruption

communication, training

and certication

We ask our Board and all employees—except where not permitted by local laws—to

annually certify that they understand and will abide by our Code of Conduct. This

certication is completed following an annual online training course. Other targeted training

is provided to employees as appropriate, including on topics such as anti-corruption,

protecting human rights, complying with the General Data Protection Regulation, and data

integrity. We also provide training for associates whose roles involve greater corruption risk

exposure and those who can most eectively detect and prevent corruption as a function

of their day-to-day responsibilities. Also, our global Finance organization receives anti-

corruption training each year.

ETHICS AND COMPLIANCE

Note: See the Supply Chain Management section for more information on ethics and compliance risk assessment and controls

related to our suppliers. Also, our Code of Conduct provides additional detail relevant to the majority of the information

requested below.

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We require compliance with the Code as a condition of employment, and thus this

compliance is linked directly to employee compensation. Nielsen takes all violations of the

Code seriously. If, following an investigation, a violation is found, Nielsen will determine the

appropriate consequences in accordance with local laws, which may include disciplinary

action up to and including termination.

We oer multiple options for our associates to speak up and raise any concerns or

questions they may have. One option is our Helpline, which is managed by an outside

service provider, NAVEX Global Inc., and provides a mechanism for anyone with a concern

to connect condentially by phone or through their dedicated website for Nielsen. This

independent reporting service ensures that all concerns are heard and, as needed,

investigated through the proper channels.

We enhance the reach of our Compliance & Integrity program with the Integrity

Ambassador program. Currently active in more than 30 countries, Integrity Ambassadors

serve as “diplomats” of integrity in our oces, spreading the word about Nielsen’s

expectations for ethical behavior, how to nd answers to questions about doing the right

thing and how to raise a concern when something doesn’t seem right. The Ambassadors

help to tailor communication plans to each particular market, participate in town halls and

build awareness of expectations and resources, all of which helps to ensure compliance

with our Code of Conduct.

Our Compliance & Integrity program communicates regularly with Nielsen associates

around the world through Global Integrity Updates and information included within other

global Nielsen communications.

To encourage, reward and provide examples of ethical conduct, every year we give the

Integrity Award to a Nielsen associate who sets an example when it comes to compliance

and integrity in their work and relationships with others. This award is given to employees

who show courage and a commitment to always do the right thing—even, and especially,

when it is not the easiest thing—and who lead and inspire others to live by the Code of

Conduct and positively impact our business through their ethics. Nominations are collected

from associates around the world, and senior leaders review and select the winner(s),

who have come from countries such as Vietnam, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Chile, the U.S.,

Bangladesh and Algeria.

Ethics reporting and

whistleblower process

and protection

We encourage associates to Speak Up about any concerns of misconduct, without fear of

retaliation. Our Speak Up tools include a telephone and web Helpline and email addresses

to contact independent third-party representatives, as well as our Compliance & Integrity

Leaders around the world. Associates and third parties are able to use these tools to

anonymously seek clarication, share information and report grievances using the “Ask

a Question” feature via the Helpline. Details about how to call the Helpline or le a claim

online—including direct contact information for Integrity Leaders by country—are available

in our Code of Conduct and on our intranet.

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Through our Speak Up program, our Compliance & Integrity Leaders intake reports of

misconduct (directly or through the Helpline) and ensure that the concerns are reviewed

and investigated in an impartial and timely fashion.

When a Code of Conduct violation is reported, Integrity Leaders work with the relevant

stakeholders to determine the appropriate next steps to investigate and resolve the report. If

the report is substantiated, an assessment is made as to whether discipline is required and, if

so, what level of discipline. Discipline can vary from warnings to termination.

The Compliance & Integrity team utilizes data about prior outcomes to inform disciplinary

decisions, in order to support and strengthen Nielsen’s commitment to organizational justice.

Risk assessments and

audits of internal ethics

controls, approval for

sensitive transactions and

nancial controls

Our formal Enterprise Risk Management process and supply chain risk assessments include

the assessment of risks related to ethics and corruption in our own operations and our

suppliers’ operations.

Our Compliance & Integrity team and Corporate Audit Sta (CAS) work together to assess

and inform local business contacts across functions such as Legal, Finance, Human Resources

(HR), Operations and Sales regarding anti-corruption risks and obligations. This is done

through detailed questionnaires to local business contacts regarding their knowledge of anti-

corruption risks and obligations. This global approach to addressing risks at the local level

enables our teams to put in place new processes and procedures for operations or functions

at higher risk of corruption wherever this more tailored approach may be needed.

To mitigate sourcing risk in our accounts payable process, new vendors are vetted by Global

Procurement before being entered into our vendor master database. Nielsen uses external

data sources to ensure, among other things, that there are no sanctions or law enforcement

activity against the vendor and no regulatory enforcement actions in progress during our

comprehensive vetting process.

As part of its audit process, CAS leads an anti-corruption training to review the U.S. Foreign

Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and U.K. Bribery Act. Additionally, CAS distributes an FCPA

questionnaire, which requires local business contacts from Finance, HR, Operations and

Sales to provide input on their knowledge regarding the FCPA and any potentially corrupt

payments. CAS reviews the responses and escalates any concerning responses. CAS also

performs disbursement reviews to ensure there are proper controls in high-risk areas such

as travel and expenses, auditor advances and panel incentives. This oversight helps to ensure

that our operations and activities align with government laws and regulations everywhere we

operate. We do not operate in any country without the legal right to do so. Where relevant,

CAS audits also encompass a broad range of ESG-related topics to ensure country leaders are

aware of risks, regulations and any relevant issues.

CAS remains engaged throughout post-audit remediation processes as relevant to ensure

solutions are ecient and sustainable in the long term. CAS uses its audit expertise to

partner on strategic initiatives and drive regionwide control improvements when risks or

gaps are identied.

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CAS also provides internal audits of company nancial information, independently

reviewing the accuracy of that information, assessing nancial processes and evaluating

the eectiveness of nancial controls for Nielsen’s global business units. The audits are

split into two sections: Sarbanes-Oxley and risk-based reviews. Through this approach, CAS

ensures coverage of Nielsen’s largest entities as well as high-risk entities that are selected

based on several criteria, including but not limited to integrity concerns, turnover, growth

and other risk indicators identied by management. The CAS team’s audits and reviews

substantially cover our global revenue and assets, and overall coverage has increased year

over year. The results of the CAS team’s reviews are reported quarterly to the Chief Financial

Ocer and the Board’s Audit Committee.

In addition to CAS, our operational internal audit teams perform independent assessments

of critical operational controls to determine compliance and eectiveness against

established standards and benchmarks. As it relates to our Media business, for example,

our internal audit team reviews sample design, including universe estimates, to ensure

that our data collection processes are sound and our data is accurate. Our team also

periodically visits panel households, verifying household demographics and television

channel reception. We design and conduct these audits based on any known or potential

risks inherent to our services.

We have also invested in an overall global Financial Controllership organization. Maintaining

strong nancial controls helps to ensure that our nancial statements are materially accurate.

We have many employees dedicated to nancial controllership around the world, including

general accounting associates, billing/credit/collections associates, consolidation teams,

operational controllers, revenue controllers, market controllers, corporate controllers and

our Global Financial Controlling Center of Excellence leaders. This vast network provides

Nielsen coverage over all the countries in which we operate, from both a statutory and a

U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) point of view. This team is responsible

for closing the books on a monthly basis, reconciling all general ledger accounts, ensuring

that nancial systems align, and reviewing and understanding balance sheet movements.

Our controllers also support various audits each year, including local GAAP audits, internal

audits and Sarbanes-Oxley Act audits. It is important that our controllers be connected to the

businesses they support as well. This allows the team to be better business partners, assisting

in various process improvement and simplication projects.

Anti-bribery/anti-

corruption measures

with business partners,

including due diligence

We assess risks for bribery and corruption in our supply chain as part of our supply chain

risk assessment process. All suppliers are requested to comply with our Supplier Code of

Conduct, and in turn to hold their suppliers and subcontractors to the same high standards.

Our Supplier Code includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption commitments as part of our

standard contractual obligations. When appropriate based on risk, we conduct extensive

due diligence on potential suppliers’ internal programs for managing ethics and avoiding

corruption. Additionally, as already mentioned, Nielsen independent contractors and

contingent workers are expected to be familiar and comply in full with the Code when acting

on Nielsen’s behalf.

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Nielsen’s anti-corruption and bribery policies and requirements are also communicated

to all suppliers as part of our procurement supplier registration. See the Supply Chain

Management section for more details.

Ethics and ESG compliance

incidents and nes

There were no cases or nes associated with ethics, corruption, lack of professional integrity

or other ESG issues during the reporting period, including incidents related to false or

misleading advertising, misleading communications, breach of customers’ data privacy, any

other privacy violations, product quality and safety, or anti-competitive practices. Whether

an incident is a conrmed case of corruption involves legal determinations and privileged

and condential legal advice. We also did not have any instances of noncompliance with

environmental laws or regulations, and we did not receive any nes from the Federal Trade

Commission during the reporting period. No business partners’ contracts were terminated for

corruption violations during the reporting period.

Use of external auditors,

including fees paid,

shareholder ratication

and years auditor has

been employed

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 23-24. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 24-25.

INFORMATION REQUESTED NIELSEN DISCLOSURE

Share classes and

voting rights

We do not have multiple share classes with dierent voting rights. Per Nielsen’s Articles

of Association, unless otherwise decided by the Directors, a resolution put to the vote of a

general meeting must be decided by a poll taken at the meeting. Every qualifying member

present and entitled to vote on the resolution has one vote in respect of each share held by

the relevant member.

Shareholder vote on

compensation, disclosure

of shareholder vote results

and signicant votes

against management

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 72-73. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 70-72.

The results of shareholder votes are listed in our 8-K.

There were no signicant votes against management during the reporting period.

Shareholder ability to call

special meetings

Per Nielsen’s Articles of Association, unless otherwise decided by the Directors, a resolution

put to the vote of a general meeting will be decided by a poll taken at the meeting. Subject

to any rights or restrictions as to voting attached to any class of shares and subject to

disenfranchisement (i) in the event of nonpayment of any call or other sum due and payable

in respect of any shares not fully paid, or (ii) in the event of any noncompliance with any

statutory notice requiring disclosure of an interest in shares, on a poll taken at a meeting,

every qualifying shareholder present and entitled to vote on the resolution has one vote for

every Nielsen-U.K. Share of which he, she or it is the holder.

SHAREHOLDER RIGHTS

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Presence of a controlling

shareholder

Nielsen does not have a controlling shareholder.

Top shareholders 2019 Proxy Statement, p. 82. 2020 Proxy Statement, p. 78.

Preferred stock issuance

authority

This is covered in Section 60 of Nielsen’s Articles of Association.

Takeover provision Per Nielsen’s Articles of Association, an English public limited company is potentially subject

to the U.K. City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the “Takeover Code”) if, among other factors,

its place of central management and control is within the U.K., the Channel Islands or the Isle

of Man. The Takeover Panel will generally look to the residency of a company’s Directors to

determine where it is centrally managed and controlled. The Takeover Panel has conrmed

that, based upon Nielsen-U.K.’s current and intended plans for its Directors and management,

the Takeover Code (as currently drafted) does not apply to Nielsen-U.K. However, it is possible

that, in the future, circumstances could change that may cause the Takeover Code to apply to

Nielsen-U.K.

ESG strategy presented

to shareholders and

investors

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 15-18. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 16-18.

Additionally, we provide regular updates about our ESG strategy, commitments and

recognition via our ESG Highlights overview on our Investor Relations webpage and via the

“Responsibility & Sustainability” tab on Nielsen News Center.

