Source: Tapanakorn
Building a better business is always unfinished work and requires business owners to update their policies regularly. There is always more to do to empower your staff.
Every business should perform in full respect of the laws of the land. For most UK businesses, an anti-bribery policy is not a requirement as per the law. Still, the Bribery Act 2010 makes it illegal for anyone in the UK to give or receive a bribe. An employee who conducts a bribery act by either taking or giving will be held accountable for such actions in a company. Offences under the Bribery Act carry heavy fines and sometimes jail sentences.
Working under the set rules and regulations will enable you to uphold a high reputation in every part of your business operations. In this blog, we will look at some expert ways to set anti-bribery and corruption objectives for your business.
The aim of anti-bribery and corruption objectives
Before you set about creating an anti-bribery policy in the workplace, it would be best to start by understanding the aims you want to include. For example, they could be:
- To implement and demonstrate a complete understanding of the Bribery Act 2010 and follow any other requirements set by the government to combat bribery
- Train and explain the policy to your employees
- Ensure every employee understands their responsibilities, the management, and the whole company
- Offer clear and concise rules of your organisation's policy on receiving gifts
- Explain every detail that constitutes conflicts of interest and how to avoid them
How to ensure your anti-bribery and corruption objectives are effective
After creating your anti-bribery and corruption objectives in the workplace, the next step is ensuring the policy works effectively. Consider the following methods:
- Perform a risk assessment test: Every business potentially faces a form of bribe depending on its operations. Consider all these instances and eliminate the risks that are foreseeable and significant. The assessment will ensure you identify risks in your organisation and plan to ensure they don't occur.
- Monitor and review your company policy regularly: The risks you may face as a company will change over time. Perform regular reviews and update the policy whenever necessary.
- Support whistleblowing: Always encourage and support your employees to speak up when they face instances of bribery. Make it safe to do so and create a culture of transparency.
Steps in creating a reliable anti-bribery policy
Creating and implementing an anti-bribery policy can be daunting. Here are the essential steps to follow to ensure its success:
- Familiarise yourself with the government laws and guidelines: These are all the country's laws that regulate how your company conducts business.
- Undertake a bribery risk assessment: As mentioned above, a bribery risk assessment is the first step to developing and implementing an accurate anti-bribery policy. It will help to tailor the policy of your business to highlight the most significant risks.
Get inspiration from our ESG report
As a global business, we take anti-bribery and corruption policies very seriously and have a zero-tolerance approach to breaches by any party we interact or transact with. Find out how our governance objectives align with our values in our first annual ESG report.
