NAVEX Helps Cummins Keep a Consistent Company Culture

About this Case study

With a long history of ethical practices, Cummins selected NAVEX’s EthicsPoint case management system to help foster a culture of business integrity.

1. For anyone looking to:

   Implement a hotline intake or incident management system

2. Solution:

   EthicsPoint®

3. Page length:

   3 pages

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NAVEX Helps Cummins Keep a Consistent Company Culture

Cummins, Inc. is driven by the idea that the power and commitment of employees can make people’s lives better. A global power leader, the corporation is made up of complementary business units that design, manufacture, distribute and service engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions and electrical power generation systems. Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana, Cummins employs approximately 44,000 people worldwide and serves customers in approximately 190 countries and territories through a network of more than 600 company-owned and independent distributor locations and approximately 6,500 dealer locations.

“We have a great history as an ethical company, and we will never do anything to compromise that. By using the NAVEX system we hold each person to a higher standard of consistently ethical behavior.” - Sondra Bolte, HR Director, Global Ethics Investigations, Cummins

For those stakeholders, Cummins aims to act responsibly to improve their lives and their communities. Cummins believes in the power of employees, and Bolte works to make sure employees know that Cummins is deeply committed to providing an ethical work environment for them.

As a company with a long history of ethical practices, Cummins selected NAVEX to help foster a culture of business integrity across the planet.

Can a Company Foster a Global Community of Integrity?

Sondra Bolte, HR Director - Global Ethics Investigations at Cummins, set out to create a global communication structure that would reinforce the company’s vision for an ethical workplace, unleashing the power of people to make lives better.

As an international company, Cummins needed a comprehensive reporting system in order to maintain a consistent workplace culture around the world.

Focus on Manufacturing

Bolte has spent the last 10 of her 27 years at Cummins working on the continuous task of fostering an ethical culture in each of the countries where Cummins operates. She realized that the company needed a powerful system in order to support its Code of Conduct policies. “We were beginning to outgrow our old vendor; we had global needs that their system could not handle.”

After launching a Six Sigma project, Cummins determined the necessary requirements for an ideal system, and selected NAVEX to provide the reporting and case management capabilities necessary.

The Ideal Solution: NAVEX’s EthicsPoint Incident Management

Bolte began by working with NAVEX’s Implementation Services team to configure the system according to the global business needs of Cummins.

Now, Cummins has a consistent communication process in every business unit and region. If a concern is reported, the case automatically goes to a Master Investigator who assigns it, monitors the process and closes the case. Each Master Investigator can analyze regional data and report statistics using the system.

“NAVEX’s EthicsPoint helps us analyze the company by business unit and by region, and helps keep our procedures and standards consistent worldwide.”

The internal audit, legal, security and human resources teams at Cummins are notified of any relevant cases, and often work together to decide which group leads the investigation. All departments collaborate and store their data in the system, so those who have been given access to the information have it available at their fingertips.

When Bolte conducts her analysis of the data from every region and business unit, she can sort the information and create a number of key reports with ease. “My analysis projects used to take 3 days. With the EthicsPoint system they take maybe 4 hours.” As a result, Cummins now has more thorough analysis of the company from an enterprise perspective.

Assembling the Results

Bolte measures a very important statistic through the NAVEX system: employee confidence.

“We measure employee confidence by whether they identify themselves in reports. We started at 50 percent and now 75 percent of reporters choose to self-identify.”

Bolte has also noted the following improvements:

• Greater insight into worldwide business culture;
• Increased efficiency of analysis and procedure; and
• Improved employee confidence and satisfaction.

About NAVEX

NAVEX’s GRC software and compliance management solutions support the integrated risk, ESG and compliance management programs at more than 13,000 organizations worldwide.