Building blocks
An essential part of building a successful culture of integrity is for senior executives to model good practice.
Another is to help employees to understand your organisation’s policy and – crucially – to agree with and support it.
Help employees to understand the public duty reasons for the policy and how it benefits the community, the organisation, and employees themselves.
Your culture also needs to empower, reassure and support employees to be part of it.
Key elements
Build a culture of integrity that:
- is supportive of employees seeking advice
- has a ‘no question is too trivial or self-evident’ approach
- gives employees confidence that if they declare a conflict of interest a management plan will be developed that is proportionate to the risk level.
Speak up
Another part of building a culture of integrity is to:
- encourage employees to speak up if they believe a conflict of interest has not been declared or is not being managed effectively
- actively support and protect employees who do so
- respond to the information provided in a constructive manner
- take decisive action, including possible disciplinary action, against anyone who discriminates against or victimises an employee who speaks up in good faith.
Some organisations establish a confidential inbox for receiving information about integrity matters – for example, integrity@xxxxx.vic.gov.au. and/or a dedicated phone number.
IBAC and the Victorian Ombudsman
Ensure employees know there are other pathways to speak up.
They can go directly to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) or the Victorian Ombudsman with complaints about corrupt or improper conduct. Sometimes this can occur on a whistle-blower basis as a public interest disclosure .
Nothing in your organisation’s policy or the code prevents this.
People matter survey
Our People Matter Survey can be a useful tool for your organisation to gauge, at a non-identifying level, its employees’:
- attitude to and understanding of integrity issues in your organisation
- views on how your organisation is performing in this respect.