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Today, Ethisphere announces the 2026 World’s Most Ethical Companies®, recognizing 138 honorees across 17 countries and 40 industries for best-in-class ethics and compliance programs, corporate governance, and cultures of integrity.
This year includes 19 first-time honorees, the most we have ever had, and six honorees that have earned the designation every year since the recognition began.
This is also the 20th year of the World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition. That milestone draws special attention to the long-term commitment so many organizations make to doing business the right way. Strong ethics does not get in the way of good business. Strong ethics is good business.
After 20 years, we have developed a unique perspective on the practices emerging and evolving among honorees and applicants alike. This year was no different. As we reviewed every application, a few clear through lines stood out among our honorees.
Increasing Transparency Around Investigations
One of the clearest through lines in this year’s honorees is a growing commitment to organizational justice. People pay close attention to whether they are being treated fairly; the neuroscience behind that is clear, and the generational differences around faith in the system are stark. Once you accept that reality, the question becomes: what can you make more transparent?
One of the most effective steps an organization can take is to think carefully about which parts of its investigations process and root cause analysis can be shared more openly.
That is exactly what we see this year’s World’s Most Ethical Companies doing. Seventy-five percent of honorees now disclose investigation statistics to all employees. That is a six percentage point increase over the past three years. It reflects a real commitment to thinking strategically about what can be shared, while balancing the interests of individuals involved in investigations to employment lawyers concerned about disclosure.
We expect the number of organizations fully disclosing investigation statistics to continue to grow. If you are not transparent, people will assume you are hiding something. That undermines trust, and it helps no one.
Manager Toolkits and Training
For years, Ethisphere has emphasized the important role people managers play in upholding and advancing an organization’s ethics and compliance program.
Among this year’s honorees, we are seeing an encouraging shift. Fifty-one percent are not just providing managers with ethics and compliance tools and training. They are actively requiring managers to use them.
That marks an important tipping point. Tools and training do not matter if they are not used. Companies need managers who are equipped and expected to operationalize the program in everyday decisions and conversations.
As with investigation transparency, we expect this number to keep growing. Companies that invest in managers’ success as ethical leaders see stronger employee engagement, a healthier speak-up culture, and a stronger overall culture. That is a win for everyone.
Testing Up and Testing Out
Another notable through line is that a majority of honorees now allow test-out, test-up, or progressive course difficulty in online training. That matters, because ethics and compliance training remains a challenge for many organizations.
It is encouraging to see so many companies thinking seriously about how to equip employees with the tools they need to make the right decisions at work. Using more modern, flexible testing and training techniques reflects a willingness to meet employees where they are and support how people learn most effectively in today’s business environment. It also shows employees that the ethics and compliance team understands what they do and is trying to provide them with applicable, useful information.
This approach is good for employees, which makes it good for business. This practice—just like manager training and investigations transparency—are all part of the best practices that connect the World’s Most Ethical Companies to stronger, healthier companies.
The Ethics Premium™
Those collective best practices are reflected in the Ethics Premium™, the degree to which highly ethical, publicly held, companies outperform a comparable index of their peers. This year, that margin is +8.2 percentage points.
We have also expanded our analysis to show that highly ethical companies dip less during market downturns, spend less time underwater, and return to pre-dip levels faster than their peers.
In other words, highly ethical companies are not just more profitable. They are more resilient. Given the uncertainty in the current business environment, that ability to both build and protect value underscores what we know to be true: investing in ethics is one of the best investments a business can make.
This is an exciting time for Ethisphere, and for the World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees themselves. Take this time to reflect on the ways in which you have built the programs and cultures that help make our world a better place. And may that guide you as we all strive to reach ever-higher levels of ethics and integrity tomorrow, and all the days after that.
Join Erica on March 24 for Ethisphere’s free webinar on the 2026 Ethics Premium. Click here to register today.
Author Bio
Erica Salmon Byrne, J.D. | Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Chair, Ethisphere
As Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Chair, Erica Salmon Byrne is responsible for ensuring continuous and strong growth for the company while maintaining Ethisphere’s founding ethos that good businesses do better.
