HIW Corporate Resiliency Report 2021 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 40
ETHICS AND INTEGRITY
We are committed to corporate governance practices
that promote honesty, accountability, transparency,
integrity and an ethical work environment. Our board
believes that setting the tone at the top with a strong
governance structure is critical to our long-term success.
We are guided by Corporate Governance Guidelines and
a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics applicable to all
directors, officers and coworkers. Similarly, all vendors
are required to comply with our Vendor Code of Conduct.
To ensure greater transparency and preserve the trust of
our stakeholders, our governance guidelines and codes
are disclosed in the “Investors/Governance” section of
our website.
Highwoods has a zero-tolerance policy for activities that
violate any laws or regulations, including those covering
bribery, copyrights, information privacy, political
contributions, insider trading, occupational health and
safety, discrimination and harassment. Employees
are prohibited from offering, promising, or providing
anything of value to any person for the purpose of
influencing that person to assist Highwoods in obtaining
an improper business advantage.
All corporations, including Highwoods, are prohibited
from directly or indirectly making any kind of cash or
in-kind contribution to candidates for federal office and,
in many areas in which we operate, state or local office.
Corporate donations to any candidate for public office
may only be made with the prior approval of our General
Counsel and only to the extent permitted by and in strict
compliance with applicable law.
As a condition of employment, we require all coworkers
to understand and fully comply with our Code of
Business Conduct and Ethics and complete an annual
conflict of interest questionnaire, which is then reviewed
with the Compensation and Governance Committee
of our Board of Directors. All coworkers receive regular
training on numerous ethics-related topics to ensure that
our company adheres to the highest ethical standards.
We have an open-door policy to encourage our
coworkers to disclose any issues concerning regulatory
compliance, accounting, audit or internal control issues,
and we maintain an ethics hotline via ethicspoint.com
for anonymous disclosures. All reported ethical concerns
are promptly reviewed and addressed by our legal team
and, if applicable, a committee of our Board of Directors.
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