Annual meeting notice 2019 Proxy Statement, pp. NOT1-NOT3. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. NOT1-NOT4.

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Risk management

process and risks

identied, including the

use of risk correlation

analysis, time horizon,

employee ability to report

risks, and internal control

coverage of ESG and

operational risks

Our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework helps us to identify, evaluate, manage

and develop mitigation plans for nancial and nonnancial risks. The goal of our ERM

program is to ensure that leaders are well-informed about Nielsen’s risk landscape so

they can make educated, strategic decisions that lead to sustainable growth. Through

this program, regional business owners are required to report back on their assessment

of business risks in 21 specic categories, and corporate business leaders are required

to report on risks in seven categories. These risk areas include, but are not limited to,

Data Integrity, Customer Relations, Conicts of Interest, and Acquisitions/Divestitures.

All leaders and teams are expected to build in measures for continuous improvement on

risk management as it relates to our regular engagement through our ERM framework

and beyond; leaders and teams with product development and management oversight

are expected to build their understanding of these risks into the product development

and approval process. We also do correlation analyses of key risks identied for both the

nancial and business risk categories.

RISK MANAGEMENT

The management of climate-related risks is discussed in detail in the Environment section and in our TCFD report.

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We have identied and regularly track three risk categories that are explicitly related to ESG

issues: Climate Change; Health, Safety & Human Rights; and Disaster Recovery/Business

Continuity. Climate Change was added as a stand-alone risk area in early 2018; it was

previously addressed under Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity.

This new standalone category includes adverse nancial, strategic or operational impact

as a result of—among other risks—an inability to provide climate-focused solutions to

address the unique needs of business in a climate-impacted world. Our global climate risk

assessment, which looked at climate-related physical and transition risks for Nielsen in

the short and long terms—and across multiple scenarios aligned with a 2 degrees Celsius

future—also complements our ongoing engagement on this risk area. See the Environment

section and our TCFD report for more on how we identify and manage climate-related risks.

Health, Safety & Human Rights-related risks are linked to adverse nancial, legal and

reputational impacts as a result of failure to provide safe working environments for our

employees, or to protect employees from discrimination, harassment or external threats.

Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity risks are linked to adverse impacts resulting from

the inability to properly respond, continue business operations or meet client demands in

the event of unforeseen incidents, including natural or manmade disasters.

We assess risks in the short term (one to two years), medium term (three to ve years) and

long term (six to ten years).

For more on risks identied, see our 2018 10-K, pp. 15-21, and our 2019 10-K, pp. 17-30.

Board-level engagement

in risk management,

including engagement

by nonexecutive Board

members and risk

management expertise

and education

2019 Proxy Statement, pp. 4-8, 19. 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 4-9, 19.

Risk management

governance, including

monitoring responsibility

At the Board level, risk management is overseen by the Audit Committee (see 2019 Proxy

Statement, pp. 4-8, 19; 2020 Proxy Statement, pp. 4-9, 19). On a day-to-day basis, risk

management is overseen by our Corporate Secretary, who reports to our Chief Legal &

Corporate Aairs Ocer.

We hold one formal risk reporting meeting per year with the ERM Leadership Committee

(composed of top executives) and three less-formal, more collaborative “risk-sharing”

conference calls with risk owners and risk experts across functions and geographies. To help

ensure an eective risk culture throughout the company and foster continuous improvement,

the ERM process is supplemented with weekly newsletters, onboarding trainings, workshops

and social media posts relating to risk management.

Risk management training As mentioned above, Nielsen conducts periodic trainings to educate employees about

emerging risk areas that are pertinent to the company and its strategic objectives.

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Process for soliciting and

incorporating stakeholder

feedback, and primary

stakeholders engaged

Because of the nature of our business—collecting and analyzing data and feedback from

consumers, so that our clients can better understand the forces that inuence consumer

behavior and ultimately improve their business strategies—we uniquely understand the

importance of hearing from a diverse group of stakeholders about all aspects of our

business and operations, in order to continue to drive improvements.

Nielsen interacts with a variety of external individuals and organizations in our regular

course of business, as described in the examples below, as well as through the process

of conducting our regular nonnancial materiality assessments. These opportunities to

proactively listen to our stakeholders are key to our strategic and evolving ability to directly

and indirectly create value through our business and in our communities, today and into

the future. We’re committed to incorporating stakeholder feedback into our processes,

business strategy and global responsibility and sustainability programs. Beyond seeking

to better understand how stakeholders view Nielsen today, we also use this feedback to

identify future potential risks and opportunities, including emerging issues that could aect

Nielsen’s business success and stakeholder relationships.

In order to conduct our nonnancial materiality assessments, we engage stakeholders

directly or through proxies across all aspects of our value chain. The results of these

assessments inform our strategic approach, including our ongoing communications about

Nielsen’s overall commitments; how we proactively respond to ESG-related inquiries

from investors, clients and other stakeholders; and how we allocate resources to areas

of greatest impact and importance to Nielsen. These issues cut across all aspects of our

business, operations and value creation through our client and industry relationships, our

employee base and our communities.

The following describes the primary types of stakeholders with whom we engage, and how

we engage with them:

Clients: We engage with clients on a regular basis, both individually and through

client committees, to gain direct input and insights that will enhance the quality of our

measurement and methodologies for the industries we serve. As part of our commitment

to driving an improved client experience, throughout 2019 we began adoption of a single

technology platform, Client Service Online 2.0, to track and service client requests. This

enables greater insights on client requests and shapes how we can drive better value for

clients. As part of this platform’s feature set, an optional Client Satisfaction Survey has

been introduced to gather feedback on how we service each client’s request. An ongoing

Customer Experience initiative will determine whether we should introduce further

questions to this survey and/or re-assess the baseline criteria for overall key performance

indicators of success. We take all client feedback seriously and address all concerns as

needed. While we do track client feedback, we don’t share this information publicly because

of client privacy concerns.

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

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Media research: The Media Rating Council (MRC) plays an important role in providing third-

party validation that Nielsen’s products and services meet or exceed the highest industry

standards. In addition to supporting the MRC’s accreditation audit process, Nielsen provides

valuable industry leadership by participating in their working groups, standard-building

projects and other conversations on matters relevant to the media measurement industry.

Suppliers: We engage with key suppliers on ESG issues multiple times a year—through

written correspondence and requests for reporting, in person at their facilities, on

conference calls and at conferences. We require standardized, third-party assessments

of suppliers’ ESG performance, which then serve as catalysts for meaningful engagement

and discussion via our sourcing managers, in an eort to drive continuous improvement.

We’ve also developed a Supplier Toolkit as a resource for suppliers to help improve their

sustainability performance.

Consumers: We have extensive contacts with individuals and families all over the globe

as we collect data to better understand consumer behavior. Our eld and membership

representatives and retail auditors visit panelists’ homes and local stores worldwide to

collect data. We are committed to acting in the best interest of those consumers, especially

in terms of protecting the privacy and security of their information.

Investors: Our Investor Relations team engages regularly with investors through individual

meetings, conferences, nondeal roadshows, quarterly earnings calls and an annual investor

day. Details about our investor engagement can be found on our Investor Relations site,

where we also provide information for investors about our ESG eorts through resources

such as our ESG Highlights overview.

Creditors: Senior management periodically meets with key creditors in person or via

conference calls, and has hosted multi-participant meetings. Through our Investor Relations

and Treasury functions, we respond, as appropriate, to inbound inquiries from both debt

analysts and key creditors. As a levered company, it is important that Nielsen has access to

the various debt markets and on reasonable terms at all times. This allows Nielsen to fund

growth initiatives including capital expenditures and potential acquisitions, and provides the

company with appropriate liquidity cushions through the economic cycle.

Industry associations: We recognize the importance of engaging with industry trade

organizations, strategic business partners, industry inuencers, value-added resellers, and

nongovernmental and community organizations. A comprehensive list of our association

memberships is provided below. As it relates to ESG-related charters, principles, or

initiatives, we take an open view and may join new or other initiatives as they emerge. Some

examples for Nielsen include our alignment with the Sustainability

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Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures

(TCFD), and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as it relates to this Global Responsibility

Report. We have also committed to a variety of pledges, including our CEO’s commitment

to the LEAD Network CEO Pledge to advance women in leadership at Nielsen. Additionally,

as mentioned in our Global Commitment to Human Rights, we have aligned our approach

with the United Nations’ (U.N.’s) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the

U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization’s

Conventions, and the human rights-related recommendations set forth in the Organisation

for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. We

are also members of the Responsible Business Alliance, Responsible Labor Initiative and the

Responsible Minerals Initiative.

Nielsen External Advisory Councils: We seek ideas and insights from external

stakeholders to help us strengthen our diversity and inclusion eorts. For more than a

decade, we have maintained three External Advisory Councils composed of diverse data and

measurement industry experts and business and community leaders: the African American

Advisory Council, the Asian Pacic American Advisory Council and the Hispanic/Latino

Advisory Council. These trusted advisors have shared their views on how Nielsen can better

recruit, represent and reect the unique purchasing and viewing habits of multicultural

communities in the U.S. Council members are both our accountability partners and our

ambassadors within their respective communities.

Communities: We regularly donate volunteer time and pro bono data to nonprot

organizations around the globe in an eort to make a tangible dierence in our

communities. More information about these ongoing eorts can be found in the

Community Engagement section of this report.

Employees: We have employees in every major region of the globe, so we work hard to

keep in close communication with them and ensure we are all aligned and working toward

common goals. Companywide, we conduct a myVoice employee engagement survey every

year; the survey includes questions on engagement, compensation and work-life balance,

among other topics. All Nielsen employees are encouraged to engage across functions and

geographies through companywide resources, such as our Google Currents suite of online

communities for collaboration and information sharing, as well as through regular global

town hall meetings and other events. We also have a variety of employee engagement

platforms, such as volunteer leadership opportunities through Nielsen Cares and Nielsen

Green, as well as our Employee Resource Groups.

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Memberships in industry

and advocacy associations,

as well as funding of

research organizations

The following is a representative, though not exhaustive, list of associations Nielsen was a

member of during the reporting period. Where appropriate and relevant to our business

strategy, Nielsen may also fund research conducted in collaboration with respected industry

bodies such as these.

• Advertising Research Foundation

• Australian Food and Grocery Council

• American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union

• Americans for Tax Reform Foundation

• Audience Measurement Coalition

• Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship

• Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing

• California Grocers Association

• Category Management Association

• Centre for Information Policy Leadership

• Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose

• Commercial Communications Council

• Conference Board

• Consumer Goods Forum

• Consumer Healthcare Products Association

• Digital Dialogue Forum

• Drinks Association

• European Internet Forum

• New Zealand Food and Grocery Council

• Food Marketing Institute

• Global Market Development Center

• Grocery Manufacturers Association

• Information Technology Industry Council

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• Insights Association

• Interactive Advertising Bureau

• Media & Entertainment Services Alliance

• National Association of Broadcasters

• National Association of Chain Drug Stores

• National Association of Convenience Stores

• National Grocers Association

• New Democratic Network

• Magazine Publishers Association

• Paley Center for Media

• Responsible Business Alliance

• Responsible Labor Initiative

• Responsible Minerals Initiative

• US-ASEAN Business Council

• U.S. Chamber of Commerce

• World Economic Forum

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Approach to political

involvement and public

policy

Our Public Policy & Government Relations team interacts with elected ocials to explain

our products and promote the use of measurement to create thriving markets and

communities. We advocate on issues related to our business, such as U.S. Census funding,

diversity in media, media ownership, tax reform, privacy, e-commerce, digital advertising, TV

audience measurement and more.

