Crafting a corporate culture of compliance involves more than simply laying down the law and expecting employees to fall into line. Company culture doesn’t occur as a result of some sort of spontaneous combustion of ethics and ideas — it comes from carefully crafted and considered strategies designed to recognize the value of every employee that are implemented from the top down through effective channels of communication.
A strong, culture of compliance must involve an ongoing representation in a variety of training materials and reinforcements. For instance, simply sending out a reminder email now and then isn’t an effective strategy. In this respect, companies should think of their culture of compliance as the collective ethical backbone of the business and nurture it accordingly.
Compliance must initiate from the top down. Anything else sends employees the message that the company’s culture of compliance actually has little value, and people cannot be expected to follow when leadership is not properly in place. Another key element is that this must be an ongoing process instead of simply initial training seminars for new staff or having them read a list rules written down in a folder as a part of their orientation.
Mid-level management also provide an important part of the big picture. Supervisors need to be trained in the role of compliance regulators and be able to handle the role with a mixture of ease and authority. Ineffective management undermines company culture and ultimately sabotages efforts to create a healthy culture of compliance.
With any compliance training planning, it’s important that you have steps laid out in advance in order to create an effective compliance learning plan.
Published by Matt Plass and Dan Brown
