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Tata Steel, Tata Power & Wipro continue to be high on ethics
Wipro has been on the list consistently since 2012. Tata Steel has also won for the fifth time but not in a row, as it was not part of the list in 2014.
Three Indian companies — Tata Steel, Tata Power and Wipro — have made it to the list of the world’s top ethical companies, once again. These three companies share the space with 131 other organisations including PepsiCo, Ford and LinkedIn from across 21 countries.
Wipro has been on the list consistently since 2012. Tata Steel has also won for the fifth time but not in a row, as it was not part of the list in 2014.
The list of the world’s most ethical companies was first instituted in 2007 and two Indian corporates — Hindustan Unilever and Tata Steel had found themselves on it.
During 2008–10, no Indian corporate could make it to this list. However, in 2012, HDFC was featured as the only Indian company in the list.
Out of the 131 countries selected this year, surprisingly 99 are from the US. However, it doesn’t imply that the world’s most ethical companies are based out of the US.
There are also four companies from the UK, three entries from France, India and Japan and two entries from Australia, Ireland and Switzerland. There were just single entries from the rest of the participant countries.
Since Ethisphere’s launch in 2007, the world has undergone dramatic expansion in terms of political and regulatory complexity. There has been a perceived and real ‘shrinking’ across markets. Companies and their executives are taking the leadership role around standards of behaviour. Issues, such as corporate citizenship, transparency, diversity, governance, and measurable values-based-leadership have come to form the foundation of the sustainable enterprise.
Companies will be increasingly rewarded financially for their efforts to attract and retain the best employees, and to operate with integrity and clarity of purpose. Ethisphere will continue to focus on creating the standards that correlate business integrity with performance.
After winning this accolade, Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo says, “PepsiCo’s longstanding commitment to transparency, engagement and the highest ethical conduct has always propelled our business forward. These qualities are embodied by Performance with Purpose—our belief that profitable companies of the 21st century will be those that align the needs of their business with the needs of the world around them.”
“This honour reflects the hard work of men and women across PepsiCo whose integrity enables our success, and I want to thank Ethisphere once again, for recognising their achievements,” she adds.
Ethisphere recognises companies that not only promote ethical business standards and practices internally, but also exceed legal compliance minimums and shape future industry standards by introducing best practices. It rates the companies on the basis of their EQ (Ethical Quotient).
For the uninitiated, the EQ score is derived through a proprietary matrix of relationships between answers to given questions and a set of complex formulas based on demographic qualifiers.
The framework of EQ comprises a series of multiple-choice questions that capture a company’s performance in an objective, consistent and standardised manner. The information collected is not intended to cover all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, social responsibility, compliance or ethics. Rather, it is a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies.
The EQ framework and methodology has been determined, vetted and refined by expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere’s network of thought leaders and from the World’s Most Ethical Companies Methodology Advisory Panel.
The EQ framework consists of five core categories, of which the weightage for the ethics and compliance programme is 35 per cent, while CSR, culture of ethics, governance and leadership, and innovation and reputation have 20 per cent, 20 per cent, 15 per cent and 10 per cent weightage, respectively.
The body reviews documentation submitted by the participant companies, conducts additional research and requests extra information and documentation from the companies.
They also perform reputational and legal reviews to determine any outstanding or historical issues.
External data sources, such as SEC filings, the RepRisk Index, Glassdoor, and global news outlets, among other sources are also consulted.
Compliance or ethics issues will be reflected in a company’s leadership, innovation and reputation scores. Seriously deficient scores in these categories will prevent a company from being selected as a 2016 World’s Most Ethical Company.
EQ scores are often adjusted on the basis of the documentation review and independent research. Each candidate then receives a ‘validated’ score that may be higher or lower than the initial ‘self-reported’ score. If verification of certain aspects of self-reported performance does not take place, the resulting scores may be discounted.
There are leadership differences between men and women, which make for gender diversity in the workplace.
Women comprise more than half the workforce. Yet, less than 20 percent of C-suite executives are women and only five percent of CEOs are women. A study by DDI identifies three personality differences between the two sexes — inquisitiveness, sensitivity and impulsiveness.
Does this mean, a woman should act more like a man at work to be more successful? “The quick answer is no—except when it comes to confidence,” says Tacy M. Byham, CEO, DDI.
“Women need to do a better job of declaring themselves and becoming their own advocates—speaking and acting confidently and mentally promoting themselves to a future-focussed role. With this mindset, their own behaviours change. This strengthens a woman’s impact and improves her ability to get that seat at the table,” she adds.
The study by DDI reveals that women are less confident and less likely to rate themselves as highly effective leaders as compared to men. On the contrary, men highly self-rate their own leadership skills and their ability to tackle management and business challenges.
As per the study, only 30 percent of women rate themselves amongst the top 10 per cent of leaders, in comparison to 37 per cent of men. At the senior level, 63 per cent of men rate themselves as highly-effective leaders compared to only 49 per cent of women.
Women were less likely to have completed international assignments, or played leadership roles across countries or geographically dispersed teams, all of which make up important development opportunities. Leaders who had access to global and more visible experiences are more likely to advance.
Normally, we tend to focus too much on differences, which are actually few and far between. The fact is that there is no disparity in competence levels between the two genders. Building high-performance cultures; engaging employees; cultivating a customer-focussed culture; creating alignment and accountability; enhancing organisational talent; building strategic partnerships and relationships, driving process innovation and driving efficiency, are all activities effectively handled by both men and women.
The research shows that men are 16 per cent more inquisitive than women, possibly due to their tendency to gravitate towards STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers that reinforce inquiry.