Nielsen does not currently use corporate funds to make direct contributions to candidates,

political parties, political action committees (PACs), SuperPACs, political committees, 527

groups, ballot question committees or 501(c)(4) organizations, or to pay for independent

expenditures. We maintain a federal PAC, which allows eligible Nielsen employees to pool

their resources and support candidates whose positions are consistent with Nielsen’s. Our

Nielsen Code of Conduct includes a section on participating fairly and lawfully in political

processes; it expressly prohibits employees from attending political events or making

donations on Nielsen’s behalf, or using Nielsen funds.

PUBLIC POLICY

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See the Public Policy page of our website for complete information about our government

relations work, including links to detailed reports about our lobbying activities and

expenditures.

Focus areas for

engagement with

policymakers

In 2018 and 2019, the following issues were the focus of our engagement with policymakers:

• Advocating for full funding of the 2020 U.S. Census and appropriations for the U.S.

Census Bureau

• Advocating in favor of federal privacy legislation

• Advocating for diversity in technology

• Support for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

Total amount of political

contributions

We report U.S. political contributions through the Federal Election Commission website.

In the 2017-2018 cycle, Nielsen’s PAC contributed $30,000. In the 2019-2020 cycle, as of

February 2020, the PAC contributed $6,000.

Total spending on

lobbying and trade

associations

2017-2018 Cycle

2019-2020 Cycle

(As of February 2020)

Lobbying, interest

representation or similar

$360,000 $380,000

Trade associations $172,500 $172,500

In 2018, of the $35,000 we paid to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 25% was used for

lobbying. Of the $125,000 in membership dues paid to the Information Technology Industry

Council, 17.5% was attributable to lobbying. And of the $12,500 in membership dues paid to

the US-ASEAN Business Council, 1% was attributable to lobbying.

For 2019, 20% of the $35,000 contribution made to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was

used for lobbying. Of the $125,000 in membership dues paid to the Information Technology

Industry Council, 17.5% was attributable to lobbying. And of the $12,500 in membership

dues paid to the US-ASEAN Business Council, 1% was attributable to lobbying.

Links to detailed reports of Nielsen’s lobbying activity can be found below:

• Senate Oce of Public Records – lobbying reports

• Clerk of the House of Representatives – lobbying reports

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INFORMATION REQUESTED NIELSEN DISCLOSURE

Details on policy

engagement activities

related to climate change,

and process to ensure

consistency of activities to

inuence climate change

policy

Nielsen’s Global Responsibility & Sustainability and Public Policy & Government Aairs teams

collaborate, along with other teams and subject matter experts, to ensure that Nielsen’s

direct and indirect activities with stakeholders, including policymakers, are consistent with

our overall strategy, including our approach to climate change. Where appropriate, we have

shared our approach to environmental sustainability and its related impact on climate change

with policymakers through our Public Policy & Government Aairs team’s regular engagement

and outreach eorts.

The most recent update to our global climate risk assessment, and our evaluation of its

impact on our operational strategy and integration into ongoing functions, helps to ensure

alignment between our climate change strategy and activities across the business.

For more detail on how we are addressing climate change, see the Climate Change,

Emissions and Energy Use section, our TCFD report and Nielsen’s Global Environmental

Policy and Guidelines Across Functions.

Approach to tax, including

tax risk management,

Board oversight and

governance

We are committed to complying with tax laws in a responsible manner and to having open,

constructive and transparent relationships with tax authorities everywhere we operate

around the globe. We have a publicly available Tax Strategy that applies to Nielsen Holdings

plc and all subsidiary Nielsen entities; it is composed of ve key components: tax planning,

relationships with governments, transparency, tax risk management and governance. See the

Tax Strategy for more on these topics as well as on Board oversight and governance relating

to tax.

Taxes paid and eective

tax rate

The eective tax rates for the years ended Dec. 31, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2018 were 39% and

21%, respectively.

2018 10-K, footnote 14

2019 10-K, pp. 46, 111

INFORMATION REQUESTED NIELSEN DISCLOSURE

Supply chain description

and changes

We have approximately 10,000 active suppliers in our procurement system and spend

approximately $2 billion with our suppliers annually.

The bulk of our supply chain spend, approximately 76%, is in technology and

telecommunications, including data processing and data centers; computer programming,

consultancy and related services; telecommunications and related services; and software

and related services. Technology companies in our supply chain tend to be large, publicly

traded, multinational enterprises headquartered in the U.S. or Europe. A relatively small

subset of our technology suppliers are contract manufacturers who make Nielsen-designed

electronic measurement devices, which are used to track television viewership, radio

listening and so forth with our research panels. These contract manufacturer suppliers tend

to be small to medium-sized enterprises, often in emerging market countries.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

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The next largest percentage of spend, or approximately 22%, is spent on professional

services, which encompass nancial services and insurance; oce supplies; shipping;

stang; real estate facilities and management; and travel services such as air and auto

transportation and accommodations. These suppliers tend to be large, publicly traded

companies, often headquartered in the U.S. or Europe.

The balance of our spend is on marketing research and related services, as well as call

centers. These suppliers, which are often small to medium-sized enterprises, are located in

both developed and emerging market countries.

The primary change in our supply chain during the reporting period was the migration of

more of our data to the cloud and cloud service providers. Signicantly, Nielsen migrated

its core National Television Audience Measurement processing from traditional, on-premise

server processing to a cloud-based infrastructure.

Approach to procurement

practices, including details

on Supply Chain Code of

Conduct

We recognize that our institutional spend with suppliers around the world comes with risks

and impacts that are of concern to our company and our stakeholders—risks relating to

climate change, energy use, human rights, conict minerals, and data privacy and security,

among others. Just as consumers collectively have immense purchasing power, as a

global company, our institutional spend of over $2 billion can be a demand signal in the

marketplace.

Our standard contract terms request that our suppliers abide by the Nielsen Supplier Code

of Conduct, which is available in 39 languages and conveys our expectations in areas such

as human rights, health and safety, environmental management, ethics, and management

systems. Nielsen’s Supplier Code was adapted from the supplier code of conduct of the

Responsible Business Alliance, formerly the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition. We

provide online training on the Code for suppliers. One hundred percent of our Global

Procurement team have been trained on our Supplier Code of Conduct, along with three

Global Procurement team members who have been trained to audit suppliers’ compliance

with this Code.

Process for identifying and

managing sustainability

risks in the supply chain,

including monitoring and

measuring compliance,

assessing supply chain

environmental impacts,

and risk analyses per

purchasing category

Our supply chain sustainability program systematically addresses ESG risks and

opportunities in our supply chain. Managing our supply chain’s ESG impacts begins with

an understanding of the eects, both positive and negative, of our purchasing. Our Global

Procurement team monitors ESG risks on a continuous basis through multiple tools and

business processes including an annual, in-depth analysis conducted every spring, of all

of the categories and industry segments in our supply chain. ESG impacts and risks are

determined by industry, sector, size, geographic location and company-specic practices

and policies. The major categories of supply chain risks we have identied, which remain

fairly stable from year to year, are as follows:

• Environmental impact: The major environmental impact within Nielsen’s supply chain

is the energy used by data centers, information technology (IT) infrastructure and large

commercial buildings, along with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from air travel.

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• Social impact: The major social impact within Nielsen’s supply chain relates to labor

practices, including the health, safety and well-being of the temporary and permanent

workers employed by our outsourced suppliers. The greatest risk in this category

relates to human rights and labor violations, such as those regarding working

conditions (working hours, remunerations, benets, etc.) and discrimination. The

supplier category most exposed to this risk is the contract manufacturing supplier

segment, which is composed of electronics factories, primarily in Asia.

• Governance/ethical impact: The major ethical impact within Nielsen’s supply chain

concerns third-party data privacy and security issues related to the collection of

the consumer data that is at the core of our business products. Data privacy and

security breaches have been identied as major material impacts enterprisewide

and are substantially addressed by internal Nielsen teams who serve as dedicated

resources for privacy and security. Our supply chain management processes identify

where prospective suppliers trigger a risk in this area and route them into the overall

management of data privacy by our Legal, Privacy and IT Security teams. This risk is

most prevalent within the category of suppliers that provide marketing research and

data collection services.

Supplier sustainability

assessments, including

scope of human rights-

related assessments,

suppliers assessed for

ESG impacts, approach

to corrective action,

and denition of critical

suppliers

Through our Global Procurement team, we seek to manage our supply chain in an ethical,

legal and socially responsible manner. We solicit supplier diversity and sustainability

information during the request for proposal (RFP) process for new suppliers. We screen all

vendors that register through our core accounting systems for corruption and sanctions.

In 2019, we further embedded ESG management of our supply chain into our procurement

systems by adding several required questions on ESG performance to our supplier

registration process. With these questions, we are engaging at the broadest level in our

supply chain—with every supplier registered in our system—on their ESG policies, practices

and outcomes.

We also continued our supplier ESG assessment and scorecarding program in 2019, with

assessments of more than 100 of our key strategic suppliers in 26 countries and ve global

regions, representing 67% of our critical supplier base and over 90% of our managed

spend. We assess the sustainability risks associated with our strategic suppliers on an

annual or biennial frequency, depending on risk exposure. These third-party assessments

cover a variety of key ESG issues, including climate impacts and GHG emissions, energy

consumption, waste management, human rights, anti-corruption, bribery and more. We

require assessments of suppliers that:

• Are critical to our core business of measuring what consumers watch and what

they buy;

• Are part of the largest percentages of our spend; and/or

• Have high risk exposure in environmental, social or governance performance.

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In 2018, we included supplier sustainability assessments as a contractual requirement

through our Supplier Code of Conduct for suppliers who meet a $1 million spend threshold

or are deemed to be exposed to risk due to industry or geography.

Supplier sustainability assessments address the following topics:

• Environmental issues: energy consumption and waste management practices and

results

• Social issues: human rights and discrimination policies, practices and results

• Governance/ethical issues: business ethics, data privacy, security, anti-corruption

and bribery

• Sustainable procurement issues: integration of environmental and social factors in

supply chain management

Suppliers are scored for each of these categories and then given an overall score, which can

range from 1 to 100 (1=High Risk; 100=Best in Class). The lowest-scoring supplier companies

receive corrective action plans aimed at helping to increase their scores.

Tier 1 Suppliers Undergoing Sustainability Assessments

Year # of suppliers assessed

2016 54

2017 82

2018 101

2019 103 (Including 100% of high-risk suppliers)

High-risk suppliers undergo additional, multiple risk evaluations in 3-year cycles. One

hundred percent of high-risk suppliers were assessed in 2019, and these suppliers will

continue to undergo a full set of risk evaluations at least once every three years. All

suppliers identied as high risk undergo three levels of due diligence, including:

• An annual risk assessment of the company using the Responsible Business Alliance’s

risk assessment platform, a specialized platform for electronics manufacturers;

• A general ESG third-party assessment once every two years; and

• Site-specic social compliance questionnaires for human rights risks at least once

every three years.

High-risk suppliers are also continuously monitored using other procurement tools such as

SAP Supplier Risk, DDIQ, Exiger and FRDM.

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In addition to “paper-based” supplier assessments, Nielsen senior sta visit production

facilities quarterly to assess management systems and quality. Nielsen sta engage with

the factories belonging to high-risk suppliers on a continuous basis, with site visits to the

most active production facilities two to four times per year. During these visits, Nielsen

visually checks the sites for building health and safety as well as child labor, and asks factory

management questions related to any observations that give cause for concern. In 2018 and

2019, approximately 80% of our most active Tier 1 and Tier 2 electronics suppliers received

factory site visits.

