Our Approach

An ethically healthy organization is one that has a well-implemented ethics and compliance program which in turn drives the strength of the ethical culture. The combination of these two drivers reduces ethics risk to the organization. Benchmarking Services’ approach to assessments focus on these major components of the ERC’s Model of an Ethically Healthy Organization.

Our team works with each organization to:

• Understand and clarify objectives;
• Design and implement comprehensive survey instrument;
• Analyze survey data and identify actionable key findings; and,
• Present findings to senior team and offer recommendations for driving change.

Explanation of ERC’s Model of an Ethically Healthy Organization

ERC’s research has shown that there are two drivers in a company that can create and maintain the health of the company: A well-implemented ethics and compliance program and a strong ethical culture.

A well-implemented ethics and compliance program is one in which employees are aware of program elements (such as a reporting mechanism, written standards of business conduct, or training) and employees see value in the program (such as employees’ willingness to seek advice, employees feel company encourages ethical conduct, and employees believe the org is ethical).

A strong ethical culture is one in which the company’s management leads with integrity, supervisors set a good example and encourage ethical behavior, the ethical actions of peers support each other in “doing the right thing,” and the values promoted through formal and informal communication channels are aligned.

Both drivers are needed in order to effectively address our appropriate targets:

• Reducing Pressure,
• Decreasing misconduct,
• Reducing Retaliation for Reporting, and
• Increasing Reporting of observed misconduct.

Ultimately, addressing these outcomes will reduce your ethics risk.