“The end result was a code of conduct that was not only clear and easy to read and understand, but also appealing to the eyes. It really was a great collaboration.”

How A Company’s Global Code of Conduct Helped Build a Compliance Program

Overview

Our client provides products and services that include drilling, evaluation, completion, production and intervention cycles of oil and natural gas. Together, we created a global code of conduct and translated it into 17 different languages for global use. The client’s workforce continues to grow exponentially

Problem

Like many growing companies in the oil and natural gas industry, our client had been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and sought to understand and comply with the current laws and regulations. Like many of their peers, they did not have a formalized compliance and ethics program and were looking to build one that would be effective in delivering their policies and procedures in an easy to understand, non-legalese way.

" The end result was a code of conduct that was not only clear and easy to read and understand, but also appealing to the eyes. It really was a great collaboration."

Resolution

While the client had some stand-alone policies, they realized they needed a comprehensive Code to comply with the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (FSG) that was not overwhelming. In advance of drafting their Code, Corpedia worked with the client’s small internal compliance team to help them understand how a Code is written, what it does and does not contain and how it should be communicated to follow the FSG and industry best practices. The goal was to:

• Produce an easy-to-read, yet legally sound Code
• Educate all employees – from the rig to the c-suite – to understand and follow the many and ever-evolving laws and regulations of their industry
• Explain what is expected, why the expectations matter and where to go with questions

Outcome

“The end result was a code of conduct that was not only clear and easy to read and understand, but also appealing to the eyes. It really was a great collaboration.” Prior to developing their Code, the client did not have much of a training culture.  Now, one year after completing their Code and several online training courses, “[employees] realize the importance of training and have learned to take it seriously.”

Additionally, the development and implementation of a code of conduct and training has had significant effects on their workforce by:

• Communicating clear direction of the behavioral expectations of the organization’s employees and third-party agents
• Strengthening  “Tone from the Top” and “Tone from the Middle,” which have lead to improved employee perception and participation in compliance initiatives
• Improved training and internal compliance processes notably garner a higher and more consistent response to training (meeting 100% training completion goals)
• Evidence of process efficiency, which has driven a clear improvement in both the Human Resources and Information Technology groups

In achieving the final product, the client was pleased: “Corpedia really helped us avoid ‘lawyer-ing up’ the document by softening the tone; it made the document more readable, which we really appreciated.  And, whenever we had a question we would call and talk to the [Corpedia Advisory Services] team who were really great at telling us why they made certain recommendations – much more of a handling process than some of the other vendors were willing to do.”

All in all, “it was really a great collaboration, we worked well together and Corpedia never made us feel like a rubber stamp.”