Leading Companies Report Deep CEO and Board Engagement with Ethics to Fuel Corporate Culture and Brand Trust

NEW YORK, March 13, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- EthicOne and the Ethisphere Institute today announced the findings of a major ethics study of the marketing and communications practices of leading companies. Presented today at the 11th Annual Global Ethics Summit in New York, the study showed that CEOs of acknowledged ethics leaders are deepening their engagement in the areas of ethics, values, trust and transparency.

The Ethics in Marketing & Communications study examined all 135 companies on the 2018 World's Most Ethical Companies list as well as a select survey group of eight large companies that provided a deep examination of their marketing and communications practices.

Leaders Committed to Ethics

A major trend identified in the study is that top leaders are becoming deeply engaged with the work of communicating about ethics and values. Every respondent company in our select survey group reported that their CEO, C-suite and Board of Directors was either "more engaged" or "significantly more engaged" than they had been three years ago on issues of ethics, values, trust and transparency. All of these companies reported that their CEO "acts as chief spokesperson/voice for communicating the company's values, culture, and ethics expectations."

The CEOs of companies in the select survey are heavily-engaged with their top marketing and communications leaders on matters of ethics, values, transparency and trust. More than half of the companies reported daily or weekly interactions between the CEO and their Corporate Communications/Public Relations leader and their Marketing/Brand leader on these issues.

Strong Board Engagement in Ethics and Trust

Boards of directors of leading companies are directly engaged with issues of ethics and compliance. Every company in the select survey indicated that their board receives reports on ethics and compliance at least quarterly, with several receiving monthly updates via dashboards or other mechanisms.

Additionally, 71 percent of Corporate Communications/Public Relations leaders and 86 percent of Marketing/Brand leaders in the select survey have regular interaction with their company's board of directors, signifying the elevated importance of corporate and brand reputation at the board level.

Of the full 135 companies, 96 percent maintain a documented compliance and ethics communications plan to ensure that ethics and values are a priority in their organizations.

"To succeed in the age of trust, companies need to build trusted brands by starting on the inside," said David Herrick, Managing Principal of EthicOne. "Ethics and values must become a genuine part of your culture before anyone on the outside will believe in them. By taking a deep look at the internal practices of acknowledged ethics leaders, we are building a roadmap for all companies who want to create powerful ethical brands."

"The World's Most Ethical Companies have outperformed their large cap peers by more than 10 percent over the past three years," said Timothy Erblich, CEO, Ethisphere Institute. "They achieve these results with executive teams and boards committed to building strong cultures of ethics internally, organizational structures and governance that advance their values, and marketing and communications leaders who know how to extend their authentic cultures externally."

The Ethics in Marketing & Communications research was made possible by the commitment of Founding Participants who are all members of the World's Most Ethical Companies community: U.S. Bank, Voya Financial, ON Semiconductor and 3M. Additional participants included: Cambia Health Solutions, Lilly, Prudential and TE Connectivity.

For Information about the study, licensing the full report, participation in future research, or strategic communications consulting, email us at [email protected] or visit https://www.ethicone.com.

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About EthicOne

EthicOne helps the world's leading companies and organizations turn their commitment to ethical business practices into market leadership. In partnership with Ethisphere, we benchmark and advise clients on best practices in communicating and marketing ethics leadership and we build the strategies and programs to help them activate their ethics leadership with employees, customers, investors and regulators. For more information, visit https://www.ethicone.com.

About Ethisphere

The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character and measure and improve culture. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies recognition program and provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA). More information about Ethisphere can be found at: https://ethisphere.com.

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