Code of Conduct
Employees of PHG signs a comprehensive legal contract after they affirm Code of Professional Conduct.
We expect all of our Professionals and Board members to know and follow this Code of Conduct. Failure to do so can result in disciplinary action, including termination of employment. Any waivers of this Code for directors or executive officers must be approved by our Board.
MISSION
The mission driven Professionals in every client interaction and engagement shall be to significantly advance the interests of the client and so to create value for the client through the presentation of quality advice or production of quality deliverables.
Priority
Professional’s first duty is to the client. In considering any position or course of professional action (outside the payment of appropriate fees), the interests of the client will come first, followed by the interests of PHG or other and then the interests of the Professional.
QUALITY
Professionals will accept only those engagements in which they believe they have the competence to complete the work to a high standard of quality and with a reasonable and realistic degree of certainty that the work will complete on time and within the agreed budget.
INDEPENDENCE
Professionals will always ensure that advice is impartial and aligned with Client best interests. Specific decisions, opinions or recommendations must be supported by referenced evidentiary material, in the form of fact-based quantitative analysis, or will be accompanied by a statement indicating that such support is lacking.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Professionals will operate with the utmost discretion, understanding that their position will regularly require them to view privileged and commercially sensitive information, or to become privy to a client’s internal (and therefore confidential) operations, decisions and strategies. Consultants will never disclose information obtained through a client engagement without the written consent of that client.
RISK & Liabilities
Professionals must take seriously their duty of care to the client and PHG and must make clients aware of any foreseeable risks associated with following any recommended course of action. In all cases the Professionals must pro-actively identify and mitigate client risk. This clause specifies an ethical obligation and should not be interpreted to expand the legal liability of the Professionals or of PHG.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professionals are ethically bound to maintain the currency of any expertise to which they lay claim and to broaden and deepen their experience generally as both management and technical consultant, in order to better assist their clients and to advance the state of the profession. In addition to considerable self-training, this will typically involve attendance at PMU sponsored events that are designed with this purpose in mind
FEES FOR SERVICE
Professionals will maintain transparency and clarity regarding the specific basis for charging professional fees to the client. This basis for charging will be agreed ahead of time and in writing and with reference to a written engagement agreement (such as the PHG Client Agreement) that will govern the commercial and legal elements of the interaction.
RECORDS
Professionals will keep meticulous records of activities undertaken for the benefit of clients, in order that they may fully substantiate any claim to professional fees. Any request for payments made by the Consultants (for example, in the form of an invoice) shall be accompanied by relevant and detailed timesheets showing both time accrued and deliverables produced in that time.
PROPRIETARY INFORMATION
As a knowledge professional, Professionals must show a strong respect for intellectual property rights and to always fully respect the ownership or licensing conditions of any intellectual property in their possession.
Professionals of PHG are required and expected to uphold the highest standard of professional conduct and to adhere to a firm code of professional ethics, as outlined above.
Conformity to the above principles is a condition of membership and of Professionals status with PHG and any evidenced breach of these principles will provide grounds for termination of an Professional’s relationship with PHG.