PHOENIX, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / July 31, 2023 / Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, announces a call for applications for the 2024 World's Most Ethical Companies recognition. Now in its 18^th year, the annual World's Most Ethical Companies designation honors organizations that display exceptional ethics, compliance, and governance practices.

In 2023, 135 organizations received the World's Most Ethical Companies honor, representing 46 industries and 19 countries. To view the full 2023 honoree list, visit https://www.worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees/

'I am so proud of the work we do around the World's Most Ethical Companies because at the core of our process is the firm belief that ethical organizations outperform their peers. We don't ask people to make a binary choice between doing the right thing and doing the right thing for the business, because they are the same thing,' stated Erica Salmon Byrne, CEO, Ethisphere. 'Earning the World's Most Ethical Companies recognition is the best way to showcase an organization's superior ethics programs and governance practices, significant culture measurement efforts, and conscious ESG impact programs.'

The Application Process
For many organizations, the process itself is valuable for understanding how programs compare to leading practices, identifying gaps, and charting a path forward. The journey to the World's Most Ethical Companies starts with a qualitative and quantitative assessment across five weighted categories: governance, third party management; ethics and compliance program; a culture of ethics; and environmental and social impact.

This proprietary rating system, known as the Ethics Quotient® (EQ), is at the heart of the selection process for this prestigious honor. Featuring more than 240 multiple-choice and text questions, the EQ evaluates an organization's performance in an objective, consistent, and standardized way. Organizations can start the application process by visiting www.worldsmostethicalcompanies.com.

The deadline to submit the completed assessment and supporting documentation is Tuesday, October 31st at 8:00 pm ET.

'Our team of compliance experts here at Ethisphere use their expertise to interpret what the regulators are saying, pull the pragmatic out of the theoretical, and update the Ethics Quotient accordingly,' added Erica Salmon Byrne, CEO, Ethisphere.

Ongoing Benefits for Candidates
Upon completing the application review process, candidates receive a Digital Analytical Scorecard which outlines their evaluation scores as they compare to honorees. Organizations have found this information to be valuable for establishing priorities, celebrating their strengths, building a business case for additional budget, and focusing their teams. The scorecard also includes exclusive data and insights only available to candidates, and links to valuable, curated resources to help improve their programs.

Candidates also experience guest access to The Sphere-a first-of-its-kind benchmarking platform-to analyze and benchmark their scores to those of honorees, along with exclusive insights and tools to provide further best practices and guidance.

Candidates with exceptional program elements may also be selected to be featured in Ethisphere Magazine and other Ethisphere platforms, such as Ethicast, Ethisphere's Official Podcast, and the Global Ethics Summit.

New for 2024
Each year, Ethisphere updates the Ethics Quotient questionnaire based on input from our own experts, former candidates, and others, to reflect the most current best practices, and to clarify what our team is looking for from candidates.

• Updates to the 2024 Ethics Quotient question set, designed to better understand evolving governance practices, ethics and compliance program structure involving day-to-day implementation persons, specialized training practices, enhanced questions about audit practices, simplified evaluation questions around risks, programs, and culture, revised gifts/entertainment and conflicts of interest sections, Culture measurement, third-party diligence measures, and Impacts processes.
• Changes to reputation evaluation: Ethisphere will also continue to evaluate a candidate's reputation, however it will not be a dedicated category. This will include reviewing (i) any narrative submitted to explain negative reputational issues, (ii) publicly available information to understand any negative perceptions caused by a candidate's legal compliance, litigation, environmental, or other ethical issues, and (iii) if Ethisphere deems necessary, discussions with candidates.
• A new evaluation category: Third Party Management has now become its own thematic category, where Ethisphere will evaluate an organization's approaches to supply chain onboarding, engagement, and oversight, third-party governance principles, and third-party risk management.
• Maturity-focused response sets: Throughout the EQ, select questions and response sets have been updated to allow a clearer understanding of where organizations are on their journeys towards more ethical practices.

Webinar Series to Learn More
Organizations looking to learn more about this year's application process are invited to register for the upcoming instructive two-part webinar series: World's Most Ethical Companies: A Guide to Applying for 2023. The session on Tuesday, August 1, covers the basics of applying; and the second session on Wednesday, August 2, covers EQ updates and changes to the application process. Each webinar takes place from 1 to 1:30 EDT.

About Ethisphere
Ethisphere® is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere also helps to advance business performance through data-driven assessments, benchmarking, and guidance. More information about Ethisphere can be found at https://ethisphere.com.

Media Contact
Anne Walker
[email protected]

SOURCE: Ethisphere