Durandisse Industries is committed to doing the right thing —
We are committed to doing the right thing as a company. not just as a matter of marketing or positioning, but as an uncompromising stance embodied by the words and actions of leaders and recognized by employees and business partners. It turns out that commitment can’t be faked.
We believe who we are as a company adds value to the services we provide to communities and the world as a whole.
We ensure the culture of integrity via 7 important components:
Implement clear policies, processes and procedures
Implementing policies, processes and procedures and adopting best practices will help our organization drive improvements and efficiencies. From something as straightforward as adopting a clear-desk policy, to adopting new, transparent accounting practices, policies and processes will drive improvements across the board. It will also mean our organization is risk-aware and well-positioned to cope with regulatory change.
Create a code of ethics
A clearly-defined code of ethics provides a framework with strong values, which attracts and retains talent and drives performance: people want to work for, and do business with, organizations they trust and respect. The media reports examples of businesses that have suffered security breaches or experienced fraudulent behavior, on a regular basis. These companies have a long way to go to rebuild customer trust and reputation. A code of ethics provides guidance on decision-making and sets expectations for behavior and practices.
Encourage accountability and ownership
Understanding how behaviors impact on customers is crucial in creating a culture of integrity and driving compliance. Customer-facing staff will be well aware of this, but for back-office staff it may not be so easy to understand how and why their behavior affects customers. Facilitate interaction with our customers across all functions in our business, whether allowing time for customer visits or conversations, or inviting customers to our office to talk about how our organization drives their results. Encourage ownership wherever and whenever we can – when they have an issue, customers want ‘owning’, and fast resolution of their problem. Empowered staff fix issues without having to source management approval. We recognise and reward these behaviors.
Educate, engage and empower
Making employees aware of risk, and the responsibility they have in minimizing this risk, plays a critical part in creating a culture of integrity. Training and education is key across a diversity of different learning environments, from management briefings and face-to-face training sessions to online learning and webinars. Creating a culture of integrity begins at the recruitment stage, and is maintained throughout the employee’s journey with you, so taking time to drive employee engagement pays off.
Communicate, and encourage a response
Creating policies and procedures, of course, doesn’t mean a lot unless they are communicated using a diversity of channels, perhaps across an Intranet if your organization has one, or in the form of meetings, posters, emails and across digital networks, with the same message across every channel. And remember that communication works both ways: make sure staff can respond, raise issues and identify risk in a confidential environment. Share examples of best practice from across the company, so staff can identify with the behaviors required within a culture of integrity.
Focus on best-practice security, especially if your business encourages BYOD
Bring Your Own Device is now a standard state of play: in fact, analysts Gartner predict that by 2017, 50% of employers will require employees to supply their own device for work purposes2. Many staff prefer to use their own tablets, laptops and smartphones both in the office and at home, and businesses can use this to their advantage: it reduces spend on IT, it enables staff to select their own fit-for-purpose applications and tools, it enables mobility and it’s motivating and respectful. But there’s no getting away from the security threat it presents: unsecured applications pose a risk to a corporate network, leaving it vulnerable to attack; there is a risk of devices being lost or stolen, putting corporate data at risk; and there are concerns about data leakage across mobile platforms. Auditing and informing staff, and creating security-focused policies and procedures needn’t require a huge investment of time, and will mean that employees are versed in security best-practice.
Equip staff with tools that drive compliance
Even well-intentioned staff will be disheartened if they don’t have access to the right technology and tools. This needn’t require major capital investment: cloud platforms, for example, enable cost-effective, secure sharing of digital documents. Hardware such as document inserters can be leased, rather than purchased outright, and those based on file-based processing have the highest standards of security built-in for maximum document integrity.
Integrity matters. It matters to employees, customers, prospects, suppliers and stakeholders. A change of culture will take time, but leadership engagement will help. Time taken to drive a culture of integrity is time well-spent.