Ethical Culture Assessment
Has your company established a Code of Conduct but not sure if it’s realized in everyday action?
Corporate culture refers to the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company’s employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. In addition to conscious manners and values, the corporate culture is also driven by subconscious practices. These practices live in people’s stories and beliefs about what is acceptable, desired, or punishable in the workplace.
THE PURPOSE OF AN ETHICAL CULTURE IS TO HELP THE ORGANIZATION SUCCEED IN AN ETHICALLY SUSTAINABLE WAY.
Culture is not merely a reflection of your business, it is a reflection of you as a leader. It lays the foundation for the organization’s values and behavior patterns. Based on our experience, the majority of fraud, misconduct and unethical behavior in the workplace stem from the hidden layers of corporate culture. That is why the appropriate understanding and management of a company’s culture is such a crucial risk management mechanism. Leading the culture of your organization means driving its attitudes and behavior toward a desirable destination. Corporate culture can either make or break your organization.
Are you aware of your organization’s CURRENT culture and ethical climate? HAVE YOU DEFINED THE ELEMENTS OF YOUR TARGET CULTURE?
Auditing corporate ethical culture lays the foundation for evaluating your current culture in respect of your target culture. During the audit process, we compare your target culture with the employee experience. We explore everyday life at your workplace by interviewing and listening to your employees. We also go over documentation to express your culture, for example, in terms of your decision-making in recruitment and benchmarking. Moreover, we conduct an anonymous survey among all employees to explore even their deepest beliefs. With the help of the audit process, we get a clear idea of how the organization’s official values, code of conduct, and factors defining the target culture actually come true in the everyday life. What is unique to our process, is that we use insights from the Nordic Business Ethics Survey to benchmark your results into Nordic average data, where applicable.
Our analysis of your current culture creates a sound basis for understanding, leading, and designing it – from an ethical point of view. We will expand upon the elements that are both beneficial and harmful to your target culture. With the help of concrete suggestions, you will be able to strengthen your target culture and spot such elements that might be harmful for the ethics of your organization.
We have internationally eligble professional certifications on Ethics & Compliance (CCEP-I) and Internal Audit (CIA).
Our culture audit concept comprises of the following steps:
- Kickoff meeting where we go through the company’s values, code of conduct, and other factors defining your target culture
- Documentary review to take a look at relevant documents brought up during the kickoff. This may cover training materials, workplace satisfaction survey results, recruitment decisions, or exit documentation
- Confidential employee survey to research the implementation of the ethical target culture in everyday work
- Implementation to the everyday work life by interviewing and listening to the employees
- Analysis of the results as well as a presentation of concrete development proposals
Kickoff Meeting
In the kickoff meeting, we go through the company’s values, code of conduct, and other factors defining the target ethical culture.
Documentary review
During the documentary analysis, we take a look at relevant documents brought up during the kickoff.
Implementation
We examine the employee experience and perception of ethics at work by conducting employee surveys and interviews. Where applicable, we benchmark the results to Nordic average.
Results and proposals
We analyze the collected data and present concrete development proposals.
