LOW comp 3-2024 004 - Flipbook - Page 25
By Lisa af Burén and Mathilda Tergou, Group Compliance Officers at TELIA
Mathilda Tergou (to the left) and Lisa af Burén (to the right)
at the launch of the new Code of Conduct in May 2023
We did, however, decide not to linger on
the past, and not to work in a reactive way
anymore, but to turn it around and think
fresh. We decided to use Telia´s journey to
our advantage. We are now stronger than
before, and we need to be so because we are
expected to have learned from our past. We
started to go out to the organization and
have targeted face-to-face trainings with discussions on anti-bribery and ethical dilemmas related to the employee’s daily work. We
noticed that the tailor-made trainings really
engaged the participants. The face-to-face
trainings had a ripple effect, and more and
more teams wanted to get tailormade trainings from us. We also saw that the number
of ethics related questions to us was rising.
Now people knew who we were and where
they should turn if they had any questions.
We also renewed our Code of Conduct. The
new Telia Code of Conduct was designed
to be a proactive and inclusive product focusing on how we act, and not on how not
to act. It was anchored at the top and we
were invited on the stage together with the
CEO to tell people about the new Code and
why it was necessary to change it. We wanted people to feel heard, to feel that we had
listened to them and that they were part of
a fresh start. We focused on informing the
employees how this was a document created
to help them do the right thing. We made
sure that it was easy to navigate the Code
and to give people pointers as to where to go
if they had further questions.
The launch of the Code was very positively met, and we got praised for it being so
easy to work with and for having created a
powerful document that felt like a helpful
tool. But the work did not end with the
launch. We started holding workshops for
management groups with the focus of asking
them to be the advocates for the Code. We
wanted the managers to feel proud of Telia´s
Code and our message to them was “Your
employees may not do what the compliance
team says, but they most certainly will do
what you do.” We also involved ourselves in
the Culture journey that heavily engaged the
top management. By involving ourselves in
other projects, we managed to “sneak” ethics
into several agendas. As with all companies,
but particularly with the big companies, it
is particularly important to be visible in as
many ways as possible. We also went around
some of our shops to engage with the personnel there, and that resulted in some great
input into the Code.
We shortened the e-learning, making it
scenario-based and not a repetition of the
Code. Newcomers will have to sign that they
have read and understood the Code and not
undergoing the mandatory training will im-
pact the employee evaluation. We listened
but we also believed that we must work with
both carrot and stick because that is, unfortunately, the way it works.
The future is bright!
There is still a lot to be done. There always is,
this is a non-ending work. We are working
our way up on the agenda and increasing
our visibility. Compliance is now strongly
connected to risk, ethics and sustainability
in a way that makes us feel positive about
the future. Our job is extremely interesting,
and we have a lot of fun. We are invited to
management teams to discuss the Code, or
to do anti-corruption workshops, or even to
discuss business ethics in general. We receive
lots of feedback, questions, and comments
in our hotline, and we believe that we are
on a positive path. We are measuring our
employees’ trust in the speak-up process and
in our ways of working with ethics and we
are getting a lot of attention at the top.
So, believe us when we say, we fell, we rose,
and we are back stronger than ever.
Mathilda Tergou and Lisa af Burén,
Telia Company AB
Compliance Nytt
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