Canadian HR Reporter

Canadian HR RepoRteR February 23, 2015 16 FeAtures coRpoRatE cultuRE Raising the bar on ethical culture Express Scripts recognized for best practices in corporate ethics, governance By Michael Biskey i n 2014, express scripts was recognized as a world's most ethical company by the ethi- sphere institute, an independent centre of research promoting best practices in corporate eth- ics and governance. e award recognizes organizations that continue to raise the bar on cor- porate ethical leadership. Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (25 per cent); reputation, leadership and innovation (20 per cent); governance (10 per cent); corporate citizenship and respon- sibility (25 per cent); and culture of ethics (20 per cent). "The entire community of World's Most Ethical Companies believe that customers, employ- ees, investors and regulators place a high premium on trust and that ethics and good governance are key in earning it. Express Scripts joins an exclusive community committed to driving perfor- mance through leading business practices," says Ethisphere CEO Timothy Erblich. From our call centre to our pharmacy and executive offices, each Express Scripts Canada em- ployee works to earn customers' trust with a steadfast commit- ment to ethical behaviour, good governance and top-notch service to clients and patients. So, how do we demonstrate our commitment? First, we drive an ethics-based culture. We are committed to conducting busi- ness ethically while following applicable laws, rules and regula- tions. Our compliance program is designed to prevent, detect and address unlawful and unethical behaviour. A clearly communicated set of values called "Express Way" drives our work: We act honestly and demonstrate integrity at all times. Of course, we are all accountable for following the law, as well as company policies and proce- dures. However, the responsibility doesn't end there — we also have a duty to report any compliance concerns. Each employee knows his actions make a difference. Code of conduct e employee code of conduct, which guides employees' behav- iours, is reviewed and updated each year, and employees must successfully pass an annual train- ing program. Well-defined rules govern any activity with the potential to un- dermine the trust placed in us. For example, with the holidays just behind us, it is worth looking at employee policies in regard to gifts from clients. At Express Scripts, employees are permitted to accept tickets or an invitation to an entertainment event only if the following condi- tions are met: •Pre-approval is received from the employee's manager. •If the value of the entertainment is over $100, pre-approval is also received from the compliance department. •The tickets or invitations are used by employees, not by a guest or spouse (though a guest or spouse may attend at the em- ployee's cost). • e business partner providing the entertainment attends the event with the employee. • e ticket or invitation is not giv- en in the form of cash or a cash equivalent such as a gift card or gift certificate. • e ticket or invitation is given occasionally or infrequently. Employees are required to complete and submit a gift form to the compliance department within five days of receiving any gift or entertainment valued in ex- cess of $25. If the value of the gift or entertainment exceeds $100, compliance department approval is required. Ensuring that the Express Scripts workforce is familiar with all aspects of the compliance program is the key to its success. Among other activities, the com- pliance department hosts an an- nual Compliance Awareness Day to promote awareness and gauge the overall effectiveness of the program. Privacy protection As a pharmacy benefits manager, Express Scripts' commitment to upholding privacy legislative requirements and protections is especially important. To embed an appropriate cul- ture of privacy protection within the organization, we provide mandatory annual training that covers current privacy require- ments for protected health infor- mation and personally identifiable information. Privacy vigilance is a value that guides our daily work and future planning. We strive to continu- ally meet the challenges associ- ated with protecting the personal health information entrusted to us by clients. We train all employees (per- manent, contract, full-time and part-time) to safeguard this kind of information, as well as what steps to follow in the unlikely case of a breach. Finally, the audit team and com- pliance team conduct and moni- tor various audits, track training compliance and other key infor- mation. is information is pro- vided directly to the compliance committee of the Express Scripts board of directors. Saying we are an ethical com- pany isn't enough — integrity is the compass that guides every- thing we do. Michael Biskey is president of Express Scripts Canada, headquartered just outside Toronto. For more informa- tion, visit www.express-scripts.ca. "Our managers... go through some very structured courses that really give them the knowledge, the insights into areas such as... marketing, finance, operations, customer service, food safety — it's actually quite detailed." To build the partnership, the school audited McDonald's cours- es to look for potential overlaps or gaps. "I took a team from BCIT and we researched their train- ing processes and their training programs — which are incredibly good, incredibly detailed — and carried out a mapping process," says Wainwright. "We also… do an advanced placement option where we sort of work backwards. What we did then is said, 'If we bring a McDon- ald's manager into our program, are there any areas where they've got gaps, they might fail because they weren't properly prepared?' So