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Dear Visitor,
Welcome to the July edition of People Matter from HR Solutions 4U.
Nobody can have missed the recent controversy surrounding News International, which culminated in the end of the News of the World. But of course this is not the end of the story. Allegations of fear amongst politicians around the power Mr Murdoch wields, and questions over his bid for BSkyB, mean this is likely to rumble on. What can we, as business owners, learn from this? Make sure we run a tight ship, and the latest legislation – the Bribery Act – can help with this. Read on for more information about how this applies to you.
This month we are focusing on just this one subject, with a view to making this more meaningful for you. But we’d love to hear your views – what would you like to read in our newsletters? They are for you, so please help us to deliver what you want. Please drop us an email with any ideas.
Until next time, look after your people.Best wishes
The team at HR Solutions 4U
The Bribery Act 2010 – What does it mean for you?
The chances are you’ve probably already heard about The Bribery Act, and read about it too. The troubleis it is quite hard to interpret what it actually means and what, if any, actions you should be taking within your own organisation.
When any new Act comes into force case law doesn’t come with it – that’s usually a year or two down the line when people or businesses fall foul of the legislation. Whilst clearly that will provide extra guidance, we don’t want you to become part of the case law!
Why are we telling you this? Because we can’t produce a definitive list of what is or is not allowed under the Bribery Act, because nobody is really clear yet. So what we have done is two things:
- Produced some guidelines you should adopt
- Created a bribery risk assessment form for you to download
So, the guidelines:
- Know who you are dealing with – you are deemed as being low risk if your business is usually conducted in the UK. But nevertheless, it still pays to do a little homework when working with new organisations.
- Corporate hospitality is not forbidden but caution should be exercised – inviting the key decision maker within a business to a high profile and expensive event at the time of tender could be deemed inappropriate. However, if you regularly host such events and invite a range of people you are clearly reducing your risk.
- You are not expected to control the actions of your suppliers. However, you need to be vigilant when employing the services of people who will be acting on behalf of your organisation. This applies to both direct employees and third party organisations who act for you. In both instances you are deemed responsible and so need to have clear guidelines in place. You also need to conduct due diligence. With direct employees this is about having a robust recruitment process including the taking up of references. With third parties it may mean word of mouth and internet searches, but could reach further in terms of providing and taking up references, presenting financial accounts and membership of industry bodies.
- You can still give promotional gifts to clients – providing the level of gift/expenditure is appropriate. This is about exercising caution again but the authorities are likely to review gifts against previous history and proportionate to the size of business/value of contract.
- Communication – to err on the side of caution we believe it is better to communicate to all staff the dangers of accepting/offering anything that could be deemed a bribe. Having a robust policy in place, and ensuring all staff have read and understood it, will often be sufficient.
- Monitoring & review – ensure somebody within your organisation becomes the bribery champion. Not only should they be the font of all knowledge but be able to monitor and review the guidelines and ensure employees are acting within those guidelines.
- For a light touch reference guide check out the Government’s Quick Start guide.
Use our downloadable risk assessment to see how the risks of bribery are likely to be in your organisation. If you are deemed to be high risk additional training and evaluation may be appropriate for your business.
Not happy with the results of the assessment? Don’t worry – give us a call on 01256 328428 and we’ll help walk you through the next steps.
If you would like help with forming a bribery policy and training staff, please contact us on 01256 328428.
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