Insight into integrity policy

Do you work for an organisation with 250 or more employees and are you wondering what your organisation can do in the area of integrity management? Would you like to gain insight into the measures that come into this? Are you curious to know how your organisation can further professionalise its integrity management? For these kinds of questions, you can make use of the Integrity Assessment Tool (IntegriteitsWijzer). The Integrity Assessment Tool is also useful for organisations with fewer than 250 employees, but some of the recommendations will not be entirely applicable to a smaller-size organisation.

The Integrity Assessment Tool is particularly suitable for employees with a coordinating task in the area of integrity, such as integrity officers and compliance officers. They can complete the online questionnaire individually in order to obtain a good overview of their organisation’s integrity policy and of any aspects that could potentially be improved.

This is done on the basis of 35 questions, which are subdivided into seven themes:

1. Leadership & Strategy
2. Values & Standards
3. Rules & Procedures
4. Personnel & Culture
5. Reporting & Enforcement
6. Communication & Accountability
7. Cohesion & Coordination

The themes and (underlying) questions are based on the ‘Integrity Infrastructure’ introduced in the exploration Integrity Management & the Integrity Manager.

The Integrity Infrastructure is a conceptual framework that provides for a coherent approach to integrity. The framework was developed on the basis of theoretical and practical insights and is suitable for both the public and private sectors.

Dual use

The Integrity Assessment Tool can also be completed by multiple employees. The integrity officer or compliance officer can, for example, extend an invitation to complete the questionnaire to a (limited) number of colleagues who are knowledgeable about the integrity policy of their organisation. This could include colleagues working in the departments of human resources, legal affairs, finance, audit, security and ICT, as well as confidential integrity advisers and members of the works council.

The advantage of this is that the outcome and the recommendations of the Integrity Assessment Tool would be based on more and different data, which generally provides a more balanced picture. It is also possible to subsequently compare and discuss the different scores with one another. This can serve as a point of departure for a jointly formulated problem analysis and approach. In other words, the Integrity Assessment Tool can help activate and mobilise the internal integrity network.