Operational Excellence
Ethical Business Practices
Our strong business ethics are founded on our corporate values and help us achieve our three priorities—safety, operational excellence, and customer service. We are committed to conducting business using the highest ethical standards. How we do business, how we treat our customers and business partners, and how we treat one another all contribute to how we are perceived in the marketplace and, ultimately, to our long-term viability. Our Values in Action Advisor network of 110 employees and our Business Ethics Council with 15 members assist the organization in maintaining a culture of integrity in their departments.
In 2019, Business Ethics & Compliance raised awareness of ethics-related resources by engaging with employees at ethics awareness and fraud prevention events hosted with other departments at numerous facilities across the New York area. Employees participated in the events to test their knowledge answering ethics-related questions and speaking with representatives for guidance relating to ethics, fraud, cyber security, and the importance of records management, including protecting personally identifiable information.
Standards of Business Conduct training for 2019 featured an interactive game format, and employees visited virtual office locations around the country to identify ethics-related issues.
Avoiding conflicts of interest, or the appearance of one, is essential to acting with integrity. In 2019, we surveyed all employees about potential conflicts of interest. After reviewing the disclosures. Business Ethics & Compliance worked with employees to create plans to reduce the risks from self-disclosed potential conflicts.
As part of our effort to continually improve the tools and resources we provide to support an ethical culture, we rolled out a next-generation digital version of our Standards of Business Conduct. Interactive content featured animated graphics, entertaining videos starring company employees, and an easy-to-search format with links to important resources on the employee intranet, Conor.
The compliance management team engaged with company departments to confirm the data integrity of applicable laws, rules, and regulations within the technology platform that houses the data. The technology platform is designed to capture compliance obligations and company controls to address the populated legal requirements. Also, the compliance management team created a framework for us to identify areas for improvement in our operations by using structured process review. The team collected data on the results of the reviews and analyzed them for trends and commonalities sharing them with the organization to support business decisions. The reviews led to process improvements in various organizations that improved safety and employee wellness, realizing cost savings and other benefits.