Are we living up to our values? This is a critical question when it comes to monitoring and assuring an ethics programme.

Members of boards and other governing bodies need to assure themselves that their organisation is living up to its ethical values and commitments and delivering the behaviours and culture expected. In today's world, shareholders and stakeholders have high expectations of those running organisations. They expect companies and organisations to be run to high ethical standards. If not, they expect them to be held accountable.

Assessing the risk still poses some big challenges in terms of information flow, analysis and reporting.

It is important for organisations to work out the indicators that matter to them, inform themselves and use these as the basis for narrative reporting about culture. An important point to note is that the data on their own tell only half of the story. The correct interpretation and contextualisation of those indicators are what provides a real understanding of the effectiveness of the ethics programme.

This is why benchmarking exercises are important, as they can be really helpful to put the data into context and interpret them. These can be:

  • External, focusing on comparisons with other organisations
  • Internal, highlighting differences between business units, geographical locations, etc, within an organisation.

Some organisations appoint an oversight committee (a dedicated existing director level committee such as the Audit, Risk or Ethics Committee) to:

  • Consider the criteria for assessing ethical performance against the evidence that is possible and relevant.
  • Consider who will provide the assurance – management, the audit function or external providers. 
  • Provide the board with regular reports on ethical performance, ethical issues, breaches of the code and use of speak up lines.
  • Consider what form of external accountability and reporting is required. 

Finally, it is important that all employees receive transparent feedback on the impact that the ethics programme has on the business. The content of the feedback can vary and needs to be tailored to the role and seniority of employees. However, organisations are increasingly sharing with all their employee's information about the use of their Speak Up line, disciplinary actions are taken as a result of breaches of the code, improvements introduced, and more. 

Useful resources

Making the most of Employee Surveys
Making the most of Employee Surveys

Read the latest network blog by Rachael Saunders, IBE's Deputy Director.

The Importance of Benchmarking – what does ‘good’ look like?
The Importance of Benchmarking – what does ‘good’ look like?

So you have built your data analytics system but how do you know if your organisation’s results are reassuring or a cause for concern? In this blog, Richard Hanson, Associate General Counsel - Ethics & Compliance of Smiths Group plc looks at ways to compare and make sense of your information.

Innovating Business Ethics: Finding the employee pulse with polling
Innovating Business Ethics: Finding the employee pulse with polling

In the next blog of the Innovating Business Ethics series, Richard Hanson, Associate General Counsel - Ethics & Compliance shares how Smiths Group plc use surveys to identify and understand trends in employee views.

IBE Lecture with Sir Jonathan Thompson
IBE Lecture with Sir Jonathan Thompson

View our webinar recording.

Culture by Committee: the pros and cons
Culture by Committee: the pros and cons

The idea of having a committee dedicated to the task of overseeing culture and ethics is relatively new. This survey report is intended to benchmark what is happening in the UK, providing a valuable insight into how companies are approaching the task.

Red Flags: a report on identifying indicators of corporate culture
Red Flags: a report on identifying indicators of corporate culture

This report represents the conclusions of a workshop of senior regulators, company directors and executives and investors exploring ways of identifying early warning signs of a weak culture.