Weaving a thread of trust

On a crisp Christmas morning in rural Ohio, three teenage siblings slipped easily into their traditional roles. The eldest bent the rules, the youngest broke them and the middle child enforced them with all the misplaced authority of a self-appointed sheriff in a house full of outlaws.

When the middle child unwrapped a small gift, the family burst into laughter. Inside was a t-shirt bearing a warning familiar to anyone who’s ever squealed on a sibling: 'Snitches get stitches.'

Months later, their mother, Jennifer Jung, Chief Compliance Officer at RELX, retold the story to a room of lawyers. This time, she produced a second shirt, freshly printed with an upgraded slogan: 'Snitches avoid ditches.'

It lacked the menace of the original, but the message landed.

“We want people to raise concerns and ask questions,” Jung says. “The companies where people feel safe doing that have higher-performing teams, avoid litigation and build long-term trust.”

'Snitches get stitches' endures because it captures a human truth: every group depends on loyalty. You wouldn’t call Compliance because someone replied-all unnecessarily or initiate a formal inquiry into the disappearance of the last Oreo. But when silence conceals harm – fraud, corruption, harassment, discrimination or conduct that endangers people or the environment – it stops being loyalty and becomes complicity.

From her farm near Springfield, Ohio – where she juggles cows, pumpkins, sunflowers and teenagers – Jung says her aim is to move from compliance to what she calls a 'culture of integrity'.

“Some people hear compliance and think of complicated legal requirements,” she says. “Following the law is vital, but integrity is about doing the right thing because that’s who we are – not because someone says we have to.”

That conviction underpins RELX’s Code of Ethics and its guiding philosophy: Do the Right Thing.

Integrity in Practice

For Dhiren Maharaj, group finance manager at LexisNexis South Africa, the Code is less about compliance than culture.

“At LexisNexis, information integrity and trust are at the heart of our mission,” he says from his home in Bluff, a coastal suburb of Durban. “The Code reinforces that commitment – not just what’s required, but what’s right. Compliance is about following rules; ethics is about doing what's right – when no one is watching."

Finance, he argues, is where integrity begins. Transparent reporting and open communication build trust; good data leads to good decisions; and internal controls ensure accountability.

“In a global business, many decisions aren’t black and white,” he says. “The Code helps us navigate the grey. When people internalise those principles, they stop waiting for instructions and start anticipating risk – far better than dealing with the consequences later.”

RELX supports that mindset with its Do the Right Thing Pinciples for Colleagues, which encourages employees to pause and think before acting in ambiguous situations. Regular surveys of employees and suppliers track how well those principles are lived – and where they need strengthening.

For Maharaj, who holds a master’s degree in ethical leadership, the rule is simple: “Be honest, transparent and fair – even when it’s not popular."

Insight into Action

The Code continues to be refined – reviewed, retested and refreshed in response to feedback, regulation and technological change.

The company now integrates data from whistleblowing systems, policy portals and training platforms to identify emerging risks. It also benchmarks the Code externally with independent consultants and gathers feedback internally after training sessions and employee forums.

One focus area is speed: ensuring that the company moves quickly to clarify facts, dispel doubt and, where necessary, act.

According to the Institute of Business Ethics, just over half of FTSE 350 companies have a publicly available code of ethics. Of those, only 57 per cent reach what the IBE considers a “good” standard, and only 58 per cent include an explicit commitment to non-retaliation. RELX is one of the few that does.

That commitment is central to creating a culture where people feel safe to speak up. Jung calls it “psychological comfort” – the assurance that employees can ask questions or raise concerns without fear of reprisal.

Every report, she says, is handled with discretion, and managers receive ethical-leader training, so they know how to respond when someone speaks up.

“We give really strong retaliation instructions and follow up on that, to make sure we encourage anyone who feels like they’re being retaliated against to come forward,” Jung explains. “And we investigate that as well.”

The same commitment to integrity applies to those accused of wrongdoing: investigations must be objective, proportionate and respectful, ensuring that false, malicious or simply mistaken claims do not cause unjust harm.

Jung says the impact of a strong ethical culture often shows in what doesn’t happen: fewer disputes, fewer compliance issues and lower risk.

“Companies with a culture of integrity are not only more profitable,” she says. “They make a positive impact on society, attract talented people and earn long-term trust.”

Hollywood to Boardroom

Kristy Grant-Hart is not what this writer expected from a compliance expert. Speaking from her home near Laguna Beach, California, she laughs about her unconventional route from red carpets to risk registers.

“I was a production co-ordinator for The King of Queens, did some commercials and even a stint on Unsolved Mysteries,” she says. “Then I went to law school at night. When Paramount and Universal needed someone who understood both film production and law, there I was – a kind of unicorn.”

Today she heads Spark Compliance, a Diligent brand, advising hundreds of global corporations. She recently had the opportunity to evaluate RELX's compliance programme. “RELX has one of the strongest compliance programmes I’ve seen,” she says.

What stands out, she adds, is its commitment to keep improving. “Compliance programmes are never finished. Regulators keep publishing new guidance, and the bar keeps getting higher. Things that were cutting edge five years ago are now expectations.”

She believes the next phase will hinge on how effectively companies use technology to join the dots. “There’s massive amounts of talk about AI in compliance programmes – how people are using it, what they’re doing with it,” she says. “The adoption of products that make it easier to identify trends and insights is going to be the thing that draws us into the future more quickly than anything else.”

That spirit of evolution, she adds, is mirrored in RELX’s culture. “They’re a very data-driven organisation. That's not surprising for a company rooted in technology. It's exciting to see that they've genuinely invested in understanding data in compliance."

Compliance teams, she acknowledges, can still be viewed with the same wariness as Internal Affairs in a police drama. “It takes a special kind of personality to do it well,” she adds. "Compliance officers have to be part of the business, to meet people so they’re not faceless. They have to be human, so people want to talk to them."

“Most whistleblowers go to their company first," she adds. "And if they’re ignored, they get mad and they go to the regulator. There’s a real benefit to having a speak-up culture, where there’s training on non-retaliation.”

Her film experience still shapes her philosophy. “Because of the storytelling background I come from, I can’t stand boring,” she says cheerfully. “Especially in antitrust – it’s so complicated – you have to use stories, or it’s not going to make any sense."

For Grant-Hart, compliance is less about bureaucracy than engagement. “If you make it fun – creative videos, games, prizes – it really works. That’s where creativity lives.”