Members of our Global Procurement team have been trained by the Responsible Business

Alliance to internally audit against our Supplier Code; beginning in 2019, factory visits included

internal audits against the Code.

See our 2019 Supply Chain Responsibility Report for more on our supplier sustainability

program as well as year-by-year highlights, goals and progress.

Supplier sustainability

assessment results

and corrective actions,

including number of

suppliers identied as

having signicant ESG

impacts, high-risk suppliers

with corrective action

plans, ESG performance

improvements for high-risk

suppliers with corrective

action plans, and supplier

relationships terminated

based on ESG impacts

Approximately one-third of the 100+ assessed suppliers received scores indicating some

exposure to ESG risk, and corrective action plans were triggered for those suppliers to

reinforce continuous improvement. Since the inception of our program in 2016, we have

focused on meaningful engagement with our critical suppliers on ESG issues, and those

eorts with this core group of suppliers have resulted in scores that have increased over

time. Our spend with suppliers that are systematically and strategically addressing ESG issues

has also increased over time. In 2018, 85% of our managed spend was with suppliers whose

scores indicated a serious commitment to managing ESG risks and opportunities. In 2019,

that percentage increased to 90%. In the 2018-2019 reporting period, no suppliers were

determined to have signicant harmful ESG impacts, and no suppliers were terminated based

on ESG impacts.

Sustainability-related

supplier selection

criteria and contract

requirements, including

green procurement

policies and initiatives,

social and environmental

clauses in supplier

contracts, integration of

supplier corporate social

responsibility performance

into purchasing decisions,

and suppliers covered by

the Code of Conduct

One hundred percent of new suppliers onboarded through our Global Procurement process

are assessed on ESG criteria. We specically solicit sustainability information during supplier

registration and the RFP process. This information is included as selection criteria along

with our other requirements for quality, delivery, service and cost. In accordance with our

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy, wherever possible, our Global Procurement

team identies options for products and services to reduce GHG emissions, conserve

natural resources and reduce waste.

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INFORMATION REQUESTED NIELSEN DISCLOSURE

Our standard contract terms request that all suppliers abide by the Nielsen Supplier Code

of Conduct. Our Code incorporates key elements from a widely used industry standard,

the Responsible Business Alliance’s code, including elements relating to labor (specically

human rights), health and safety, environmental management, ethics, and management

systems. Starting in 2019, 100% of our new suppliers provide written acknowledgment of

our Code, and we are working to gain this acknowledgement from suppliers with whom

we contracted before implementing this requirement. We are also proud to provide

automated online training to all on our Supplier Code of Conduct; this training is available

in 12 languages.

Addressing human rights

risks, including child and

forced labor risks, in our

supply chain, including

approach to employment

in supply chain and

suppliers considered to

have signicant child labor

risks and/or freedom of

association/collective

bargaining risks

The greatest human rights risk in the Nielsen supply chain is with our contract electronics

manufacturers, particularly those located in Asia. We work with the Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers

in this area to assess and engage them on their human rights practices, particularly as they

relate to human tracking and modern slavery. We cover our approach to managing human

rights and modern slavery risks in our supply chain and beyond in our annual Nielsen

Modern Slavery Statement.

In 2016, Nielsen became a supporting corporate member of the Responsible Business

Alliance (RBA), formerly the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition. As a corporate

member, we updated our Supplier Code of Conduct to incorporate key aspects of the RBA

Code of Conduct, a supplier code that has been adopted by more than 100 Fortune 500

or multinational corporations engaged with the global electronics supply chain. We have

chosen to align ourselves with this industry code and organization to address the particular

risk of exposure to labor exploitation within the technology and electronics equipment

manufacturing segments of our supply chain. Child labor and forced/compulsory labor are

major forms of exploitation within this sector overall.

Nielsen expects that the suppliers with which we do business support and respect the free

exercise of human rights, including through compliance with applicable human rights and

labor laws and the provision of safe and healthy working environments. Forced, involuntary

and child labor are strictly forbidden.

As part of our Supply Chain Sustainability program, we require suppliers to demonstrate

similar commitments by agreeing to abide by our Code (or their own Code, if commensurate

with our requirements) and providing company-level information related to sustainability

throughout their tenure servicing Nielsen.

Prior to contracting with a supplier, Nielsen establishes a baseline of expectations regarding

social compliance through our Supplier Code of Conduct. We assess the social compliance risk

of new suppliers prior to contracting with them and require that they have the management

systems necessary to address any potential violations after the contract is made.

Our comprehensive supplier assessment and engagement process, described in detail

throughout this section, includes many elements specically related to human rights risks,

including the following:

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• Our Supplier Code of Conduct aligns with the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business

and Human Rights, and the provisions in the Code are derived from key international

human rights standards, including the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s)

Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the U.N.’s Universal

Declaration of Human Rights.

• Our formal, standardized ESG assessment on a third-party platform includes a section

on fair labor.

• Our site-specic supplier pre-assessment forms include questions on the use of

migrant labor, recruitment practices, agents, recruitment and related fees, worker

identication and documentation processes, and freedom of movement for each

production facility. The results of these forms determine the need for external audits.

The assessments above are reviewed and monitored by a Nielsen director and manager

with subject matter expertise in social compliance, and are shared with external

consultative bodies as well for additional review.

We also conduct regular factory visits to our most active production facilities. Finally,

we utilize social compliance data available through our membership in the Responsible

Business Alliance to access specic social compliance information on our suppliers’

production sites or prospective production sites.

For more information, see our 2020 Nielsen Modern Slavery Statement, which describes

our eorts to mitigate the risk of modern slavery and forced labor in our supply chain, as

well as our 2019 Supply Chain Responsibility Report for more on our supplier sustainability

program and year-by-year highlights, goals and progress.

Materials and conict

minerals

Nielsen purchases electronic measuring devices through subcontracted manufacturers. This

is the only segment of Nielsen’s supply chain in which managing materials is an issue.

Through electronics contract manufacturing, Nielsen is exposed to risks relating to the

extraction and use of conict minerals. A group of four mined metals—tungsten, tin,

tantalum and gold (3TG)—are the most commonly mined conict minerals. The 3TG

minerals are widely used in both consumer and commercial electronics. While these metals

are mined across the world, they pose particular risk when extracted from Africa, where

there is a greater likelihood for their sale to result in nancing warfare or the subjugation

of people. Nielsen undertakes due diligence and publishes the results of our due diligence

measures annually in a Dodd-Frank Conict Minerals disclosure, as required by the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission.

The products requiring 3TG data collection and disclosure in our supply chain are the Portable

People Meter family of meters and encoders designed by Nielsen Audio and manufactured

by contract manufacturers. An internal management team with representatives from

Engineering, Global Procurement, Legal and Finance ensures compliance with our conict

mineral reporting requirements. We utilize a specialized, third-party provider to collect

information from our direct suppliers with respect to the origin of the 3TG metals contained

in components and materials supplied to us.

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We also include sources of 3TG that are supplied to them from lower-tier suppliers.

Our third-party provider:

• utilizes the Conict Minerals Reporting template developed by the Conict-Free

Sourcing Initiative (now the Responsible Minerals Initiative) to determine the usage of

3TG by suppliers;

• assists suppliers in lling out the template;

• validates and corrects templates;

• alerts Nielsen if any 3TG originated in covered countries;

• generates an aggregated 3TG report based on bills of materials; and

• provides a collection report with hyperlinks to each template.

If template responses are insucient or absent, Nielsen examines each case individually

and determines a response based on the likelihood of 3TG being present, the specic

component and the availability of the component from other sources. Possible responses

include suspension of purchasing the component from that supplier, working with the

supplier to obtain the 3TG data necessary for a determination of its sourcing, or designing

out that particular component from our products going forward.

Compliance with our conict minerals due diligence is specically included within our

Supplier Code of Conduct.

Finally, as a corporate member of the Responsible Business Alliance and the Responsible

Minerals Initiative, Nielsen adds its purchasing power to an industry coalition to inuence

change and encourage responsible sourcing systemically within the electronics industry.

See also our Global Environmental Policy & Guidelines Across Functions, p. 24.

Supplier engagement and

capacity building, including

external supply chain

industry initiatives

Nielsen has long-term, multiyear agreements in place with our major suppliers globally.

These long-term contracts lead to mutual relationships that allow us the opportunity to build

awareness and capability to meet our expectations for supply chain responsibility.

Much of our supply chain work seeks to increase positive impacts, such as supplier

diversity, environmentally preferable purchasing, impact sourcing, local sourcing and

multistakeholder collaboration.

We specically engage suppliers who are critical to our core business, encompass the

largest percentages of our spend and have particular exposure to environmental, social or

governance (ESG) risk. We engage suppliers in all of the major sectors of our supply chain:

technology, professional services, contract manufacturing of measuring equipment, and

market research. We engage with our key suppliers multiple times a year with a focus on ESG

issues, including through the following:

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Measurement and disclosure: As discussed previously, once a key supplier enters

our supply chain, we require a standardized supplier assessment on ESG performance

(provided by a third party), which benchmarks our suppliers according to their industry,

size and country or countries of operation, along with ESG updates during regular business

reviews. The assessments and regular business reviews serve as catalysts for meaningful

supplier engagement.

Based on our Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy, we measure the performance

of our real estate facilities management, paper, printing, electronic devices and eet

suppliers on 50 environmental, supplier diversity and social metrics.

Continuous improvement: Through meaningful supplier engagement, we ensure visibility

into ESG risks and opportunities and drive higher standards within our own supply chain.

Our sourcing managers engage with our suppliers with the goal of quantitatively improving

sustainability performance at both the supplier and product/service level.

Capacity building: We’ve developed a Supplier Toolkit as a resource for our suppliers

to improve their sustainability performance. The Supplier Toolkit includes guidance for

developing social, ethical and environmental policies, practices and reporting. Additionally,

the toolkit includes a comprehensive list of 150 performance indicators that suppliers can

use to track ESG performance.

Collaboration: We also combine our purchasing power with other institutions and seek to

address these issues systemically. In addition to membership in the Responsible Business

Alliance, we are a founding member of the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition and a member

of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council.

See our 2019 Supply Chain Responsibility Report for more on our supplier sustainability

program, including year-by-year highlights, goals and progress.

Supply chain

environmental

engagement, including

engagement on climate

change strategies and

green procurement

initiatives

As described above, our supply chain risk assessment process has identied the primary

environmental risks associated with our supply chain. In 2019, we contracted with Trucost for

an assessment of Nielsen’s supply chain greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The assessment

found that 70% of GHG emissions in our supply chain were from purchased goods and

services. See the Environment section for more on our Scope 3 GHG emissions.

Alignment with our Supplier Code of Conduct, which addresses environmental management

and sustainability information, is required for 100% of suppliers newly added through our

supplier registration system. Sustainability information is requested and collected in 100%

of our major, centrally managed travel supplier RFPs, a supply chain segment with a heavy

climate footprint.

Our ongoing supplier sustainability assessment process includes a range of

environmental issues, including energy consumption, energy eciency and climate

change mitigation strategies.

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Impact sourcing Nielsen is a founding member of the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition, a coalition of

multinational corporations and suppliers committed to employing corporate procurement

as an innovative means to address global poverty and increase economic inclusion. We

have continued to play a leading role in the emerging impact sourcing movement and have

increased the number of impact sourcing-related jobs at Nielsen from an initial baseline

of 342 in 2017 to 437 through year-end 2019. These jobs focus on poverty alleviation, or

providing productive work that increases workers’ household income above the $2 per day

poverty line, according to the standard of the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition.

