As reported last year, Discovery partnered with the Gordon Institute of Business Science to launch the GIBS Ethics Barometer Survey for South African business. Discovery’s participation has provided a benchmark against participating organisations in measuring ethical conduct and has provided insight into opportunities to extend ethical business practice to enhance the sustainability of our organisation.

The outcomes of the GIBS Ethics Barometer survey and 2019 Employee Engagement Survey have been shared with each business unit in our South African operations in an individualised report that highlighted the most and least positive perceptions and behaviours. These reports also include an action plan to address outcomes from the combined surveys, formulated by the Chief People Officer and assisted by the Group Ethics Office.

The main themes from the GIBS Ethics Barometer were:

We were pleased to note that findings relating to ‘avoidance of misconduct’ scored relatively high and above benchmark, but qualitative feedback highlighted a potential concern regarding the level of psychological safety in the organisation. To supplement existing anonymous reporting mechanisms, the Ethics Office introduced the EthicsDefender and Group Forensics introduced the FraudCracker applications as new platforms for employees to anonymously report and communicate in real time, without having to reveal their identity. A whistle-blowing campaign was launched in January 2020 to raise awareness of these safe-reporting mechanisms for employees and the Whistle-blowing Policy, supplemented by weekly newsletters.