Cisco Named One of World’s Most Ethical Companies

For the 9th year in a row, Cisco has been honored by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. This year, Ethisphere honored 131 companies representing 54 industry sectors, 21 countries, and five continents. Cisco is one of four honorees in the Technology category.

Qualifying companies are measured on five key categories: ethics and compliance program (35%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (20%), culture of ethics (20%), governance (15%) and leadership, innovation and reputation (10%).

We believe that preserving an ethical workplace is critical to our long-term success as a company. We provide employees many ways to learn about and understand our policies and processes that help us manage within the law and maintain an ethical culture, including a Policy Central website, reporting and disclosures tools, ethics-related training and our annual employee Code of Business Conduct (COBC) certification.

Below, a look at how we maintain an ethical culture at Cisco:

We encourage open communications by providing multiple ways to share concerns, report allegations of misconduct, or ask questions

Our Code of Business Conduct is the best, first step when confronted with a work related ethical dilemma or compliance matter. Employees are also encouraged to talk with a manager or Human Resources or use other available ways to voice a concern

We encourage people to speak up if they have questions or ethical concerns without fear of retaliation and to do so anonymously, if they wish

We take employee concerns seriously and follow-up on inquiries or suspected violations of our COBC

We require employees to annually certify compliance with the Code of Business Conduct

We have a Supplier Code of Ethics: Making sure partners operate ethically when doing Cisco business by providing Partner Anti-Corruption Training and on-line reporting of alleged misconduct

We have a dedicated and knowledgeable Ethics team supported by cross-functional Executive Committees.

Plus, a Financial Officers Code of Conduct

To learn more about Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility efforts, please visit csr.cisco.com