We developed an Impact Sourcing Buyer’s Toolkit to raise awareness about impact sourcing

among economic buyers and decision-makers for whom an impact sourcing supplier would

be a good option. The toolkit includes a buyer’s presentation; user-friendly fact sheets and

case studies; a directory of providers; and an opportunity identication worksheet to take

stock of where opportunities may be available within our company.

Impact sourcing is a key initiative for aligning our supply chain with the Sustainable

Development Goals (SDGs). Through impact sourcing, we are addressing multiple SDGs,

including SDG 1 (end poverty in all its forms everywhere) and SDG 8 (promote sustained,

inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent

work for all). To promote this practice throughout the business community, we were on the

Review Committee for the “Reducing Poverty Through Employment Toolkit” published by

Business for Social Responsibility.

For more information about this commitment to impact sourcing, see the feature about

Nielsen on the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition website. See also our 2019 Supply Chain

Responsibility Report for more on our supplier sustainability program, including year-by-

year highlights, goals and progress.

Buyer training on social

and environmental supply

chain issues

We understand that the cumulative purchasing decisions of institutional buyers can catalyze

systemic change through market demand and that training and resources enable and

empower those decisions. Nielsen provides education and awareness-raising eorts internally

and externally throughout the year to increase the awareness and practice of sustainable

purchasing, and 100% of our Global Procurement team has completed certicate training with

the Responsible Business Alliance on our Supplier Code of Conduct. We have also developed

an internship program with DePaul University, the Illinois Institute of Technology and Rutgers

University for project-based, graduate-level internships focused on developing future supply

chain sustainability professionals who are equipped to manage social and environmental

risks. Since 2016, we have provided internships to 26 students from six educational

institutions in Chicago, New Jersey, Florida and California.

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Supply chain

management goals

Supplier ESG Management Goals:

• Goal 1: At least 50% of spend with suppliers who have undergone sustainability

assessments, by the end of 2018.

• Status = Achieved. The spend with assessed suppliers in 2018 and 2019

represented 50% of Nielsen’s global sourceable spend in each year. We will

maintain this program level going forward, as our top 100 suppliers by spend

represent over 90% of the spend under Global Procurement management.

• Goal 2: Include sustainability criteria in 100% of our major, centrally managed,

global travel requests for proposals (RFPs).

• Status = Achieved. For 2018-2019, we met our goal of 100% of travel RFPs

addressing multiple questions on sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

• Goal 3: Engage 100% of our travel suppliers on overall sustainability practices.

Also, formally assess 80% of our major, centrally managed travel suppliers

on environmental, social and governance practices through our third-party

sustainability scorecard process.

• Status = Exceeded. For 2018 and 2019, we requested complete corporate social

responsibility and sustainability assessments from 100% of our major travel

suppliers, covering all three major categories of Nielsen’s travel spend (air travel,

auto travel and hotels/accommodations); 86% of those suppliers completed

assessments, exceeding our goal of 80%.

Supplier Diversity Goals:

• Goal 1: Transition and formally establish and manage supplier diversity as a

Global Procurement function by the end of 2018.

• Status = Achieved. Supplier diversity was embedded in roles and accountability,

formal processes, and technology by the end of 2018. Multiple processes and

policies were put in place to support a 3-Year Supplier Diversity Plan of increasing

our spend 5% year-over-year (YOY) with diverse businesses from 2019-2021.

• Goal 2: Achieve 5% YOY increase or $103 million in diverse spend by the end of

2019.

• Status = Exceeded. In 2019, we exceeded our 2019 goal by $8 million and spent

$111 million with minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, and LGBT-

owned businesses in both our Tier 1 and Tier 2 programs, representing a 13%

increase from 2018.

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• Goal 3: Achieve 15% diverse spend in facility management for 2018 and 20%

diverse spend in 2019.

• Status = Exceeded. In 2018, we exceeded our 15% goal and achieved 16%

diverse spend, and in 2019, 42% of our facility management spend was diverse,

exceeding our goal for the second year in a row.

Economic Inclusion Goal: Work toward a target of 500 impact sourcing jobs in our

supply chain by 2020.

• Status = On track. We have increased our impact sourcing jobs from an initial

baseline of 342 in 2017 to 437 as of December 2019. Given the nature of impact

sourcing, this key performance indicator is also tied to our commitment to advancing

human rights through our supply chain purchasing.

See our 2019 Supply Chain Responsibility Report for more details on goals and progress.

See the Diversity and Inclusion section for information on our supplier diversity eorts.

INFORMATION REQUESTED NIELSEN DISCLOSURE

Human rights policy, due

diligence, risk assessment

and governance of human

rights issues

Human rights are embedded in our overall approach to risk management through our

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework, which covers 100% of our operations

and joint ventures where we have management control. This multichannel collaboration

allows us to take a more comprehensive and proactive approach to human rights risk

management. ERM ensures that we are conducting ongoing, in-depth assessments

through our existing due diligence processes, monitoring and reporting on these risks,

taking appropriate actions when needed to address the risks, and integrating any relevant

ndings into our organizational processes and policies as needed. We also monitor

human rights-related risks on an ongoing basis through a variety of other internal audit

processes across geographies and dierent areas of our business. For more detail, see

our Global Commitment to Human Rights, which covers our operational commitments and

expectations for joint ventures and other stakeholders. As it relates to our Tier 1 suppliers,

68% have been assessed for human rights-related risks over the last three years.

We are committed to continuous improvement in this area in terms of increasing coverage

across our workforce, operations, supply chain and beyond, advancing our own policies and

practices, and encouraging the same of our stakeholders. To that end, we publish regular

updates on our approach to this and related areas in our Global Commitment to Human

Rights, which is updated every two years, as well as our annual Modern Slavery Statement.

HUMAN RIGHTS

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INFORMATION REQUESTED NIELSEN DISCLOSURE

Vulnerable groups

assessed for human

rights risks

We recognize that monitoring human rights risks is critical for all stakeholder groups, but

that not all groups require the same type or degree of monitoring, resources and support.

With that in mind, we have identied key vulnerable groups that require more rigorous

monitoring, including manufacturing suppliers’ workers, panelists and remote workers.

Nielsen is continually revising our approach to providing these groups and others with the

resources and information they need to recognize and address potential human rights risks

or opportunities that might come up in the course of their work or interactions with Nielsen.

Please see our Global Commitment to Human Rights for more information.

Grievance mechanism for

human rights impacts

Nielsen associates have a responsibility to report any potential human rights violations.

Associates may le formal or informal grievances through their managers, next-level

managers or Human Resources. Nielsen also maintains a Helpline whereby associates can

bring formal and informal grievances anonymously, or raise questions or concerns. All

grievances are investigated. Nielsen’s Code of Conduct maintains that no associates are

to be retaliated against for bringing forth any formal or informal grievances. We invite any

stakeholders concerned about potential human rights-related risks or impacts to reach out

and share any concerns or grievances with us. Please visit www.nielsen.com/helpline to make

a report online and to view a full list of country-specic phone numbers. More information

about how to submit a claim through the Helpline and other ways to report a concern can be

found in the Nielsen Code of Conduct.

See also Nielsen’s Global Commitment to Human Rights.

Human rights violations

and remediation actions

There have been no human rights incidents requiring remediation actions during the

reporting period.

Any and all potential violations of Nielsen’s Code of Conduct, including human rights

violations, are taken seriously. All allegations of violations are promptly investigated, and

action is taken as appropriate.

Human rights

management system

certications

Given the nature of Nielsen’s business, the greatest risks for potential human rights issues

come through our supply chain. To mitigate those risks, Global Procurement sta are

trained in SA8000 Auditor and RBA Auditor programs which address human rights risks,

among other topics.

Employee training on

human rights policies or

procedures

We focus human rights-related training on our Procurement and Supply Chain Management

employees, as the greatest risks for human rights issues occur in our supply chain rather than

our direct operations. All members of Nielsen’s Global Procurement team have been trained

on Nielsen’s Supplier Code of Conduct, which is aligned with the U.N.’s Guiding Principles

on Business and Human Rights, the ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and

Rights at Work and the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition, all Global

Procurement team members have received certicates of completion from the Responsible

Business Alliance. Three members of Nielsen’s Global Procurement team have been trained

to conduct internal audits against Nielsen’s Supplier Code. Additionally, all employees are

required to complete training on our Nielsen Code of Conduct, which also covers human

rights issues. In 2019, we began providing optional internal training open to all associates to

learn more about how protecting human rights is part of everyone’s job.

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Freedom of expression We recognize that it is a right of everyone to associate freely. We are committed to ensuring

an open environment at Nielsen where all views are respected and where dialogue about our

business and its operations is encouraged.

See Nielsen’s Global Commitment to Human Rights.

Stakeholder engagement

regarding human rights

risks and impacts

We proactively engage our internal and external stakeholders to better understand their

views and recommendations in order to incorporate an informed respect for human rights

throughout all aspects of Nielsen’s business. Our approach is aligned with external standards

and best practices in a number of specic ways, including respect for the individual; care

for our communities; nurturing a diverse and inclusive environment; and safeguarding our

meritocracy, among others. For more, see our Global Commitment to Human Rights and our

nonnancial materiality assessment.

Suppliers are a key stakeholder with whom we engage on human rights issues. Our

Supplier Code of Conduct explicitly forbids forced labor, child labor, human tracking and

discrimination, and requires suppliers to respect the right to freedom of association. See the

Supply Chain Management section above for more on how we engage with suppliers on

human rights.

Commitment to

children’s rights

Nielsen’s Global Commitment to Human Rights is aligned with the U.N.’s Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, which includes prohibitions against child labor. The most

material aspect of this for Nielsen is in our data collection processes, which we conduct

with the full consent of those providing their information. When we collect personal data

from children, we do so with parental consent, which can be withdrawn at any time, and we

comply with all applicable laws regarding the collection of data about children. For more

detail, please refer to our Nielsen Privacy Principles.

We also engage in social commitments and programs that benet children, such as through

our Nielsen Cares volunteer engagement programs.

Participation in recognized

human rights initiatives

and collaboration

To create industry change and impact beyond our own operations and supply chain, we’ve

joined our eorts and our purchasing power with like-minded corporate peers in the

Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Coalition, Responsible Business Alliance, Responsible

Labor Initiative, Responsible Minerals Initiative, Global Impact Sourcing Coalition, and

International Association of Outsourcing Professionals. We are represented on leadership

bodies of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Coalition, Global Impact Sourcing Coalition

and International Association of Outsourcing Professionals.

Our Global Commitment to Human Rights and Supplier Code of Conduct were developed

in alignment with the U.N.’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the ILO’s

Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the U.N.’s Universal

Declaration of Human Rights.

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DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION DISCLOSURE

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION STRATEGY AND METRICS

INFORMATION REQUESTED NIELSEN DISCLOSURE

Diversity and

nondiscrimination

policies and grievance

mechanisms

Nielsen is committed to reecting, within our own workforce, the diversity of the

clients, communities and markets we measure. We exist to count everyone, so we

embed inclusion and diversity not only into our workforce, but into all aspects of our

measurement and products.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Armative Action Employer, making decisions

without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual

orientation, national origin, genetics, disability status, age, marital status, protected veteran

status or any other protected class. Our Global Nondiscrimination Policy covers these

protected classes in every market in which we do business worldwide.

Additionally, Nielsen is committed to maintaining a work environment that is free of

discrimination and harassment. In keeping with this commitment, we prohibit conduct

having the purpose or eect of interfering with an employee’s work performance or

creating an intimidating, hostile or oensive work environment on the basis of an

employee’s race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity,

gender expression, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic

protected by law.

This commitment to maintaining a work environment that is free of discrimination and

harassment is outlined in our publicly available Code of Conduct. All employees are

required to certify compliance with the Code annually.

