emeis wins award for the quality, clarity, and transparency of its communication on business ethics

At the Labrador Transparency Awards ceremony on November 6, emeis was awarded the prize for best progress in the Ethics & Compliance category for the collective work carried out over the past three years on its tools. Guillaume Dunis, Group Director of Internal Control & Audit, Risk & Insurance, and Compliance, explains.

Guillaume, when you joined emeis, what did you find and what did you put in place to transform the culture of compliance within the group?

Guillaume Dunis: What I noticed when I joined the group in April 2023 was that there were scattered and incomplete systems in place: a code of ethical conduct, an anti-corruption code, a reporting platform, a few procedures... but nothing structured across the group's various geographical locations. In the midst of transformation, the group needed to regain the trust of all its stakeholders.

So we spent two years building a comprehensive set of documents on business ethics, including the definition of 14 procedures. 

The rebranding in 2024 was a great opportunity to review and reimagine the existing documents to make them more user-friendly and accessible, using a multi-channel approach:

• A large part of our audience works in the field, in the group's facilities. We therefore felt it was essential to provide them with paper versions of the codes and procedures.
• We also launched a poster campaign at headquarters and facilities to announce the availability of these documents on a new, dedicated, and well-structured SharePoint space.
• Finally, the team visited around 30 steering committees throughout France to present the system and raise awareness of business ethics.

How did you involve the 21 countries in your approach?

Guillaume Dunis: It was important to move quickly, to ensure compliance, and to roll out the program. So we took a top-down approach, backed by our convictions. We set up a group business ethics steering committee that meets every two months and oversees the program. The countries were tasked with translating the various documents and procedures, thereby facilitating their adoption by the teams. The aim of the document overhaul was to simplify the content and make it immediately understandable, which inevitably helped with adoption as well. 

Collectively, we also wrote and published our first independent vigilance plan this year.

What does this award mean to you and your teams?

Guillaume Dunis: First of all, for us it is recognition of a very important collective transformation process that has been underway for nearly two years. 

What the group has been going through since its refoundation in 2022 is not simply a matter of compliance, but a comprehensive cultural reconstruction based on ethics, transparency, and responsibility. It is with this goal in mind that all teams have worked to rebuild our culture. 

Secondly, this distinction has been awarded to us by our peers, with the "best progress award" having been created especially for the occasion, as the jury wanted to reward our transformation work. 

But this is not an end in itself! We must continue to promote this culture, constantly improve our productions and, why not, aim for a new award in 2026.

Thank you Guillaume and well done everyone!