7 Ways To Reduce The Risk Of Corruption And Bribery Within Your Business
By Kendra Beckley, Guest Blogger–
Corruption is all around us and no industry is immune to the risks of bribery. However, the risks associated with corruption and bribery are not static and can be dramatically mitigated with proper business practices. From lie detection testing to clear frameworks around hospitality, here are 7 vital practices for your organization.
1) Updated Business Policies
Restricting bribery within your business is always a challenge, but if you haven’t got clear policies and guidelines about what constitutes corruption, and how it’s dealt with, then you’re onto a nonstarter. Bribery and corruption evolve within whatever business landscape your organization operates, which means that business policies relating to these issues cannot stay static.
Revisit your policies around what defines bribery on a regular basis to ensure everyone in your organization understands the parameters. For example, clearly define which gifts need to be made public and which values are unacceptable.
2) Culture Starts At The Top
When speaking of bribery and corruption, we often think of large-scale transactions, but corruption can start small, with seemingly harmless backhanders and personal favors. Reframing your business culture can have a great impact on how everyone operates ethically.
And, culture starts at the top. It pays to educate executives, board members, and managers about bribery and corruption to ensure that high standards permeate your organization from the top down.
3) Institute A Framework For Gifts And Hospitality
“In many industries, gifting and hospitality are firmly embedded in the culture and you’re not going to make any friends trying to eliminate them entirely,” says Arnold Swift, a project manager at 1day2write and Britstudent. “But by building a comprehensible framework that follows a few principles, you can ensure these habits stay on the right side of the line.”
Make sure the following criteria are met for gifts within your organization:
- Gifts serve a legitimate business purpose
- Gifts are proportionate to the expectations of your clients – not overly lavish or extravagant, to create undue expectations
- Gifts are declared transparently in the appropriate place
4) Lie Detection Testing
Building a policy framework and anticorruption culture within your organization is important to the atmosphere for new hires, but establishing a firm hand can’t start too early. That’s why including lie detection testing as part of the interview process is essential for indicating to potential recruits that your organization is serious about corruption – as well as for rooting out any nefarious applicants.
EyeDetect from Converus is a powerful and non-invasive lie detection tool that can be implemented as part of the interview process, ensuring you select only the most trustworthy candidates.
5) Assess Third Party Providers
Preventing corruption doesn’t stop at the door of your organization — third-party providers are intimately connected to your business and must be assessed for ethical practices on a regular basis as well. Any shortcomings within third-party processes can undermine your ethics policy, leaving your organization open to the risk of corruption.
And, in most areas, you can be legally responsible for the behavior of third parties you employ. To assess these providers, build a resilient third-party audit system and regularly assess each provider’s anti-corruption framework.
6) Ongoing Employee Testing
Checking in with your employees to identify how they’re interpreting the anti-corruption guidelines of your organization is essential, but for many businesses, it’s important to go further. Testing your employees is the only way to guarantee they’re being truthful, so implementing lie detection technology is an important way of truly preventing bribery and corruption.
“Integrate employee testing with appraisals to ensure it’s a process that can take place without blame,” says Charlotte Mitherington, a writer at Phdkingdom and Write My X. “Simultaneously provide employees with feedback and updates about guidelines to make it valuable to your employees.”
7) Knowing The Red Flags
Unfortunately, some degree of corruption can be inevitable in certain industries and, whilst risk mitigation is essential, your business needs to be prepared for any eventuality. To this end, identifying the red flags of corruption and bribery allow you to intervene at the right time.
From cash payments to vague service descriptions, educate your staff around these red flags and build appropriate channels for reporting.
Wrapping Up
Eliminating corruption should be a goal for all organizations as these practices can be highly costly to the bottom line. Start building a culture that promotes ethical practices today.
Bio: Kendra Beckley is a business development manager and editor at Coursework writing services and Assignment help. She has been working to support organizations to reduce the risks posed by fraud and theft for over two decades, implementing new technology to do so. You can read more of her work at Coursework Help.
August de Richelieu
