“Compliance
departments
are not here
to police the rest
of the organization;
it’s a shared
responsibility
that everyone,
at every level,
puts into action
every day.”

 

A good compliance program leads to good ethics. Good ethics lead to business success.

Integrity and transparency are the new norm, and a business that doesn’t commit to both will lose trust amongst its workforce, and more importantly, its customers.

An ethical culture built around the corporate values and compliance guidelines is the cornerstone of organizational integrity. It enhances efficiency and saves real money by balancing short-term gain vs. long-term reward.

The bottom line is that a well-written and properly embedded code of conduct and policies & procedures, will act as an ethical compass that generates commitment, simplifies decisions and guides
day-to-day behavior. Which is good news, because your reputation depends on it.

Who is responsible for Corporate Ethics?

Everyone is. 

It’s the responsibility of the leaders in Compliance to establish an effective compliance program, which includes but definitely not limited to the production of a code of conduct and clear policies and procedures and It’s the responsibility of every single employee from the CEO to the lowest level employee to live and breathe it.

Compliance departments are not here to police the rest of the organization; it’s a shared responsibility that everyone, at every level, puts into action every day.

Without that common ownership the chances that a compliance program will make a real, lasting difference is small.

Most people have the innate desire to do the “right thing”. Making the rules clear, relevant and practical will help ensure that they are followed.  Lawyers tend to write many of these documents in a way that employees don’t understand, documents are unnecessarily long and many don’t include real life examples that the employees can identify with. These documents are therefore not lived-by as intended creating risk for the organization.

The solution is to create a compliance program that takes into consideration Business Strategy, Ethics & Compliance and defined Corporate Values to help create a culture that empowers employees with knowledge and pride of the company they work for.

Compliance Program Success

Ethics and Compliance leaders need to create a program that will allow the employees to act and make their own decisions within a clearly defined corporate framework. Every time an employee makes a decision, the following questions should be in his/her mind:

  1. What will be the consequences of this decision?
  2. Will it help or harm the business?
  3. What will be the cost or benefit?
  4. Is it in line with the company’s values?
/

In most businesses employees could easily cause great damage.
By creating a culture that values ethics and respects the company’s compliance guidelines, such risks can be considerably minimized.

How do you know if your compliance program is successful?

  • When employees accept and follow the company’s policies & procedures because they make sense and are relevant
    to them, and
  • When employees interact with the Compliance department personnel as partners that they can access when needed in order to clarify or assist with business decisions.

How to get there

  • Spell out the clear-cut rules.
  • Empower judgment of grey areas and decision-making.
  • Eliminate any scare tactics; fear and paralysis do not build a culture of trust and confidence.
  • Clarify that accountability is shared by all.
  • Give employees the tools to learn and the vehicles to ask questions.
  • Be consistent with your messaging.
  • Be concise in all compliance messages and use language that can be understood and identified by all.
  • Make sure employees are comfortable to speak up
    when they see improprieties.
  • Always remind of the non-retaliation commitment.
  • Be willing to spend money on the program. If the employees see that you value ethics and compliance and are willing to invest to spread the message, your program and intentions will be believable.

What makes a successful marketing tool?

  1. The presentation and design should be visually engaging and easy to use.

  2. Written clearly with relevance to the workforce.

  3. Motivational and aspirational tone.

  4. Clearly backed up by higher management from the CEO
    and board of directors through middle management.

  5. Focused on ethics over short-term gain.

  6. Aligned with corporate values.

 

“The solution
is to create a compliance program that takes into consideration Business Strategy, Ethics & Compliance and defined Corporate Values
to help create a culture that empowers employees with knowledge and pride of the company they
work for.”