How To Help Your Organisation Be Ethical

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1 Audit Advisory Tax RISK ADVISORY SERVICES MEASURING AND MONITORING ETHICS In association with The Leader for Exceptional Client Service

2 BDO IN SOUTH AFRICA PROVIDES AUDIT, ADVISORY AND TAX SERVICES TO A BROAD RANGE OF CLIENTS FROM LARGE JSE-LISTED COMPANIES TO INDIVIDUALS AND SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTITIES. As the South African member firm of BDO International, with offices in over 152 countries, we have been delivering exceptional client service to our clients since In South Africa we can service clients countrywide from four locations in Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria and Cape Town. Because of their skills and experience, our people are trusted to deliver the quality of service that our clients expect. We offer a tailored approach to every client and our people have the skills and experience to take responsibility for the work they do. We are agile and quick in responding to client demands. Our approach involves listening to our clients, understanding their expectations and delivering the calibre of service associated with a leading global financial services firm. DELIVERING EXCEPTIONAL RISK ADVISORY SERVICES Our Risk Advisory team is highly skilled in providing the full range of Risk Advisory services to companies. We offer a suite of services to help our clients manage risk within their business. Our diversity of technical and professional experience, coupled with the entrepreneurial nature of our global network of member firms, clearly differentiates us and delivers distinct advantages for our clients through: Director-led teams with a hands-on approach that translates into the insight and authority required to tailor a service to meet each client s needs Unrivalled cultural insight and team diversity Tailoring of robust and creative solutions relevant to local conditions.

3 WHY FOCUS ON ETHICS? Ethics in the workplace is an increasingly important focus area for boards, executives and leaders. This is driven by various factors. Compliance obligations in terms of the Companies Act Social and Ethics Committee mandate that organisations must monitor and report on ethics annually Sound governance principles contained in King III require organisations to assess, monitor, report and disclose their ethical performance Directors liability in terms of the Companies Act and directors responsibility in terms of King III warrant that they should insist on regular measurement and monitoring to enable accurate reporting of ethics Risk management and reputation management necessitate that ethics is well managed to minimise the risks associated with ethical failures and to protect the reputation of the organisation The solution lies in effective ethics management, of which the measurement of ethics within the organisation is crucial. The dictum that you can t manage what you can t measure can be considered an exaggeration but it is nonetheless true that it is much easier to manage ethics if the primary issues and risks are identified and quantified.

4 MONITORING AND MEASURING ETHICS BDO has partnered with Ethics Monitoring & Management Services to offer a web-based survey, the Ethics Monitor, which measures an organisation s ethical status based on the experiences and perceptions of its stakeholders, including all employees, to ensure representative results. The Ethics Monitor survey produces the following key outcomes: An in-depth understanding of the organisation s current ethical status Credible ethics results based on the experiences and perceptions of all employees Actions to improve ethics identified and prioritised An accurate assessment of ethics for reporting purposes in line with King III and the Companies Act Social and Ethics Committee A comprehensive ethics risk analysis, with insight into the organisation s ethical strengths and weaknesses The ability to monitor ethical progress or regression over time throughout the organisation An ethics rating to increase the organisation s reputation and ethical capital with external stakeholders The survey is based on a model comprising two key ethical concepts: behaviour and ethical boundaries. Via these concepts, the survey questions explore the primary ethical issues in the workplace, for example, to assess employees commitment to values to assess the extent to which leaders live the organisation s values to identify the factors that most effectively promote ethical behaviour to identify the factors that best reduce unethical behaviour to quantify the extent of specific incidences of unethical conduct to evaluate the organisation s relationships with stakeholders, including the extent to which employees feel valued to evaluate the organisation s commitment to a triple bottom line The survey is fully confidential and customisable according a company s branches, departments, work levels, values and stakeholder groups, and allows the inclusion of additional questions to address company-specific issues.

5 THE ETHICS MONITOR SURVEY PRODUCES ACCURATE, CREDIBLE QUANTITATIVE RESULTS OF THE COMPANY S ETHICAL STATUS AND PERFORMANCE FOR REPORTING PURPOSES IN LINE WITH KING III RECOMMENDATIONS AND THE COMPANIES ACT SOCIAL AND ETHICS COMMITTEE REQUIREMENTS. ABOUT ETHICS MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT SERVICES Ethics Monitoring & Management Services, a leading provider of ethics services and products, was founded by Cynthia Schoeman to provide practical support to organisations to manage ethics more effectively and to build an ethical culture. In addition to the measurement, monitoring and reporting on ethics, consulting services include the assessment and implementation of sound ethics management practices and facilitated ethics strategy sessions. Supporting this, customised workshops and in-company courses, including web-based and e-learning ethics programmes, are also offered. Cynthia Schoeman has extensive experience in workplace ethics, having spent more than a decade on ethics research and development. She is well recognised as an ethics consultant, author, speaker and lecturer. Cynthia has written two books on ethics, Ethics Can (2014) and Ethics: Giving a Damn, Making a Difference (2012). She is external faculty member at SA s top business schools: GIBS, Stellenbosch University Business School Executive Development, Wits Business School and UCT Graduate School of Business.

6 WE TAKE IT PERSONALLY For further information, please contact: Johannesburg George Williams Tel: Cape Town Carl Bosma Tel: Ethics Monitor Cynthia Schoeman Tel: BDO Risk Advisory Services (Pty) Ltd, a South African company is a member of BDO Southern African Coordination (Pty) Ltd, a South African company, which is a member of BDO International Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. BDO is the brand name for the BDO network and for each of the BDO Member Firms. We also offer the following services: Audit and Assurance Business Services and Advisory Business Turnaround and Recovery Company Secretarial Consulting Services Corporate Finance Employee Benefits Healthcare Consulting HR Advisory Services Risk Advisory Services Tax Wealth Advisory June 2015