then we created a custom bridging program that would al- low them to fill in anything that was missing, usually more on the academic side, like statistics, eco- nomics… and then… they could enter into the degree completion program." Information sessions for the pi- lot project were held in November 2013. About 80 interested leaders and managers showed up, with 30 then looking to be evaluated and 20 actually entering the program, says Wainwright. "In terms of the conversion rates from an information session to people actually registering, that's a phenomenally high rate." e target group was people in their 20s and early 30s who worked in the McDonald's restau- rants, though there have been a lot of inquiries from people higher up in corporate. "I was quite pleasantly sur- prised to see several members of management that have been around for several years, not in that under-24 category, really get excited about the opportu- nity to go back to school and to get their diploma or degree," says Salvalaggio. "A lot of them maybe didn't have the opportunity to finish it due to finances or just time, and with the flexible work schedule and whatnot we provide, we're really giving those folks an op- portunity to go back and achieve their personal goals." ere are a lot of people in Can- ada who have committed a lot of human capital on the job but don't necessarily have the credentials to support that, which then traps them in terms of promotions or different jobs, says Wainwright. "at, I think, is important, es- pecially as we move forward talk- ing about the skills gap, we have this sort of hidden talent in the system and all this learning that's out there from on-the-job, it's not been validated and identified and I think this is a great model for that." e agreement with BCIT is a win-win for everyone, says Sha- ron Ramalho, senior vice-pres- ident and chief people officer at McDonald's in Toronto. "Connecting with BCIT and perhaps future associations… really helps to enable our people to both network with other non- McDonald's people as well as take the learnings that they might not have gotten through their own post-secondary education, so they've got a combination of what we offer them as well as now a choice to even further expand upon their education and their ultimate credentials." Three-quarters of the senior leadership team at McDonald's Canada started in restaurants, she says. "If we think about the career path that our senior leadership, our management are able to take, education is an important part of it and if that's ongoing education within the McDonald's system as well as outside of the McDonald's system, it's something that we val- ue and really truly support," says Ramalho. "We do it as way to show our people how we value them out- side of traditional compensation and benefits that one might get in many other organizations and workplaces." However, this type of partner- ship may not be for everyone, says Salvalaggio. "With 70 per cent of our staff being under the age of 24, obvi- ously at that age, they're consider- ing or really need to factor in fur- ther education — for us it makes a lot of sense. I would suggest that other employers really need to look at those aspects of what their employees need before they would consider embarking on a program of this nature." Advanced placement possible mcdoNAld's < pg. 15 Programs eligible for the on- line pathway include the Certi- fied Human Resources Profes- sional (CHRP), the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and the Member of the Chartered In- stitute of Personnel and Develop- ment (MCIPD). ese programs were chosen based on generalist certification, says Cohen. "It's got to be obviously a cred- ible certification… and obviously being known and well-regarded." By the end of January, more than 16,000 people had complet- ed the tutorial to receive SHRM's new designation, she says. In 2014, the association also launched an "advancing HR" campaign that included a TV commercial as well as print and digital advertising in "top business markets," says Cohen. "As we put out this competency model and as we put out the certi- fication, that's great for HR profes- sionals but, frankly, the business community needs to hear about it as well, business profession- als need to understand what HR is doing to help advance HR and to advance business, so the cam- paign is really key not just from an HR perspective but from a busi- ness perspective." e association has also been busy conducting surveys on a variety of topics such as benefits, job satisfaction, health-care re- form, employee recognition and social media. It tries to pick topics in talent management and other areas of interest to members, says Cohen. In 2014, the association started a job pulse survey that looks at jobs in the HR space, looking at employment in HR, what HR professionals are seeing, whether they will look for a job and how confident they are when it comes to finding a job, she says. e 280,000-member SHRM has also been doing a lot of work looking at the aging workforce, says Cohen. And for 2015? "We are going to stay as fo- cused as we can on certification and we're going to stay focused on our annual conference (in Las Vegas) and I think we're going to stay focused on our mission which is serving the core and advancing the profession and helping people understand, particularly HR pro- fessionals, what does it mean to be an HR professionals and what do you know and to be able to do and how do you have to behave to be prepared, and that's what a com- petency model is all about." New designation shrm < pg. 14 "As we put out this competency model and certification, that's great for HR but business needs to hear about it as well."

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