LRN Report Reveals 2 In 5 Codes of Conduct for the World’s Top Publicly Traded Companies Fall Short

The 2023 Code of Conduct Report released today by LRN Corporation, the leader in ethics and compliance solutions that enable organizations to inspire principled performance, reveals that a significant proportion (two in five) of the world’s top publicly traded companies have work to do to meet basic expectations for more effective codes of conduct.

Further, "speak up" culture appears deficient in most organizations, as less than two-thirds of all codes include a section on reporting misconduct and fewer than three in five have strong non-retaliation policies stated for those who do so.

The report reviewed the codes of conduct of nearly 200 of the top publicly traded companies in Asia, Europe, and North America—focusing on those listed on the major indices in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and, for the first time, Japan and Singapore.

Among the other key findings of the report include:

• Only 43% of their codes of conduct for some the world’s largest publicly traded companies were scored "effective", meaning they meet the minimum expectations, and 40% were rated as less effective, meaning they fell below the expectations of an effective code. Only 17% were found to be more effective, meaning that their codes exceeded the minimum expectations
• The codes of companies on the U.S. S&P 100 outperform those in other indexes overall, while companies listed on Singapore’s STI 30 generally have the lowest code effectiveness scores
• 64% of codes analyzed have a section on speaking up, but only 57% of codes have a strong non-retaliation policy for employees who speak up about misconduct and just 17% explain the procedure for investigation of misconduct
• Companies with more effective codes are 10x more likely to include hotline/helpline details
• Only 48% of codes extend applicability to contractors, agents, and other third parties working on behalf of the company

About LRN

LRN's mission and purpose is to inspire principled performance and help people around the world do the right thing. Since 1994, LRN has worked to propel organizations forward with the partnership, knowledge, and tools to build ethical culture. Learn more at https://lrn.com and follow on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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Contact information

Scott Addison
LRN@infiniteglobal.com