NU Online News Service, April 18, 1:01 p.m. EDT

Take an award-winning director, add a new code of conduct, and mix them together to produce a message about risk that employees will find lively and compelling.

That is the purpose behind a 50-minute movie illustrating Marsh & McLennan Cos.’ new code of conduct, titled “Faces of Marsh & McLennan,” says Scott Gilbert, Marsh & McLennan Companies’ chief risk and compliance officer.

Revisions in the company’s code of conduct, reflecting Marsh & McLennan President and CEO Brian Duperreault’s imperative to reduce risk to the firm, was the impetus for the movie, says Gilbert.

Reduction of risk is put into an enterprise risk management framework focusing on the simplification of operations and introduction of more automation to reduce errors, as well as addressing cultural risk within the company.

The focus of cultural risk is the company’s code of conduct for employees. Gilbert says that while it was well written, it was available only online and “was quite legalistic.”

In an effort to update the code, as risks have changed, the company wanted to create something that “was much more a factor in people’s lives,” making the code more vibrant and helpful.

Having worked at General Electric for 13 years, Gilbert is very familiar with the way film can communicate a strong message. GE has associations with NBC, which GE owned, and Gilbert thought a filmmaker could bring a fresh eye to delivering the message about the company’s employee expectations.

He says he wanted to avoid the old clichés and trying to scare people into behaving properly.

“What we wanted for this was to bring to life the importance of the work people do at Marsh & McLennan all around the world, and in the same moment give people a sense of individual responsibility for doing that work right, and in the right way,” Gilbert explains.

After a search, he said the company hired Ryan Fenson-Hood, award-winning director of a documentary on New Orleans titled “The Sound After The Storm.”

“Fundamentally, the film is about speaking to people’s hearts to achieve an emotional reaction from our colleagues—a sense of pride and responsibility,” Gilbert points out. “We wanted to do it in an unusual way.”

The film follows Saira Jesrai, senior compliance officer, policy and training, as she develops the company’s code of conduct, which the film reveals is titled “The Greater Good.”

The film introduces the viewer to several executives in Marsh & McLennan, including its insurance brokerage firm Marsh and reinsurance brokerage firm Guy Carpenter, as they face and negotiate issues with clients in their daily lives.

“We wanted to make the point to people that this code is not just a formal exercise, or as Brian [Duperreault] says, it’s just not a check-the-box exercise,” Gilbert says. “It’s real; it’s a way of life. And we bring this to life by seeing how these issues that are in the code present themselves in the lives of real colleagues. There is a reality to it that is very unusual for this kind of film.”

In presenting the movie and code of conduct, Gilbert says both are being introduced globally and in local languages granting easy access to all employees. The presentation is part of a training program that promotes high ethical and professional standards within Marsh & McLennan, he says.

The trailer to the movie was shared with thousands of employees in a town-hall meeting last December. The film is being rolled out now around the world for employees, with the aim of Marsh & McLennan’s more than 50,000 employees seeing the film as part of its training program. By the end of April the code of conduct will be distributed to all employees along with a training program to review and discuss the experience.

“We want to use the film to pique people’s interest and read the book,” he says.

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