When we think of the business areas responsible for countering bribery, we might first think of legal, compliance, procurement and, of course, top management.

However, in many companies, several of the most important efforts to counter bribery and corruption are made by the human resources department. Exchanges of gifts, offers of hospitality, recruitment dilemmas and conflicts of interest are all key areas of corruption risk which pass across the desks of the human resources function on a daily basis.

Anti-bribery and corruption laws are not designed to prevent people from enjoying prosperous business relationships. However, excessive hospitality and conflicts of interest often attract the wrong kind of attention from regulators. The newspapers are filled with examples of companies who have discovered this the hard way.

It is concerning, therefore, that 34% of anti-bribery and corruption controls related to human resources were deemed inadequate by anti-corruption experts last year.
Many companies have a long way to go in this area. Data shows that human resources is one of the compliance areas where the gap between the worst and the best companies is largest.

However, there are basic and practical steps companies can take to improve. As part of the Pearl Initiative’s Combating Corruption series, this webinar will focus on the role of human resources in helping companies to achieve best practice in countering corruption.

It will examine data from over 100 anti-bribery and corruption assessments, in which more than 7,000 business practices have been put to the test. From this data, we will identify those areas where human resources departments most often fail, and the ‘quick wins’ companies can implement to help them succeed.

The following areas will be discussed in detail:
– How to assess bribery and corruption controls
– How human resources departments are affected by global anti-bribery legislation
– Data from over 100 on-site assessments, showing how well human resources departments are rising to the challenge of preventing corruption
– Examples of where human resources departments most often fail in their duty to uphold anti-corruption standards
– Examples of human resources departments exhibiting best practice
– Expert advice on how companies can put their human resources departments at the centre of their fight against bribery and corruption

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