Compliance Culture & Ethics Initiative of the Year

This award recognises an outstanding initiative that has strengthened ethics, integrity and compliance culture across an organisation. The winning entry will demonstrate how a clearly defined project or programme fostered employee engagement, accountability and trust while embedding ethical behaviours and compliance into everyday business practices. Judges will look for evidence of stakeholder engagement, innovation and measurable outcomes.

Eligible initiatives may include speak-up and whistleblowing programmes, ethics campaigns, compliance communications, culture transformation initiatives, engagement programmes, behavioural change initiatives, or other efforts designed to strengthen organisational culture, awareness and ethical behaviour.

Eligibility

  • Open to in-house teams or departments, advisory firms, training providers, technology providers and other organisations that have delivered a defined initiative focused on enhancing ethics, integrity or compliance culture. 
  • Entries submitted by external providers must be based on a specific client engagement and demonstrate how the initiative was delivered in partnership with an organisation. 
  • Entries must relate to a specific project, programme or initiative that has delivered measurable outcomes.  
  • Entries must reflect activity and impact delivered within the last 12-18 months.  
  • The organisation or project team must be based in or operating within Europe.

Criteria

  • Your submission needs to respond to the 3 criteria sections: Spirit, Approach and Outcome.
  • You will be awarded a maximum of 10 points per section (30 points in total).
  • Questions are suggested in each criteria section. These are prompts to help you think about the evidence that will help judges to best assess your entry. You do not need to address all questions, please use them as a guide.
  • The 4th criteria section Validation is optional and is your opportunity to provide supporting documents to further demonstrate to judges why your submission should win. You can submit up to 3 supporting documents.  

 

Spirit: Introduce the initiative and the context in which it was delivered 

Please include details such as: 

  •  The objectives and intended outcomes of the initiative 
  • The business, compliance or regulatory context 
  • The drivers for launching the initiative 
  • The key culture, ethics or behaviour challenges being addressed 
  • Significant challenges or opportunities encountered during delivery 

 

Approach: Describe how the initiative demonstrated excellence, innovation and strategic alignment

Please address some or all of the following:

  • How the initiative was designed and implemented 
  • How the initiative demonstrated innovation, creativity or bold thinking 
  • How stakeholder engagement helped drive success 
  • Examples of cross-functional collaboration 
  • How the initiative was aligned to organisational values, compliance objectives or business strategy 
  • How challenges were overcome during implementation 
  • Any new capabilities, behaviours or ways of working introduced through the initiative

 

Outcome: Show the value and impact delivered by the initiative

Please include evidence such as:

  • How success was measured and the results achieved 
  • Evidence that the initiative met or exceeded its objectives 
  • Improvements in culture, awareness, employee engagement, accountability, ethical behaviour or understanding of compliance responsibilities 
  • Quantitative and/or qualitative evidence of business impact 
  • Evidence that outcomes have been embedded and sustained 
  • Plans to expand, develop or replicate the initiative where relevant 
  • Both quantitative and qualitative evidence are welcome.

 

Validation (Optional): Support your entry with any further information to show the judges why this initiative should win

Examples include:

  • Short testimonials (100 words maximum each) from internal stakeholders, business leaders or executive sponsors. 
  • Employee engagement, culture survey or speak-up metrics. 
  • Audit findings, assurance reviews or independent assessments. 
  • Benchmarking, reporting or other evidence demonstrating improvement. 
  • External recognition received by the organisation or team. 
  • You may submit up to three supporting documents for this section.