Greater focus is needed on stakeholder engagement, diversity and the importance of corporate culture | Deloitte UK has been saved
In January 2020, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) assessed 82 ‘early adopters’ of the 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code, which applies to premium listed companies for accounting years beginning on or after 1 January 2019.
The discovery: Many companies do not successfully demonstrate their positive impact on the economy and wider society.
Overview of FRC findings
Four tips to improve your governance and reporting
Here are four ways to take advantage of the guidance to improve your governance and reporting based on the FRC’s findings:
1. Ensure the quality and credibility of your purpose statement
Define the connection between your stated purpose and your business model. Ensure it is considered in relation to your company culture and ethics.
2. Increase stakeholder engagement and consultations
Get regular and consistent views from your stakeholders, particularly your workforce. For example, enable them to take part in elections for roles and sit on committees. Ensure the board considers these views when shaping future strategies.
3. Elevate your diversity agenda
Develop targets, beyond those related to gender, that demonstrate a commitment to improve diversity, particularly at the top levels. Be sure your board succession plan meets the FRC’s requirement to ensure the right mix of skills and experience, constructive challenge and diversity.
4. Strengthen you corporate culture
Diagnose the strength of your corporate culture, don’t just assume it. Use quantitative and qualitative inputs to understand how your culture links to your business performance and how you can develop these to complement each other.
Katherine leads the UK’s sustainability and climate change team. She has over twenty years’ experience developing strategic responses to sustainability matters and addressing associated governance, risk, compliance and operational issues. Katherine has advised boards on everything from decarbonisation strategy and the impact on business viability through to coordinating responses on human rights violation in supply chains. Her clients are from industries as diverse as energy and resources, financial services, media and retail. Prior to joining Deloitte, Katherine was the head of sustainability at a FTSE listed financial services company. She has an MSc from London School of Economics.
Darriane is a Director working within Deloitte’s Risk Advisory practice supporting our Responsible Business Agenda and specialises in ethics and culture. Darriane is an expert in assessing, measuring organisational ethical culture, ensuring Purpose, Values and Behaviours are known, understood and working to deliver the business strategy in the right way. Darriane works across all industries working with clients to integrate ethics and compliance to support clients to move from rules to principles and adopt ethics frameworks. Darriane is a qualified Leading Practitioner in Ethics and Compliance (LPEC) and a fraud and bribery specialist with over 15 years experience of designing anti-fraud and bribery programmes for clients internationally. Darriane has worked in industry and joined Deloitte in the last two years to support clients across a variety of industries including; Life Science, Health Care, Telecommunications, Energy & Utilities and Consumer.