Nielsen oers several methods for associates to raise concerns about harassment or

discrimination, including an online webform, a Helpline, and by speaking with Integrity

Leaders in our business. Nielsen will not tolerate punishment or unfair treatment of any

employee who reports concerns in good faith or who participates in an investigation of

any such reports. Retaliation against an individual for reporting in good faith any violation

or for participating in any such investigation is a serious violation of the Code of Conduct

that will subject the violator to appropriate disciplinary action, including the possible

termination of employment.

Overall approach and

programs to improve

workforce diversity

A strong commitment to diversity and inclusion (D&I) has long been central to our

measurement, our products, our people and the marketplace.

We believe that diversity in people and ideas allows us—and our clients—to be successful.

At Nielsen, we dene “inclusion” as valuing and leveraging dierences to achieve superior

business results. Inclusion is about seeking input from all, mitigating biases, ensuring fairness

and creating a safe space for everyone to reach their full potential.

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D&I are incredibly important to Nielsen—so important that the topic is one of Nielsen’s key

material issues. We also maintain a D&I page on our website and regularly publish diversity-

focused news stories.

Nielsen’s diversity and inclusion vision is to build a better business through D&I and to use

the company’s inuence and resources to do good. To achieve this vision, Nielsen’s strategy

focuses on ensuring inclusive talent processes; fostering a culture that supports diversity and

inclusion; and driving accountability for all employees, especially managers.

Ensuring inclusive talent processes: We are increasing diverse representation among

associates at all levels through inclusive hiring and promotions, utilizing diverse slates,

hiring from diverse talent pools, expanding our inclusive hiring practices, and systematically

mitigating the impact of unconscious biases in all the decisions we make with help from an

internally developed professional development module called Breaking Through Bias. Since

2016, we have required diverse slates of candidates for open positions. (See more on diversity

recruiting in the rows below.)

We are also growing our in-house diverse talent through global mentoring opportunities

and the Diverse Leadership Network (DLN), a 15-month leadership development program

designed to strengthen and diversify the leadership pipeline at Nielsen by identifying,

developing and accelerating a more diverse group of top talent. The DLN is Nielsen’s

leadership and career development platform for mid-career, high-potential talent. It is

our most diverse program, by design, with at least 50% gender diversity and a target of

equal representation of African-American, Hispanic/Latinx, Asian Pacic Islander and White

participants. The program—which resembles a “mini-MBA”—is designed to identify, develop,

accelerate and retain high-performing, high-potential associates using a curriculum of

customized executive education, challenging case studies and one-on-one coaching from

senior leaders who help participants develop in their leadership styles. Since its launch in

2013, the program has reached 134 associates from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. In late

2017, we launched a DLN alumni program to support the continued development and

engagement of the program’s alumni network.

In 2018, Nielsen launched an all-inclusive mentoring program, myMentor, which we expanded

globally in 2019. As of year-end 2019, 5,000 associates from 90 countries were actively

participating in the program. Our goal is to reach 10,000 participants by July 2020.

Building a culture of diversity and inclusion: We work to strengthen our culture of diversity

and inclusion through three primary programs: Inclusion Impact Teams (an expansion of our

Employee Resource Groups or ERGs), Diversity Dialogues, and ongoing inclusion training, each

of which are described in more detail in the rows below.

In 2019, we made changes to further incorporate this commitment systemically across our

company by adding an operating principle of Engage, Include & Decide, which reminds us of

our daily commitment to seek diversity in people and input.

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Driving accountability: We ensure leadership accountability for diversity and inclusion

through scorecard transparency, pledge goals and action plans. In early 2019, we added the

expectation that all employees will advance diversity and inclusion in their everyday work as

a formal part of our annual performance review process for all Nielsen associates globally.

In 2019, we implemented a quantitative benchmark to measure inclusion, using Gallup’s

inclusion index, derived from the annual employee engagement survey. The inclusion index

gives Nielsen the ability to measure associate sentiment in regard to fairness, trust and

acceptance of diverse opinions and ideas by individual supervisors as well as the general

company culture. Managers with suciently large teams, together with those teams, receive a

team-level inclusion index along with resources to create team action plans.

Diversity and

antiharassment training

As part of our systemic approach to mitigate the impact of unconscious biases, we developed

a Breaking Through Bias framework that includes training available to all people managers

and associates. The framework includes in-the-moment tools to address unconscious biases

and resources to help people managers provide more fair and objective performance

assessments; it also outlines changes to any talent processes that are at risk for unconscious

biases. We developed the curriculum based on peer-reviewed research. Since launching

this training in 2019, we have trained 30% of our people managers. We are now working on

expanding the curriculum to include the feedback and hiring processes.

To help build a globally inclusive and impactful culture in which everyone can reach their full

potential, we continually challenge ourselves to have bolder and more candid conversations

about issues that are important in building a more inclusive culture. Our objective is to open

the door to talk about what we are not talking about—but should. To that end, we have

hosted a series of Diversity Dialogues, conversations structured to help break down stigmas

and barriers to foster honest conversations. In 2019, we held three sessions attended by

roughly 2,000 associates from seven regions.

Nielsen prohibits all forms of harassment and discrimination. This means we avoid any

behavior that could make other people feel demeaned or intimidated or could interfere with

their ability to do their jobs. Harassment does not have to be sexual in nature and can include

any action that interferes with an employee’s work performance or creates an environment

that is oensive, intimidating or hostile to work in.

We expand on our commitment to prohibiting all forms of harassment and discrimination

in our Code of Conduct, and we require that associates recertify to the Code annually, thus

ensuring that our associates benet from antiharassment training each year.which are

described in more detail in the rows below.

Diversity leadership and

management goals

Nielsen’s CEO and Chief Diversity Ocer (CDO) David Kenny ensures that diversity and

inclusion are core to the way we operate as a business. Every C-suite leader has received

a goal toward this broader company objective, which is being consistently measured and

discussed during executive committee meetings.

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To help us reach our goal to increase the representation of women in senior leadership

roles by seven percentage points by 2021, each executive committee member has clear

goals for increasing the representation of women in senior leadership in their respective

organizations. Each executive committee member also has a clear goal to personally

engage in diversity and inclusion initiatives as the executive sponsor of one of our nine

global Employee Resource Groups.

Diversity and inclusion objectives are qualitative factors that inuence the CEO’s

recommendations for executive compensation, which are approved by the Compensation

Committee of our Board of Directors.

Additional diversity targets

and goals

To further drive diversity and inclusion across the company and throughout our supply chain,

we have set a range of goals and targets, including the following:

• Annually purchase at least 10% of our U.S. sourceable spend with diverse suppliers

• Have at least one ERG in at least 75% of the countries where we operate

• Increase the representation of women in senior leadership by seven percentage points

by 2021

• Have a least 80% of people managers join an ERG

Employee Resource

Groups (ERGs)

Employee Resource Groups are employee-led, volunteer organizations that promote open

dialogue, engagement, community development and leadership development. Our nine ERGs

make up a signicant part of our overall Inclusion Impact Team structure, which aligns our

ERGs, Nielsen Cares and Nielsen Green platforms on the local level for greater cohesion and

impact. Our ERGs in particular have ve main focus areas:

• Increase participation in the D&I conversation at all levels

• Grow an inclusive culture

• Enable associates to reach their full potential

• Accelerate diverse representation

• Drive innovation

In the spirit of challenging ourselves to improve our practices, in 2019 we re-imagined our

Employee Resource Groups into broader Inclusion Impact Teams in all of our major oces

around the world. We hold all people managers accountable for participating in our ERGs.

ERGs are also part of associates’ core responsibilities; hence in 2019, Nielsen incorporated

a section in the annual performance feedback form where associates and managers can

document and discuss the individual’s contributions to growing and driving an inclusive and

impactful culture at Nielsen, whether that’s through our ERGs or otherwise.

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All C-suite executives are aligned with an Employee Resource Group anity as Executive

Committee Sponsors. The Sponsors work with the ERG Leaders and Business Sponsors to

develop the anity strategy, remove roadblocks, advocate for the ERG’s position on signature

issues and provide support in accomplishing goals and priorities.

Diversity recruiting Nielsen has designed an inclusive hiring process that embeds consideration of diversity

and inclusion in all aspects of the process. We require consideration of diverse slates of

candidates across our global operations. In the U.S. we dene “diverse slates” as including at

least two ethnically diverse candidates and at least two female candidates. Globally, diverse

slates focus on having at least two female candidates in the slate.

We use a targeted recruiting strategy to increase gender representation, including insights

from external partners to help us locate and reach qualied diverse candidates. We also track

diverse candidates with a pipeline management program.

For certain roles within the organization, candidates are interviewed by a diverse panel of

leaders who receive an inclusive interviewer training.

Gender equality measures In 2018, we conducted two internal studies to understand the state of women in leadership

at Nielsen. The research looked at the issue quantitatively and through focus groups and

surveys. We learned that we have equality for women in advancement/promotions, career

movement, bonuses and performance reviews. We repeated elements of these studies in

2019 and found the same results in key measures.

In addition to the overall diversity programs described throughout this section, we are

fostering gender equality through several other initiatives. For example, in March 2019, on

International Women’s Day, Nielsen’s CEO & CDO David Kenny signed an external pledge

with the international organization Leading Executives Advancing Diversity (LEAD). We

are founding partners of LEAD alongside several client companies committed to attracting,

retaining and advancing women in the retail and consumer goods industry. The LEAD CEO

pledge that Nielsen signed places us alongside many of our clients in a commitment to

increase representation and take meaningful action toward gender parity.

We have also made a commitment to increase women in leadership from 39% to 46% (an

increase of seven percentage points) by the end of 2021. Additionally, we’ve set an internal

goal to reach 50-50 parity of women in leadership roles by the end of 2023.

To achieve our goals, we are working to add 145 women in senior leadership positions by

2021. To meet this pledge, we have created specic business-level targets for each member of

the executive team.

Integration of people

with disabilities

Nielsen tracks the representation of people with disabilities in our workforce through the

Self Identication tool provided in our human resources software. The Self Identication tool

is used in our new hire onboarding, and quarterly campaigns are deployed to reinforce the

availability of self-identication.

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In 2019, Nielsen earned a 100% Disability Equality Index (DEI) score from Disability:IN for

the rst time. The DEI, a joint eort of Disability:IN and the American Association of People

with Disabilities, measures the sustainable progress that participating companies have

made toward achieving equality and inclusion for associates with disabilities on the basis of

workplace culture, leadership, accessibility, employment, community engagement, support

services and supplier diversity. Additionally, we launched a pilot program called Autism @

Nielsen through which we partner with a local university for the sourcing of candidates and

leverage manager and peer training and a buddy system to socialize and onboard associates

with autism.

In terms of community, Nielsen launched our Abled and Disabled Employees Partnering

Together (ADEPT) ERG in 2008 to build an inclusive culture for associates with disabilities.

ADEPT leads education sessions and provides a network of support to associates on a variety

of topics.

Incidents of discrimination

and actions taken,

including process for

handling harassment

allegations

We encourage all associates to report any and all concerns through our anonymous and

condential Speak Up Helpline. We provide a number of dierent mechanisms through which

employees and others can report claims, as explained in detail in our Code of Conduct.

Any and all allegations of harassment or discrimination are thoroughly investigated.

Responsive action is taken as appropriate. Allegations are reported and tracked by our

Compliance & Integrity function, which regularly reports to the Audit Committee of the Board.

Nielsen does not require employees to take sexual harassment claims to private arbitration.

Fines or legal actions

related to discrimination

from the Equal

Employment Opportunity

Commission or U.S.

