Getting the attention of busy staff continues to be the biggest Compliance challenge for organizations. That’s the opinion of many Compliance professionals who attended the 2018 Compliance and Ethics Institute Conference in Las Vegas.
SnapComms spoke to experts at the event to learn their main areas of focus for the coming year, their biggest challenges and how they define success in Compliance campaigns. They shared their tips and advice with us in the video below.
For many Compliance professionals, key areas of focus were training and establishing a robust complaint process. Other issues included processes around resolving conflicts of interest and harassment, the latter particularly in light of the #MeToo movement.
There was almost universal agreement that the biggest challenges involved getting Compliance messages seen, read and acted upon by employees. Several professionals stressed the importance of message relevance to create interest. Dispersed workforces using multiple languages provided an additional challenge for some, often due to successive mergers and acquisitions.
Proving the outcome of Compliance campaigns often involved a mix of 'hard' and 'soft' measures. Quantifiable results from staff surveys and tracking volumes of Compliance issues were balanced with observations of positive cultural or behavioral change. Examples cited for measuring outcomes included training session attendance rates of 90%, and "equating an increase in non-investigative inquiries as success".
Chris Leonard, CEO of SnapComms, expanded upon these sentiments. “The importance of compliance and correct ethical behavior has never been higher than it is today - in the world generally, but especially so for businesses. Employers who don't engage with their staff on these issues risk very real repercussions later, certainly legally but also through degradation of company culture.
"It’s just not good enough to be 'paper compliant' when it comes to code of conduct, company ethics and security awareness. That’s why tools guaranteed to get employee attention which repeatedly reinforce these types of messages are essential.”
To hear more about current hot topics and best practices in Compliance communications speak to one of the SnapComms team.
