Defense Industry Benchmark (DIB)

For the third time since 2005, the Defense Industry Initiative (DII) is sponsoring a Defense Industry Benchmarking (DIB) initiative among its Signatory companies.  The project will be administered by the Ethics Resource Center (ERC).  The DIB provides participating companies the opportunity to conduct an employee survey using ERC’s metrics, in order to better understand the impact of ethics and compliance programs, measure ethical culture strength, and compare against peer organizations.

Project Overview

ERC will conduct a survey for each participating DII company.  ERC will work with each company to determine if a sample of employees should be drawn or if a census survey is desired (survey of all employees). The survey itself is 60 – 85 questions and will take employees approximately 15 minutes to complete (online).The full project length can be as short as 10 – 12 weeks (from contract signing to report delivery).

Value of Participation

Improved results!  ERC’s metrics have helped Signatories to identify program priorities, and over time past DIB participants have shown progress with their ethics programs.  For example, on average DIB participants experienced:

• A 7% reduction in observed misconduct between first and second DIB administration
• Positive improvement in metrics related to employee pressure, reporting of misconduct, and retaliation

Compliance with Federal Sentencing Guidelines.  ERC metrics allow organizations demonstrate their efforts to assess their program through “periodic evaluation of the effectiveness of a company’s ethics and compliance program”

Anonymous comparison to peers.  DII members can measure their results against those from companies in their industry.

• Other DII Signatories
• U.S. Workforce (NBES survey) – currently in the field – results released in Q4 2009

Deliverables

Participants will receive a report of findings containing:

• Company wide results by demographics
  • Business units
  • Geographic locations
• Comparisons to external benchmarks
  • ERC’s 2009 National Business Ethics Survey©
  • Aggregated DIB benchmark
• ERC Analysis

Options for Participation

ERC is offering three options for participation in 2010.

• Full question set w/ERC implementation ~75 questions: $32,000*
• Core question set w/ERC implementation ~30 questions: $15,000*
• Full question set only w/company implementation ~ERC provides standards for administration: $7,000
• Companies with under 1000 employees may qualify for a further reduction in fees. Contact ERC for more information.

Note: Full implementation means ERC will host the online survey, collect data, and provide a report of findings. Company implementation means ERC licenses the question set to a company but the company manages the hosting and collection of data.

Download PowerPoint Overview (pdf)

If You Are Interested in Participating or For More Information Please Contact:

Moira McGinty Klos
571-480-4401
moira@ethics.org

Matt Robbins
571-480-4407
matt@ethics.org