Department of Justice

During the reporting period, Nielsen has not had any litigation involving claims of sexual

harassment. Also, we have not had any nes from the Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission or the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

SUPPLIER DIVERSITY

INFORMATION REQUESTED NIELSEN DISCLOSURE

Supplier diversity policy

and approach

By purchasing from diverse-owned businesses, we give diverse suppliers opportunities and

also indirectly help to support diverse families and communities. Nielsen has a national

supplier diversity program that follows best practices for the inclusion of diverse suppliers

in our supply base. We track and report our spending with minority- and women-owned

businesses, and we have multiple policies and processes in place to support an overall

corporate goal of increasing our diverse spend 5% year-over-year. We dene diverse

suppliers as U.S.-headquartered companies that are 51% owned, operated and controlled

by minorities, women, veterans, the disabled and/or lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender

(LGBT) persons.

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Our Global Procurement team manages our supplier diversity eorts, integrating supplier

diversity into upcoming bids and contracts and working to create a supply chain reective of

our company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, specically economic inclusion. We

advance the diversity of suppliers through the following eorts:

Selection and contracting requirements: Nielsen’s procurement policies include specic

request for proposal (RFP) language addressing supplier diversity; these policies also give

considerable weight to the ability of prospective suppliers to contribute to our corporate

diverse spend goals. In 2019, we added contractual language to our Master Supplier

Agreement requiring Tier 2 diverse spend reporting for all suppliers with formal supplier

diversity programs and best eorts at reporting for suppliers without formal supplier

diversity programs. Prior to 2019, Nielsen contracts contained “best eort” language only.

This requirement was communicated multiple times, with multiple media and at multiple

levels to our suppliers during the second and third quarters of 2019, beginning with a letter

from our Chief Procurement Ocer.

Business reviews and supplier engagement: Our Global Procurement team reviews and

evaluates strategic suppliers’ contributions to supplier diversity. When major suppliers are

not contributing to supplier diversity, our Global Procurement team engages the supplier

to address the importance of supplier diversity to Nielsen; recommends action steps for

the supplier to consider in order to contribute more impactfully to our supplier diversity

goals; agrees on action steps between Nielsen and the supplier; and agrees on a cadence

of regular communication (usually monthly or quarterly) to collaborate on the agreed-upon

action steps and track progress.

In 2018, Nielsen initiated this engagement process with six of our top 100 suppliers,

resulting in approximately $2 million in increased Tier 2 diverse spend from this group in

2019. In 2019, Nielsen continued this engagement with the initial group of six suppliers and

added another supplier, which resulted in an additional $1.5 million of Tier 2 diverse spend

from the seventh supplier for 2019.

Supplier development: In 2018, we added supplier development to our program activities,

actively developing two minority-owned businesses in the technology segment of our supply

chain. We continued supplier development activity with these two suppliers in 2019, resulting

in a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract for one of the two suppliers in January 2019.

National aliations: Nielsen is a corporate member of the National Minority Supplier

Development Council and the Women’s Business Enterprise Council, and we attend events

and conferences throughout the year to continuously identify, qualify and include diverse

suppliers in sourcing events and the nal awarding of business. This activity in 2019 resulted

in a signicant increase of diverse supplier participation in three major RFPs, totaling 30% of

RFP respondents.

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Client reporting: Nielsen reports our supplier diversity spend regularly to clients that

request it.

Accountability, governance and stang: We have a director in Global Procurement

who leads both Supply Chain Sustainability and Supplier Diversity; 95% of this role’s time is

dedicated to supplier diversity. We also have a manager in Global Procurement who supports

supplier diversity, and approximately 50% of this role’s time is dedicated to supplier diversity.

The Chief Procurement Ocer (CPO) owns the performance of the supplier diversity program,

and achievement of the diverse spend goal annually is tied to the CPO’s performance

evaluation and bonus, as well as to the performance evaluations and bonuses of the CPO’s 12

direct reports.

Nielsen’s supplier diversity program is tied closely to corporate goals such as those of the

Diversity and Inclusion and Global Responsibility & Sustainability platforms of the company.

The Supplier Diversity Subcommittee of our three External Advisory Councils approves our

supplier diversity goals and targets.

Supplier diversity goals

and progress

We strive to annually purchase at least 10% of our U.S. sourceable spend with diverse

suppliers. In 2018, we achieved more than 9% spend with diverse businesses, totaling $98

million in Tier 1 and Tier 2 spend with businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans,

LGBT or disabled individuals. In 2019, Nielsen achieved $111 million spend with diverse

businesses in our Tier 1 and Tier 2 programs. This is the largest dollar amount of diverse

spend that Nielsen has reported in the history of our program, and we exceeded our 2019

diverse spend goal by $8 million. However, because our overall supplier spend increased from

2018 to 2019, the percentage of diverse spend decreased to 8%.

NIELSEN DIVERSE SPEND

NIELSEN DIVERSE SPEND GROWTH

Tier 1 and Tier 2

2014

$60

2018201720162015 2019

$111

2019 RESULTS

$111 MILLION

Spent with Diverse Firms-Women-Owned,

Minority-Owned, Veteran-Owned,

LGBT-Owned or Disabled-Owned Businesses

$87 MILLION

Spent with Minority Business

Enterprises (MBE) - African American,

Asian American and Others

$98

$80

$85

$76

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Local sourcing policy In 2017, we launched a program called Buy Local, Grow Global, to nd ways to increase our

spend with local diverse businesses in major U.S. markets. To do this, we conducted “lunch

and learns” in seven targeted markets where Nielsen has a major presence (New York City,

Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Cincinnati, Tampa, and Columbia, Md.). The sessions helped to

identify existing or future business opportunities in which local diverse suppliers’ services

could be used. Attendees were provided with a database to make it easier for associates

to source local diverse businesses. Also as part of our Buy Local eort, JLL—our real estate

vendor—conrmed they will use supplier diversity as a criteria for consideration in 100% of

our facilities management contracts going forward.

Proportion of spending on

local suppliers

In 2016, Nielsen identied facilities management services as an opportunity to intentionally

direct spend to diverse and local suppliers. We conducted a survey in 2017 to understand

the current state of our local purchasing for facility management services—such as janitorial,

landscaping and security services—at each of our largest Nielsen oces in the U.S.: New

York City, Wilton, Conn., Chicago, Los Angeles, Tampa and Cincinnati. We found that diverse

spend in those oces overall was negligible (less than 1%), and 59% of the suppliers servicing

those largest oces were local/regional to the area, dened as being headquartered within

250 miles of the oce. We then began actively working with our real estate services supplier

partner to increase diverse spend, with a target of 15% diverse spend in 2018 and 20% diverse

spend in 2019.

In 2018, we exceeded our 15% goal and achieved 16% diverse spend, and in 2019, 42% of our

facility management spend was diverse, exceeding our goal for the second year in a row. In

2019, we used spend data to calculate that 30% of our spend was local, again dened as being

headquartered within 250 miles of that oce. Going forward, we will continue to track and

manage our facilities management services to increase diverse and local purchasing.

Broad-Based Black

Economic Empowerment

in South Africa

In South Africa, a region where signicant economic disparities still exist among racial

groups, we’re seeking to improve diversity and inclusion in our workforce as well as in our

supply chain. Specically, we are complying with the requirements of the South African

government’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) program, which seeks

to redress the inequalities of apartheid by providing previously disadvantaged citizens with

access to economic opportunities previously not available to them. The program has ve

elements: business ownership; management control; skills development; enterprise and

supplier development; and socioeconomic development. We have initiatives in progress in

all of these areas.

In the area of ownership, for example, we are in the process of selling shares of both AC

Nielsen and AGB Nielsen to an empowerment trust made up of previously disadvantaged

Nielsen associates. In skills development, we have created training programs for employees

that develop their management skills and other capabilities, so that we can promote from

within as positions become available. We’ve also provided skills training to unemployed

residents in local communities, to help them become more employable.

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In enterprise and supplier development, we partnered with a business coaching rm to help

young entrepreneurs in the area to grow their businesses, so they might become suppliers to

Nielsen. We have also provided oce space and other support to qualifying businesses that

are already a part of our supply chain, such as the company that provides cafeteria services to

our associates in Johannesburg.

With all of these activities, our aim is to help create further economic opportunity and a more

secure future for communities of color in South Africa.

DIVERSITY DATA

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Diversity by gender, age

and ethnic minority

Diversity metric 2018 2019

Full-time headcount

by gender

Male – 23,551 (53%)

Female – 21,151 (47%)

Undisclosed – 23 (0%)

Male – 23,335 (52%)

Female – 21,163 (47%)

Undisclosed – 130 (0%)

% Minorities in U.S.

headcount

Diverse – 3,515 (35%)

White – 6,463 (65%)

Undisclosed – 26 (0%)

Diverse – 3,628 (37%)

White – 6,066 (62%)

Undisclosed – 49 (1%)

% Multicultural

women in U.S.

headcount

Diverse Female – 1,675 (48%)

Diverse Male – 1,833 (52%)

Diverse Females as a % of

total U.S. headcount – 17%

Diverse Female – 1,732 (48%)

Diverse Male – 1,847 (51%)

Diverse Females as a % of

total U.S. headcount – 18%

Racial/ethnic

representation at

executive level

18% 29%

Racial/ethnic

representation at

management level

22% 20%

Racial/ethnic

representation

within

noncontingent

headcount

35% 37%

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Diversity metric 2018 2019

Racial/ethnic

representation

within contingent

headcount

33% 35%

Headcount breakdown

by age group

Under 30 years – 31%

30-50 years – 57%

Over 50 years – 12%

Under 30 years – 35%

30-50 years – 54%

Over 50 years – 11%

% Women in total

headcount

48% 49%

% Women in

noncontingent

headcount

48% 49%

% Women in contingent

headcount

54% 49%

% Women in executive

headcount

36% 13%

% Women in top

management headcount

51% 51%

% Women in

management headcount

38% 40%

Number of female

named executive

ocers

1 – Chief Human

Resources Ocer

1 – Chief Human Resources

Ocer

% Women in revenue-

generating management

headcount

38% 40%

% Women in junior

management headcount

48% 46%

% Women in entry-level

headcount

49% 50%

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Diversity metric 2018 2019

% Women in IT and

Engineering headcount

22% 21%

Women promoted 52% 53%

Women hired 49% 49%

Female turnover Women as a % of

Overall Exits – 50%

Retention % of Women

– 74%

Women as a % of Overall Exits

– 49%

Retention % of Women – 77%

Please note that for the purposes of our 10-K reporting, we use full-time equivalents,

whereas for this more detailed reporting on our workforce, we have used total headcount.

Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.

Equal pay audit results We’ve shared the results of our equal pay audit in our Human Capital Detailed Disclosure

section, with additional information about our broader commitment to providing

appropriate pay and benets for all our associates.

Gender pay equity is fundamental to Nielsen’s compensation philosophy and practices. We

have robust employee data on gender globally, and we conduct regular audits to ensure

that our pay outcomes reect our commitment to pay equity.

All of our compensation decisions take gender equity into consideration, and with each of

our annual compensation planning processes, we review associate pay for gender balance

and fairness. Additionally, we conduct our detailed pay equity analysis annually, including

a review with our Board of Directors. To do this, we developed a scientic and statistically

driven analytic method to assess the gender pay gap. The method controls for variables that

may inuence pay (such as performance, experience, location, tenure and other factors)

and is applied consistently and globally. The results from the 2019 assessment show that,

on average, across all countries measured, we have a global pay gap of less than 1%. We

prioritize individual level reviews for countries where we have a pay gap above 2%. Should

we nd specic instances of pay inequity for individuals in similar jobs, we develop action

plans to close gaps. We are fully committed to gender pay equity, and we continue to review

and rene our methodology and drill down by country and job to ensure pay equity is

continuously addressed across the organization. As the business continues to evolve and

population shifts, we are focused on equality across the employee lifecycle, and gender pay

equity is an ongoing process and a constant goal.

