When people think about business ethics, they often think about policies, training modules, and whistleblowing hotlines. All of those are important – and we have them – but for me, ethics comes alive in the everyday decisions our people make.
As part of our 2030 sustainability strategy, we’re measuring ourselves against three key pillars: our ability to develop our people, decarbonize our business, and demonstrate integrity. That last pillar is where our ethics program plays a central role, setting the standards we expect, embedding them into our culture, and holding ourselves accountable for living by them.
But can you measure ethics? We believe you can – and should.
Measuring ethics program effectiveness
At Securitas, our ethics program covers many areas: anti-bribery and corruption, antitrust and competition, data privacy, conflicts of interest, supplier risk management, and AI governance.
But one of the things that sets the program apart is the key performance indicator (KPI) we use to measure its effectiveness. We’ve set a goal to achieve 95% operational effectiveness in compliance by 2030. This means that we require evidence that our standards are being followed in practice and that they’re sustained over time.
We also measure leadership accountability, aiming for 100% of our leaders to consistently demonstrate Securitas’ values, tracked annually. By doing this, we can identify where the program is thriving and where we need to strengthen it.
Unlike many organizations that focus solely on training completion rates or the number of whistleblowing cases, we take a more meaningful approach that allows us to adapt as needed – for example, by adding AI governance as new risks emerge – without losing our focus on the fundamentals.
Culture drives conduct
For these ethical standards to truly take hold, though, they need to live in our culture – and that’s where our people make the difference.
Ethical conduct is as much about culture as it is about compliance. Most people want to do the right thing, and they’ll thrive in an environment that supports that, which is why leadership plays such a critical role in our program.
People usually turn to their direct manager for guidance on ethical decisions, so we expect our leaders to set the tone, role-modeling our core values of integrity, vigilance, and helpfulness, and setting clear expectations for their teams.
To help ensure our standards are applied – and tracked – consistently, every country has a business ethics representative who drives the agenda locally and is supported by our global compliance function. This connection between structure and culture is what helps turn the program from a set of policies into a daily practice, and that’s where its real value lies.
Why it matters
It comes back to the choices we make every day – decisions guided by our values and reinforced by the accountability we’ve built into our organization. Naturally, ethics and trust go hand in hand, and especially in our industry, ethical behavior is one of the most important factors in building and maintaining client confidence.
By embedding ethics into our culture and measuring it effectively, we’re strengthening the way we work and setting the standard for the entire industry.