Women are interpersonally more sensitive than men (13 percent more), which can be an advantage in cultures where leaders are valued for demeanor and interactions with others. Men are also more impulsive than women (11 per cent more), which could result from the reinforced ‘just do it’ attitude, where women are nurtured with the outlook ‘don’t do it unless you can do it right’.
The study reveals that the lowest number of women in leadership roles—15 to 30 per cent— are in the consumer products, transportation services, computer software, technology, chemicals, energy and utilities, construction, industrial manufacturing, automotive and transport industries.
And industries such as health care, education and retail industries, where women leaders are in large numbers (43-47 per cent) have more female-dominated workforces.
Industries with a moderate representation of women leaders include: food, banking and telecommunication services. The number of women employed and leading in an industry influences the opportunities for women, to advance and develop, and has implications for the future too. Industries with shortages of women in leadership suffer due to fewer role models and mentors to provide encouragement and guidance, to encourage younger generations into leadership roles.
Design thinking draws upon logic, imagination, intuition, and systemic reasoning, to explore possibilities of what could be, and to create desired outcomes that benefit the end user, be it the customer or the employee.
Click on the image to enlarge
All successful marketers claim to know their customers well. It’s the understanding of the customer’s needs that enables them to design products or services, and also the communication plan to reach out to the customers. If this was true to its core, there would not be any failed brand in this world.
Can we say the same about human resources? Does HR know its entire workforce well? If it does, there would be zero attrition in a company with 100 per cent productivity!
This is where design thinking comes into play. It’s a methodology, which allows HR to understand people’s needs and motivations – what they see, experience and feel.
For instance, let us say we are designing a drilling machine and our study says people want smaller machines, say quarter-inch drills. We will be completely wrong because people aren’t bothered about the size of the drills. Rather, they need quarter-inch holes. To be even more precise, they are only interested in the hole because they want to hang a picture.
This very realisation — the ability to understand what customers want, or in case of HR, what the employee really wants— comes with design thinking. Otherwise, it’s a half-hearted embrace of innovative approaches.
Similarly, design thinking can be used to work through problems to find meaningful solutions for people. This is something that does not happen in many HR projects.
Abhijit Bhaduri
Abhijit Bhaduri, chief learning officer, Wipro says, “When you are working on one policy that fits all, design thinking is a must.”
Bhaduri adds, “This methodology is not just applicable for conceptualising serious policies, it can be effective while designing simple stuff as well.”
In simple words, ‘design thinking’ draws upon logic, imagination, intuition, and systemic reasoning, to explore possibilities of what could be, and to create desired outcomes that benefit the end user, be it the customer or the employee.
Bhaduri cites an interesting example, “Suppose one is designing a cafeteria in an office. How will one organise the seating arrangement? Will it allow different groups of three-four people to lunch together like silo teams, or should the design be such that there are chances of further interaction between these groups? If we understand the needs of the employees better, we will be able to effectively design the cafeteria as well.”
Design thinking helps the HR to understand its people better and also come up with better solutions.
In fact, design think can turn out to be an effective tool in terms of training and development or even talent management.
It basically prepares one well with the ‘go to customer’ strategy and in case of HR, the ‘go to people’ strategy.
“Suppose when one is designing a cafeteria in an office -- how will one organise the sitting arrangement. Will it be in a way where different groups of three-four people can lunch together like silo teams, or should we design it such a way that there are chances of further interaction between these groups. If we understand the needs of the employees better, we will be able to effectively design the cafeteria as well.”
“The CHRO has to build credibility in the function. He also has to earn his proximity to the CEO and the leadership through sheer functional excellence and value creation for the business and the end customer. Design thinking in people processes in terms of organisational structure, work flow, high performing org (HPO), leadership development and talent architecture can add tremendous value. It can ensure simplicity of execution and drive clarity of purpose and output,” says Rajesh Padmanaban, director & group CHRO, Welspun Group.
For instance, design thinking can be quite effective in preparing the leaders of tomorrow. A leadership design of business need and creation of leaders will drive making leaders of tomorrow versus today. Clearly and consequently, the curriculum design to build effectiveness of today and scalability for tomorrow.
“Design thinking enables a systematic way of doing things and simplifies the collaborative way of functioning,” adds Padmanabhan.
Rajesh Padmanabhan
As per the Global Human Capital Trends by Deloitte, design thinking is emerging as a major trend in HR. The report identified HR’s attempts to ‘simplify’ the work environment as a response to the overwhelmed employee situation.
Innovative HR organisations are taking their efforts a step further by incorporating design thinking into their approach to managing, supporting, and training people. Instead of building ‘programmes’ and ‘processes’, leading HR organisations are studying people to help develop interventions, apps, and tools that help make employees less stressed and more productive.
As per the Deloitte survey, 79 percent of executives rank design thinking as high priority when it comes to meeting talent challenges. While only 12 per cent of respondents, overall, believe that design thinking is prevalent in their current talent programmes, 50 per cent of those executives who rate their talent programmes as excellent state that they apply design thinking well. Self-identified high-performing companies are three to four times more likely than their competitors to be applying design thinking to their people practices.
“Design thinking in people processes in terms of organisational structure, work flow, high performing org (HPO), leadership development and talent architecture can add tremendous value.”
Infosys is one company, which is using design thinking workshops to empower and change the mindset of its 170,000+ employees. In the last one year, the company has trained over 36,000 employees, including 500 senior executives on design thinking principles.
For instance, in a normal workshop, most participants will say nothing more than a few words during the entire session. However, a workshop based on design thinking will have an integrative approach, with participants being significantly more agile and active.
For HR, design thinking enables new HR processes, roles and IT systems. In other words, it facilitates user-centricity. The users are, above all, the managers and employees of the company, as well as the experts in the HR department. Besides, with design thinking, the potential for innovation in the company can be tapped and HR can take on a pioneering role.