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HUMAN CAPITAL DISCLOSURE

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

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Approach to employee

engagements

Employee engagement—the emotional and psychological connection our associates feel

about their workplace and the work we do—is central to both individual and business success.

We are committed to strengthening employee engagement at Nielsen, because engagement

isn’t just a Human Resources (HR) priority—it’s one of Nielsen’s key strategic priorities.

We aim to engage all of our associates through the Nielsen Employee Experience, which

focuses on the three aspects of our employee value proposition:

• Be Yourself: We aim to enable associates to be their best selves, oer unique and

varied perspectives and respect and embrace the diverse perspectives of each other.

• Make a Dierence: Every Nielsen associate has the ability and the power to make

a positive impact on our company, our clients, our teams and colleagues, and the

communities in which we live and work.

• Grow with Us: We encourage each associate to own their career by sharing their

goals and engaging in learning and developmental programs.

We also foster engagement through:

• Regular employee/manager one-on-ones;

• A new learning experience platform, myLearning powered by Degreed;

• Employee Resource Groups, Green Teams and Nielsen Cares volunteer opportunities,

which come together at the local level through our oce-based Inclusion Impact

Teams;

• Regular town hall meetings that foster dialogue between leaders and employees;

• The Engagement Inuencer program, a community of ambassadors who work within

their sphere of inuence to promote engagement; and

• Google Currents communities, which enable associates to connect on a variety of

topics, including career growth, learning and development, as well as to ask questions

directly of our CEO and senior management.

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Measuring and monitoring

employee engagement

and satisfaction

To track our progress, we maintain open communication channels and feedback mechanisms

that help to deepen connections between leaders and their teams and ensure that associates

feel connected no matter where they work within the company.

Since 2017, we have enlisted Gallup to gauge employees’ level of engagement through an

annual, companywide survey. The survey, available in multiple languages, includes questions

that tie to measurable performance outcomes, which demonstrate eective employee

engagement. We share survey results with senior leaders, managers and all associates

through our company newsletter, global town halls and manager-led team discussions.

Managers are expected to develop team-specic action plans based on the survey results,

focusing on areas important to the team and where they can make meaningful progress.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

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Approach to employee

career development,

including commitment

to career management,

career development

policy and talent pipeline

development

Our Talent Engagement & Development strategy seeks to engage and develop associates

to support their personal and professional development and drive better business

outcomes for Nielsen. We believe that managing one’s career development and growth

should be an ongoing collaboration between each associate, their manager and the

broader Nielsen community. We are committed to ensuring that our people feel valued

and know their work matters, and to empowering them to learn, grow, make a dierence

and reach their full potential.

In our annual talent review, our HR team and business leaders do a deep dive into their

organizations to plan for leadership succession, talent movements and development paths

for our associates. This review helps to support employees’ career development and the

development of a talent pipeline that meets business needs.

All employees have access to myCareer, our career management system. Through

this system, associates can create a prole that summarizes their career background,

experiences, product knowledge, technical skills, languages spoken and career aspirations,

and indicates when they are actively seeking new opportunities. Hiring managers then use

this tool to select potential candidates who may be a good t for open roles.

We also oer mentoring programs that provide valuable learning, development and

networking experiences, matching associates with mentors who can support their personal

and professional development objectives. We enable these mentoring relationships both

within and beyond an associate’s business unit, country or region through our global

myMentor program.

Finally, our Diverse Leadership Network helps to further diversify our workforce, especially

our management and leadership team, as described in the Diversity & Inclusion section.

For more information about careers at Nielsen, see our career stories webpage.

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Performance review

process

All employees receive annual performance reviews. We also encourage associates to have

focused “check-in” discussions at least three times per year as well as ongoing one-on-one

conversations with their managers. During the check-ins, managers provide feedback on job

performance and discuss associates’ career and skill development, future aspirations, work-

life balance and other issues that may impact job satisfaction and performance.

Access to career

planning resources and

performance reviews,

including percentage

of employees receiving

performance reviews

and percentage receiving

multidimensional

feedback

All associates have access to career development resources and performance reviews. Four

percent of employees elected to receive multidimensional performance reviews in both 2018

and 2019.

Employee training

programs, including

training policy, programs

to upgrade employee

skills and training for

nonmanagers

We have made signicant investments in technology and programs that provide easy-to-

access, on-demand learning and skill development anytime, anywhere.

In 2019, we introduced two signicant improvements to our training toolkit:

• A new learning experience platform—myLearning powered by Degreed—that enables

employees to engage in learning activities best suited to their individual needs and

supports our commitment to build a culture of learning at Nielsen.

• A new Associate Development program that provides learning across a wide spectrum

of soft skills, including those required for the workforce of the future.

myLearning by Degreed leverages free content and subscription-based resources, such as

Harvard Business Publishing, as well as internally developed programs presented in a blended

and highly personalized manner. It features a robust learning catalog, including manager and

leadership development, technical skills and product knowledge, as well as modules about

Nielsen’s global responsibility and sustainability eorts, including information about how

associates can engage and make an impact through Nielsen Cares and Nielsen Green. As we

evolve as a company—and give associates new ways to learn and grow—we are providing

opportunities to “re-skill” and “up-skill” for associates who may take on new career paths,

whether as a result of changing technological trends or new areas of interest. Degreed allows

us to expand our training oerings to meet these changing needs.

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We are also focused on building leadership skills, as these have a direct impact on business

performance, employee engagement and helping our clients address critical business issues.

We oer leadership development programs for associates at all levels, including:

• The Emerging Leaders Program (ELP), which is for early-career associates and includes

tracks for associates across HR, Finance and our Commercial business;

• Workshops for mid-level leaders on a path to more senior positions;

• Functional- and business-area Leadership Forums;

• The Diverse Leadership Network for mid-career, high-performing diverse talent; and

• A Manager Excellence program that focuses on key behaviors such as managing the

business, leading teams, developing people and employee engagement, as well as on

leading with integrity, including how managers should (and should not) handle any

integrity issues they receive.

For some of these programs, we have worked with educational institutions in order to deliver

the most cutting-edge content to our participating associates. For example, participants in

our Diverse Leadership Network participated in coursework at Emory University’s Goizueta

Business School in Atlanta.

We also create new training modules as needed to support associates in specic functional

areas. For our client-facing associates, for example, we have developed courses on presenting

eectively to clients, sales, and negotiation skills.

Overall, we remain committed to helping prepare the workforce of tomorrow for successful

careers. We oer a variety of internship programs and apprenticeships in locations around

the world for those just getting started in their careers, based on specic business needs.

Since 2016, we have oered students the unique opportunity to complete a fellowship at

the Nielsen Media Lab, where they can leverage Nielsen’s resources to research a topic of

their choosing.

Apprenticeship programs Nielsen U.K. has managed an award-winning apprenticeship program since 2014, with

graduates successfully transitioning into roles across our organization. In 2017, we

launched a degree-level apprenticeship, through which students complete rotations at

Nielsen while studying for a degree in business and management practice certied by

Oxford Brookes University. In 2018, we welcomed 12 new apprentices to this program. In

2019, we had 24 apprentices working across Nielsen, all of whom are guaranteed a role at

the end of their program.

In early 2020 in Karachi, Pakistan, we collaborated with the Institute of Business

Administration to launch an educational market research initiative for graduating students

called Nielsen Academy. The program, comprising both coursework and eldwork, aims to

not only equip students with the knowledge necessary to excel in the workforce, but also

provide them the opportunity to learn about the latest research dynamics from experts in the

eld.

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Measuring training

eectiveness, including

quantitatively measuring

benets from investments

in employee development

programs, and monitoring

and measuring human

capital development

We track the eectiveness of our training programs by measuring skill development, internal

role changes, retention, international job transfers and other measures. We do not track the

total number of hours spent in training as a measure of success, because we know that much

learning happens outside of formal training programs through day-to-day engagement across

teams and associates, and because we are focused on cultivating the positive outcomes of

these development opportunities through meaningful metrics such as those mentioned

previously, like employee satisfaction and growth in the organization.

We recently upgraded our learning management and training system to myLearning by

Degreed. Since its launch in September 2019, we have engaged more than 16,000 employees

through this new platform. In addition to myLearning by Degreed, our associates are also

oered other training opportunities in person in our oces around the world, as well as other

options that are relevant to their job functions and responsibilities.

RECRUITMENT

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Initiatives for talent

recruitment

To succeed as a company, we need the right people in the right jobs. As much as possible,

we seek to hire from within. In 2018, 27% of open positions were lled by internal

candidates; in 2019, 28% of open positions were lled by internal candidates.

When hiring externally, we work hard to ensure the right t. All university hires and most

experienced hires attend in-oce sessions where we can observe how they engage with a

diverse group of associates—from rst-year analysts to senior executives—and with each

other in a variety of formal and informal settings.

To ensure we consider and hire more diverse candidates, we require diverse candidate

slates. In the U.S. we dene “diverse slates” as including at least two ethnically diverse

candidates and at least two female candidates. Globally, diverse slates focus on having at

least two female candidates in the slate. We are also rolling out training on unconscious

bias, to educate our managers about biases in their hiring practices that they may not be

aware of. Our Employee Resource Groups often assist with recruitment through candidate

referrals and recruitment events at universities.

We are also committed to expanding our talent recruitment channels to include candidates

with nontraditional backgrounds and career histories. Similar to our commitment to impact

sourcing, we seek to increase the number of applicants from nontraditional channels in

order to provide a path to employment for those who may otherwise be excluded.

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Onboarding process We work to successfully integrate employees into the company from day one by helping new

hires understand our culture, be clear on their roles and feel connected to their new team

and to the broader Nielsen community. Our First 30 onboarding initiative includes a Discover

Nielsen training that provides a welcome from our CEO, an overview of the company and

our culture—including our focus on diversity and inclusion—an introduction to growing their

careers, and an overview of our global responsibility and sustainability programs, among

other topics. It also emphasizes the value of integrity in everything we do.

As new associates continue through their rst 30 days at the company, they have access to

an onboarding website that provides a one-stop resource for information about training,

benets, travel and expenses and technical support. The First 30 program also includes

manager and HR onboarding guides and access to our Google Currents new hire community,

to help new associates feel more connected.

To track the eectiveness of our First 30 initiative and continually improve the new

hire experience, we regularly seek guidance from an onboarding network composed of

global colleagues.

Hiring cost per full-time

employee (FTE)

In 2019, our hiring cost per FTE was $1,670; in 2018, it was $1,781. These gures include all

recruiting costs and reect a global average.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

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Compensation approach Nielsen is committed to providing appropriate pay and benets for all associates,

commensurate with the work being performed and in accordance with applicable laws and

regulations. Our associates are rewarded and promoted based on performance against

priorities and how they live the Nielsen values. Similar roles may have dierent pay levels

due to factors such as the overall performance of the business and team, the associate’s

experience, geographic location and market conditions.

Our pay philosophy is to provide a total compensation package that is market-competitive

based on data provided by independent third parties and that also provides an opportunity

for pay growth and role progression based on individual contribution and company

performance. We regularly review our compensation practices to ensure they are equitable

and support our pay-for-performance philosophy and culture of diversity and inclusion.

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Gender pay equity Gender pay equity is fundamental to Nielsen’s compensation philosophy and practices. We

have robust employee data on gender globally, and we conduct regular audits to ensure that

our pay outcomes reect our commitment to pay equity.