The following case study is from our latest research, “The 2021 Ethics & Compliance Program Effectiveness Report: Meeting the COVID-19 Challenge.” While the pandemic proved to be the ultimate “stress test” for ethics and compliance programs worldwide, we found that many employees felt their companies largely rose to the challenge. To learn more, download the report here.
As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold last March, Dell Technologies’ 120,000-plus employees worldwide moved entirely to a Work from Anywhere or “WFx” model. The ethics and compliance team took the opportunity to rethink ways to keep the program operating at full capacity and in particular, Dell’s annual “flagship” training campaign. With employees scattered, sometimes sharing desktop computers with their families and fighting for bandwidth, the Dell team stepped outside the box to meet employees “where they were”—their mobile phones.
“The best way to meet our goal was through a mobile app,” said Kristi Kevern, Dell’s Senior Managing Director. “So we fired on all cylinders, worked with our trusted partner LRN to create the My Ethics app and enabled it for consumption as part of our mobile device management platform, VMware Workspace ONE. The end product resulted in single-click access to assigned courses and personalized completion reports for leaders. The key to success was removing barriers to access like authentication.”
Going to single sign-on and personalized learning reduced the number of emails sent to the ethics education portal and enhanced the pleasure of the learner. “We also saw a 90% reduction in human touchpoints in our office, just by enabling the single sign-on feature,” stated Justin Gordon, Digital Learning Designer. “By removing that barrier, we enabled employees to show up and just take the course, which prevents learner fatigue and increases learner retention.” Kristi and her team also focused on inclusivity and accessibility by addressing the needs of employees often overlooked in digital learning design, such as those with color sensitivities or auditory impairments. There were close to 10,000 course completions in just four months, a solid result.
With the Dell Technologies mindset of innovation and continuous improvement, the team built a modular and searchable version of the Dell Technologies Code of Conduct within the app. While on the go such as entertaining a customer, employees can search “gifts” and find all relevant material at their fingertips. The team also added a streamlined capability for reporting misconduct, which just requires the employees to state what happened, where, and who was involved. The team considered all digital complexities and confidentiality. For example, single sign-on is not enabled at this layer to allow for anonymous reporting. As employees resume traveling, the app will deliver push notifications for relevant content in relation to geography, such as local gift and entertainment requirements. Dell has plans to evolve and explore additional ways to solidify the mobile app as an integral part of their E&C program.
Dell’s story is one of several case studies in LRN’s 2021 Ethics & Compliance Program Effectiveness Report: Meeting the COVID-19 Challenge, which surveyed nearly 650 ethics, compliance, and legal executives, and experts at companies and organizations around the world with at least 1,000 employees. To learn more about the report and Dell's mobile E&C plans, listen to our webinar where LRN's Susan Divers discusses key findings with Kristi Kevern, Senior Managing Director of Ethics & Compliance at Dell Technologies.
