At RPM, we believe in doing the right things, the right way, for the right reasons. This commitment to ethical behavior is deeply ingrained in our corporate structure and is fundamental in our approach to business. Our compliance and ethics program is shaped by The Value of 168®—the idea that there are 168 hours in a week, and we must use those hours in ways that do the most good, because doing the right thing is good business.
RPM has the following policies in place to ensure we are upholding our ethical standards:
- Code of Conduct and Ethics. In 2022, RPM launched an updated version of The Values & Expectations of 168, a comprehensive guide to the principles that identify who we are and what we expect of ourselves and our associates when interacting with others.
- Human Rights Policy. RPM has a robust set of policies that demonstrate our commitment to a wide range of human rights issues, including equal opportunities, non-discrimination and non-harassment, the prohibition of child and forced labor and more. As stated in our Human Rights Policy, we also support the U.N. Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, which respects and honors the principles of internationally recognized human rights.
- Hotline and Non-Retaliation Policy. This policy informs employees how to report complaints through our Hotline or other reporting mechanisms and how RPM handles investigations submitted, as well as our non-retaliation policy as set forth in The Values & Expectations of 168.
- Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Policy. We use our Route 168 program to educate our associates about how to spot and report corruption activity and investigate all reports of suspected incidents.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Visit our Policies & Reports page to review our policies that reinforce our ethical standards. Click here >
We promote ethics and compliance across the company through our compliance training program, Route 168. Using our learning management systems and live training sessions, associates are trained on a range of topics, including data protection, ethical decision-making, conflicts of interest, competition and antitrust compliance, anti-corruption and bribery compliance, gifts and entertainment, anti-harassment, modern slavery, risks in the supply chain, fraud and business integrity. As of April 30, 2024, more than 95% of our global associates and management team have completed our Values and Expectations of 168 training.
All associates have access to RPM Navigator, an internal site that serves as a resource for policies, training materials and guidance. Navigator provides information on our compliance hotline; Hotline and Non-Retaliation Policy and other corporate policies; Route 168 resources; and Supplier, Applicator and Distributor Codes of Conduct. The site has multilingual functionality for ease of use across our global workforce.
We also ask questions within our companywide employee engagement survey focused on our Code of Conduct, efficacy of the compliance training program and protocol for reporting concerns. We use this data to determine key performance indicators for our compliance-related goals.
HIGHLIGHT
In April 2023, RPM hosted our first Compliance Summit for Human Resources (HR) professionals at our headquarters in Medina, Ohio. Teams from the U.S. and Canada participated in sessions on a variety of compliance issues facing HR professionals including, leadership development, identifying retaliation and handling concerns, and the relationship between Environmental, Health & Safety and HR. In addition, HR leaders from RPM’s four segments presented recent success stories, including Carboline’s Ethical Leadership Training, Tremco’s RISE program, SPG’s Recruitment and Retention initiatives and Rust-Oleum’s Micro-Learnings program.
We encourage our associates to share concerns about ethics or compliance issues through multiple channels, including a supervisor, company leader, RPM's human resources and legal and compliance departments and our anonymous Ethics and Compliance Hotline. In addition, our Code of Conduct and Hotline and Non-Retaliation Policy outline our commitment to respond to any inappropriate conduct or behavior against others, including, but not limited to, harassment and discrimination perpetrated by associates, supervisors, customers or vendors, and any kind of retaliation or harassment.
We have an established enterprise-level risk assessment that covers a range of topics including legal, EHS, HR, finance, compliance and, most recently, sustainability and climate change.
We use associate surveys, a series of questionnaires and follow-up meetings to focus on the specific risk areas identified through the assessment. We publish key findings internally and address gaps. The most recent survey was given to more than 1,200 associates from management teams across our business units, allowing for risk assessment and identification on topics across the company.
RPM also reports the results of the assessment to the Board of Directors annually.
