Balfour Beatty has ranked first in a global study of firms’ codes of conduct for their suppliers carried out by consulting firm the Red Flag Group.
The major contracting group’s code of conduct – “How we work, what we value” – scored 98.04 out of 100, markedly higher than the average of 57.16 for all 150 companies benchmarked, and an average of 67.48 for the engineering and construction sector.
The code was found to be one of the few that included realistic practical examples dealing with topics of inappropriate gifts and entertainment, health and safety, and subcontracting.
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Red flag examined more than 500 randomly selected corporate websites from which a list of 150 supplier codes of conduct were benchmarked based on factors such as accessibility, leadership visibility and values, understanding of the code, reporting violations, implementation and enforcement and innovation and corporate social responsibility.
Balfour Beatty’s top ranking reflected its clarity in conveying its rules and expectations to suppliers, its coverage of risk topics and unambiguous reporting avenues, said the report.
In contrast, the majority of company codes of conduct examined were found to be in need of improvement in terms of content and presentation. Most companies either did not have a supplier code or did not make it available to the public and many companies’ codes were too brief and difficult to understand.
Engineering and construction ranked second among all industry sectors in the study, its score of 67.48 was just behind energy and mining (69.08). The weakest sectors were leisure and hospitality (48.78) and forestry, paper and packaging (48.88). Balfour Beatty narrowly beat US engineering consultancy CH2M Hill’s score of 97.1, which came second, and fast food chain McDonald’s score of 95.06.
The highest performing industries tended to be those that placed more importance on environmental, anti-corruption and other legal and regulatory compliance, experienced more scrutiny by regulators and the general public to create greater transparency and accountability in the supply chain.
The report described Balfour Beatty’s code of conduct as “innovative, comprehensive, stylish and practical”. It is structured around four main values: integrity, teamwork, excellence and respect an includes an introduction from the CEO that sets the stage for the “truly great code” that follows, said the report.
“It looks more like a webpage or a polished marketing brochure than an inert PDF document. It is certainly one of the most cutting-edge, innovative and complete codes out there today,” the report stated.
