Hemon is a coalition of hands-on, skilled and professionally qualified specialist in diverse areas with the single aim of providing advisory services to clients to help build value, manage risks they confront, improve transparency and align with best practices, and improve overall operational efficiency in their operations. Hemon provides these support services in a most professional manner that reflect the core values of the company; appreciation and respect for diversity, integrity, collaboration, customer centric-ness, and empathy.
Our core values constitute the foundation and core guidance platform that directs the way the firm behaves, how decisions are made, what the firm is to its external audience, how the firm reward, how interpersonal relationships are defined, and what the firm stands for and how it’s intrinsic character is judged. These core values define the ethoes and character of the firm and run through the firm’s ecosystem, manifesting how the firm’s leadership embodies, and live the core values. These values directs how the leadership model and coach juniors, how the firm’s leadership allocate resources, hire, dismiss, retain and reward employees and above all, how its relationship with clients are defined and clearly understood by everyone in the firm and the extent to which they stay true to those values in living the brand of the firm with clients.
The firm strives to internalise these values as a corner stone of its operations, guiding and facilitating the conduct of the staff and its relationships with other stakeholders. The firm recognizes the existence of various professional standards, guidelines, regulations, local laws and legislations, which form the framework within which the core values of the firm operates. Indeed, compliance to local laws and regulations is a key component of best practices, which the firm stoutly subscribes to and accordingly insists that all its employees apprise themselves of all relevant local laws and regulations and respect same in the exercise of their duties without exception.
The firm however, acknowledges that it is impracticable that standards and local laws would contemplate all likely situations that may arise, and affect the decisions that the firm or its employees may take. Therefore, the firm has developed a set of codes that would guide the conduct of its entire staff in their affairs and relationships with other stakeholders. These codes derive from the embedded core values of the firm and provide guidance and in all cases, staff are expected to exercise good judgment consistent with moral responsibility and local laws and regulations when any of the espoused codes of conduct appear to be in conflict with the local laws. The firm has an obligation, which its entire staff commits to, that knowing the applicable standards, guidelines and local regulations are the first steps toward compliance with the utmost ethical standards the firm stands on, but a sufficient condition is required of its entire staff to live and practice the spirit of the applicable standards and regulations and local laws. Staff are however required to seek clarifications from the relevant subject matter experts in situations where they are conflicted in the interpretation and implementation of standards, code of conduct and local regulations even though the default position of the firm is to have its staff err on the side of extant local regulations and standards. As a minimum, the staff of Hemon are encouraged to conform to the enumerated codes of conduct hereunder;
1. We take on clients and jobs for which the firm has professional competence to handle and capacity to add discernable value to clients
2. The firm competes for jobs employing strictly moral, ethical and legal means
3. The firm strives to meet its commitment once it accepts to serve a client
4. The firm serves customers who have legitimacy and integrity and without moral or legal blemish
5. The firm meets its contractual obligations and charges honestly and fairly only for services it provides the client
6. The firm places premium on adherence to principles of independence and objectivity in the conduct of its review and expression of professional opinion and the presence of situations that may likely impair this independence are immediately addressed
7. The firm respects client’s confidentiality and privacy subject to applicable local laws
8. The firm strives to avoid conflict of interest in any job undertaken and where there appears to be the slightest possible conflict of interest, there shall be full disclosure by the firm to the client
9. The firm encourages its entire staff to consult with subject matter experts within the firm or request formally outside expert opinion when conflicted between two difficult situations not contemplated by extant standards and local laws
10. The staff of the firm are neither allowed to solicit, accept, offer, promise or pay bribes nor allowed to take or receive actions beneficial to themselves or their relatives in the performance of their official duties
11. The firm is committed to sustainability principles and expects its staff to carry on their duties in manner consistent with the sustainability principles of the firm
12. The firm believes and expects its staff to live and conform with the principles of equality in all its ramifications that manifest in respect for gender equality, religious equality, and respect for human dignity, fairness and courtesy to everyone. Any form of discrimination is frowned upon and unacceptable to the firm
13. The firm approves of a work-life balance and encourages its entire staff to live a healthy and fulfilling life
14. The firm is a strong believer and promoter of continuous development and accordingly takes all necessary steps at training and development of its staff to enhance their skills and capabilities
Code of conduct describes the approved form of behaviors of the staff of the firm in a wide range of situations and it is never exhaustive, as the contemplation of the code could never cover all possibilities that may emerge over the years. Staff are therefore encouraged to subject their actions and decisions, whenever they have mixed feelings in a situation not explicitly covered by standards and local regulations, on the simple moral test of what may be moral, ethical and legal. Staff should endeavor to quietly ask and answer the following questions as a personal test that comforts them on the line of action to be taken. Is it against professional standards, is it legal, does it feel right, would a reasonable person act in this manner, can I sleep at night, and would I happily stamp my name on the action. In all instances, they should request for subject matter expert opinion in such situations to provide clarity and defend-ability of their actions consistent with best practices.