In 2018, 135 honorees were recognized, across 23 countries and 57 industries. Symantec is one of only three software and services companies that received this honor and among the 100+ companies honored in the United States.

Ethics set the stage for how we operate as a company and community because it is our duty to protect those inside and outside our company walls. It is also proven that a strong culture of ethics leads to a stronger business in many ways including:

The Ethics Premium - Ethics Improve Performance

Once again, the 2018 World’s Most Ethical Companies have proven that operating with integrity leads to greater financial performance. Research has found that, when indexed, World’s Most Ethical Companies outperformed the U.S. Large Cap Index over five years by 10.72 percent and over three years by 4.88 percent. Ethisphere refers to this as the Ethics Premium.

Additionally, recognizing that privacy is a human right and one of the defining issues of our time, we are playing an integral role in shaping data privacy regulation in Europe, providing key input into the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We are enhancing our “privacy by design” framework to ensure that data privacy is considered at all stages of product development and deployment, resulting in “privacy by design” certifications at every product stage.

Ethical Companies Make Society Better

Global corporations operating with a common rule of law around the globe are now society’s strongest force to improve the human condition. Not only is being ethical the right thing to do, it is proven by research to be the best long-term strategy.

McKinsey research tells us that companies with more diverse workforces outperform their peers. We continue to make diversity a priority, implementing our four-pronged diversity strategy and working towards our goal to, by 2020, increase the percentage of women globally, and underrepresented minorities in the United States, by 15 percent.

Among numerous diversity and inclusion initiatives, our CEO recently signed the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge now joining over 350 CEOs - and their companies – demonstrating the power of collective action to advance diversity and inclusion. Additionally, we have rolled out Unconscious Bias training with all recruiters and human resources business partners, and embedded aspects into our Pay and Performance and New Manager trainings. By the end of FY19, we aim to roll out our Mitigating Bias training to all employees.

Edelman’s Trust barometer shows employees are increasingly looking to their companies for societal leadership. At Symantec, we can be proud to be part of an organization that is committed to ethical behavior in all we do. As we continue building a culture of transparency among our employees, we also increase customer trust, causing us to stand out for the right reasons.