Cambridge-based communications agency Acteon won a major award, along with client The Wellcome Trust, at the European Compliance & Ethics Awards by public vote on 16th October.
This innovative approach was selected from the finalists by a virtual audience of over 6,000 leaders and professionals as the winner.
Acteon’s James Woodman commented “We’re delighted that this indicates there’s an appetite for meaningful change in how organisations engage employees in ethics and compliance.”
The ECEC Award celebrates an exceptional project which meets stringent criteria, including exceptionality, innovation, scalability, sustainability, ability to inspire the wider community and impact.
So what’s different?
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation, where ethics, governance and risk are a crucial strategic imperative for strong relationships and reputation. So colleagues at Wellcome need to understand that it’s not just what they do, but how they do it that matters.
Wellcome’s Fraser Simpson and his team, working in partnership with Acteon, pioneered a new approach to helping people to do the right thing. Rather than asking employees to do an annual training course in the Code of Ethics, or read it cover-to-cover, instead the campaign focuses on a specific action: when faced with a dilemma, pause and ask your conscience - “Is this ok?”.
The face of the campaign is Connie – a real pink-haired puppet who represents your conscience. Connie is memorable, recognisable, funny, and helps to embed a habit – prompting everyone with the question “What would Connie do?”
Connie was featured in a launch campaign for the new Code of Ethics, and has been a huge hit ever since.
To bring Connie to life, they’ve been given an identity: recruiting them as a Wellcome employee with an email address and intranet profile. Colleagues can ask questions of Connie on Teams (using an AI chatbot). And regular monthly ‘Connie’s Ethics Gym’ email dilemmas are sent to all colleagues, helping them to keep ethics front of mind.
An appetite for change
Beyond Wellcome, Connie has resonated globally with experts in L&D, communications and compliance. Many major organisations have commended the project and asked to learn more. The approach has translated across cultures, with brilliant feedback from China and Uzbekistan to Costa Rica, the USA and Brazil.
This response, reinforced by the public vote for the project at the ECEC award, reveals an appetite for change in how organisations want to engage employees with ethics and compliance.
Instead of heavy-duty training which is quickly forgotten, numerous leaders are commending the campaign because it:
- Identifies a simple habit that everyone can use.
- Motivates them by connecting that habit to things employees care about.
- Prompts them to act through an ongoing creative campaign.
Congratulations to the team
A huge congratulations to Fraser Simpson and team from Wellcome, and James Woodman, Jara Brasa and colleagues at Acteon for leading such an innovative project that does ethics and compliance in a meaningful and human way.
