Global Consumer Products Company SharePoint Code of Business Conduct Review Portal

Challenge

Despite the presence of well-developed policies regarding the code of business conduct, approval of requests submitted by employees to E&C had been handled very informally, often via phone or email. The current code of conduct failed to outline consistent, documentable procedures, and there was no central repository or formal tracking of requests and approvals. Since no official archives were being created, there was also no history on which future decisions could be based. Because the company had offices, production facilities and distribution supply lines in almost every industrialized country in the world, standardization across disparate geographies and cultures was crucial. E&C was rolling out a new, global code of business conduct and wanted to ensure its technology solutions addressed all reporting concerns.

Solution

The new structure of business conduct and ethics compliance called for employees around the world to submit their requests to the local ethics officer (LEO), who would review them and make recommendations to E&C managers in the company’s U.S. headquarters. The LEO and E&C managers would then collaborate to determine approval or rejection of the request. Abel Solutions helped the company leverage SharePoint’s workflow management capabilities to implement that plan as a technology-based solution. Because confidentiality was a concern, Abel Solutions built stringent security measures into the program. Employees across the globe would be assigned unique and individual profiles that the portal could use to automatically generate and manage the appropriate chain of command, track the life span (new, in process, requested or rejected) and establish viewing permissions (requestor, LEO or E&C manager).

Results

The global code of business conduct is now being implemented in an appropriately structured and well-documented fashion. No matter where in the world a request is initiated or by whom, the requestor’s profile matches them in the system to ensure the request is routed to the proper LEO and then up the chain of command as necessary. All requests and decisions are recorded and tracked in the system: from the particulars of initial submission to the final delivered outcome.