[00:00:00] Speaker A: Today we'll take a look at how ServiceNow commits to winning the right way with a blended approach of ethics and compliance best practices. I'm your host, Bill Coffin and this is the Ethicast.
Getting employees attention and inspiring them to engage with the ethics and compliance team is no small task. But at ServiceNow, a provider of AI driven automated business workflows, there is no room for error, especially around customer trust, data security, personal privacy and global regulation. That's why the E and C team has gone all in on creating a compelling code of ethics, impactful training and employing storytelling in powerful combination. The result is a top performing ethics and compliance program that recently earned ServiceNow the honor of being named one of the 2025 World's Most Ethical companies.
And joining us today to talk about how ServiceNow blends these program elements to maximum effect is chief ethics and Compliance Officer John Castelli. John, thank you for joining us and congratulations to you and your team for your much deserved world's most Ethical Companies recognition.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: Thanks so much for having me, Bill. And thanks so much for two at a sphere for this awesome distinction.
We party pretty hard and celebrate it when we get it. So thanks again and looking forward to this discussion.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: ServiceNow's Code of Ethics is a values based document and importantly, it's not a strictly defined code of conduct. Can you talk about why you frame this document in that way and how it informs your messaging around your win the right way concept?
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, Bill, one of the things that. One of the tenets that I think I have with respect to, you know, our compliance profession is that it's a people job. And when you think of it that way, then I think you have to think about how to best motivate and how people learn and how people interact with information.
And so over years of going through sort of codes of ethics in various businesses, you see that folks really don't Remember Rules, Regulations, C17, 0.56. Right. That's not what sticks. What sticks are things that you've learned as a kid. You know, your values, the things that, you know, good and bad or you know, morality, like those types of broader concepts are, are what really informs behavior. At least that's what I think. Right. So in doing that, in, in trying to create a code of ethics that was more value based. Right. More. As opposed to don't break this particular regulation, you say, you know, we want to win the right way. We want to do things so that our customers are inspired by trust. And, and you want to say that, you know, broad Concepts that people could actually buy into. Things that I think outside of work people aspire to. Right. So it's really just trying to encapsulate the way people get information and then again to inspire folks to do, to take an action. And I think a morals values base probably does that better than trying to adhere to a code or a regulation.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Now, I understand that you use Q and A scenarios in your training both to impart lessons from employees perspectives and to provide ethical learnings that transcend any one department role or responsibility. Can you talk about how you developed this approach and what kind of results has it yielded for you?
[00:03:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, I think the way we developed the approach was through lots of failures in trying to come out with scenarios and situations to make it stick.
The way we wound up coming to it, I'd say it in Jess, but there is some truth to it. The way we wind up coming to the idea of adding these sort of scenarios into the Code of Ethics itself is where we would get a lot of questions throughout the year from our employees. With respect to where can I get this information? The answer would be, oh, have you read the Code of Ethics? And then one day I read the Code of Ethics, right. I kind of read it again in response to one of my own answers and I kind of, and I looked at it and I was like, you know, it's not actually prescriptive like the, the idea of making a value base is that there's large values. But now how do you take that value and how do you put it to an everyday scenario? If I send someone to the Code of Ethics and say the answer is in there, it should really pretty much identify something that they could look for. So we decided to add in these scenarios so that people can see themselves in the code, how it actually plays out in scenarios. And we've gone from being a very sales driven, anti bribery, any corruption type of code of ethics to more of a broad base. It doesn't matter if you're in sales, it doesn't matter if you're engineering or development. All of these scenarios can happen and visit you.
We've seen some really good engagement with our code of ethics. One of the things that we measure is in fact engagement with and multiple hits and how long people stay on the Code of Ethics or webpage. And we've definitely seen an increase lately as we, as we move to those value based questions and scenarios. I think it helps people retain the information and again learn how to apply it.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: How do you use storytelling to win trust with Internal and external stakeholders. And why do you think that storytelling is such a crucial skill for E and C teams to focus on?
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it goes back to sort of that first question of why values based versus rules and regs. It's because that's what people remember, right? You remember a story, you remember a good joke, you don't remember a good law, right? Like, you remember those types of things. So again, thinking about how to interact with your audience and what are we trying to get to at the end of the day, right? Like, what's. What, what, what do we want? Do we want people to just remember what these rules are, or do we want people to be thinking about it and seeing it and, and being able to identify when they see it?
You do that better by giving examples, giving scenarios, giving stories, anecdotes, things for people that will stick to understand that when they see that anecdote come up or something, anecdote adjacent, they can apply what they've learned or it triggers a response to our code.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: How do you go about finding the stories that you think are going to really resonate with everybody, whether it's just the people involved or how you maybe anonymize a story? What are some techniques that you use to go, you know what, out of all the stories we have, you know, to offer, we're going to go with these couple because these really are the touchstones of our program.
[00:06:47] Speaker B: Well, step one would be hire excellent people that can do that. I have excellent people on my team who are really awesome at developing and thinking about that. So that's step one, if you want to. How to get there. But once you've achieved step one, I think the idea is put yourself into your employee's shoes, right? When you're drafting your code of ethics. Let's get out of the, let's get out of sort of the silo that we're in of thinking ethics and compliance and rules and regs and our responsibility to deliver this message. And think about how if I am a new employee in marketing at my company and I go to this code of ethics, what would I hope to see, right? Like, how would, how would it help me? And I think if you can do that, if you can actually, actually start putting ourselves as we are drafting these things into the, the shoes of the audience, it really is all about call and response, right? If, if you can, if you can do that, if you can think about what would work for me, what you would see, what one in this position would see, then you start coming up with stories and scenarios that plays to that. And then when you look at the full picture, you're able to see, you know, I'm a little heavy on the sales stuff, I'm a little, little light over here when it comes to, you know, tne. So then you start to it out. But I think you just try to really put yourselves into the shoes of the employee. And in different scenarios, an engineer, a developer or a product, you know, manager or any of those scenarios, how would that play out if I was there? And then you hope for the best, to be honest.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: John, thank you so much for joining us today and for giving us a look at some of the winning ENC strategies that your team is employing within ServiceNow. And once again, congratulations to you and to your team for earning its much deserved recognition as one of the 2025 World's Most Ethical companies.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Bill, thank you very much. Thank you again for having me here. And on behalf of ServiceNow and all of its employees, board of directors and leaders, thank you Datasphere for this great recognition. We're super, super pumped about it.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: To learn more about the great work that John and his team are doing, hit the link in this episode. Show Notes to download a copy of ServiceNow's Code of Ethics, be sure to visit worldsmostethicalcompanies.com for a full list of this year's honorees, including ServiceNow, as well as details on what goes into this recognition, the five Year Ethics Premium, and more. If you would like to appear as a guest on the ethocast to share a best practice success story or your own proof point around how business integrity builds value, we would love to hear from you. Drop us a
[email protected] ethicast thanks so much for joining us. We hope you've enjoyed the show. For new episodes each week, be sure to subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. And until next time, remember, strong ethics is good business.
