What makes you eager to join a company, aside from your professional aspirations, of course?
When I joined Ericsson, apart from every other consideration, a key draw for me was also whether a company followed or encouraged ethical business practices. Quite naturally, Ericsson was a good choice.
Ericsson’s ambition to be a responsible and relevant driver of positive change is a cornerstone of our strategy and corporate culture. We work continuously to improve and strengthen our business practices, with a focus on building and maintaining trust, transparency, and integrity. Undoubtedly, conducting our business with integrity is good for business and helps us to attract the best employees and business partners. Ericsson recognizes that reputation and trust are hard-won and easily lost, and we strive to win business based on our technology leadership.
Research shows that a company’s ethics and integrity policy plays a big role in its ability to attract and retain its employees. It is of little wonder then that most companies of global repute are today, working consistently to strengthen an ethical and sustainable culture. To achieve the goal of doing our business the right way, Ericsson is committed to having a robust, fit-for-purpose, and world-class Ethics and Compliance program, which allows our employees to have the right tools and resources to make the right decisions. Our Ethics and Compliance program consists of ten core elements that collectively enable the Company to raise awareness and prevent mistakes and breaches of our Code of Business Ethics, detect those mistakes and breaches when they do happen, and respond and remediate quickly when needed.
We have found the three areas listed below of specific relevance when establishing an integrity based corporate culture:
- Establish an Anti-Bribery and Corruption (ABC) program: Businesses can raise awareness, prevent potential violations, and respond to breaches by setting up a comprehensive ABC program. In doing so, organizations can prevent undermining fair competition, impeding innovation, rising costs, and facing serious legal and reputational consequences.
Throughout 2019 - 2020, Ericsson has enhanced most of its anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) core policies and procedures that allow us to ensure adequate controls around ABC sensitive transactions. Ericsson has also established an ABC risk assessment process and reinvigorated efforts to better communicate the importance of ethics and compliance to each member of the Ericsson organization. All employees are now required to read and acknowledge our updated Code of Business Ethics, and to complete e-learning sessions on ethics and compliance.
- Integrate human rights due diligence: In-order to assess, prevent, and mitigate potential misuse of their technology, companies should integrate human rights due diligence into their sales processes through programs dedicated to sensitive business. These processes can ensure that business opportunities and engagements are conducted in accordance with international human rights standards. Ericsson will establish a cross-functional forum that includes high-level Group Functions and Business Areas representatives who will oversee the program in its entirety, offer guidance, and provide direction to ensure its efficiency and effectiveness.
- Build leverage and engage in dialogue: Approaching civil society organizations and regularly interacting with them can help businesses to obtain input on relevant trends and prioritize responsible business and human rights. At the same time, businesses should consider becoming full-time members of initiatives such as the Global Network Initiative, which is proven to provide influential collaboration platforms to address evolving ICT industry challenges and help ICT companies to conduct business the right way.
Ericsson’s commitment to integrity ensures that all our ideas and voices are heard. With a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of illegal practices, we believe in the importance of fostering an ethical workplace that is critical to our long-term success.
ethics-and-compliance-at-ericsson_brochure.pdf
