Education Series

Implementing & Maintaining a Compliance Culture™

With the virtualization of offices and the expansion of businesses to disparate locations, today’s corporate cultures are heavily dependent on the use of business systems. This means that successfully implementing a Compliance Culture is extremely dependent on a business system that is designed for the challenges inherent in corporate compliance.

A Compliance Culture™ is the business and workplace behavior that naturally meets ethical and legal standards. This is impacted by the norms performed in daily business life.

Barriers to a Compliance Culture

Overall, the key challenge to compliance is making it within reach to each member involved in the management of risk. Compliance must be tangible. Some of the top barriers to implementing a Compliance Culture™ are the following:

 

1. Language: Some organizations may see language as aligned to nationality. But this can be a very short-sighted view. Spend time in another department and you begin to learn that the acronyms, short hand, labels, and even the naming conventions can be completely different between groups located just 20 to 30 feet in the same company and geography. Implementing compliance across departments and geographies involves the re-education of a single language with regard to areas that involve one another, multiple departments, or the entire supply chain.
2. Correlation of the Compliance Activity to Risk Reduction: Companies are getting better and better at internal and public communication that states their intent to establish and adhere to standards. But as this is trickled into each department, person-by-person, it may not be clear how this activity reduces risk. This is the corporation’s greatest risk to compliance. A compliance officer’s success can hinge on their ability to win hearts and minds on the smallest tasks related to their policies and guidelines. Establishing a Compliance Culture™ can help grease the skids for each employee to shift from lethargic compliance to self-motivated compliance.
3. Communication Frequency: People may call and email each other. But Optimal Communication is when the targeted person gets the information without too many or too few repeat or follow up reminders. This is determined by the duration it takes for the targeted person to respond to a prompt.

 

4. Communication Method: Optimal Communication also involves the method of communication delivery so that the desired person receives the intended message. This can vary by department and even by role within the same department. This can also vary by personality and organization style. Some people may like to receive text messages while others prefer email. Some may prefer a phone call to their mobile phone while others prefer to use their business phone exclusively. The method of communication delivery can rarely be defined centrally bur rather must be defined individually for greatest efficacy.

 

5. Accessibility: Whatever is needed to comply should not be more than 5 feet away from the person responsible for the compliance function. If that is a tool, a binder, a record log, a check in sheet, or some other mechanism, they should be located in close proximity to the person who is supposed to perform the task. Historically, tools and compliance items were located at the place where the compliance function was needed. Ideally, a company would have both. This is where the use of computer and mobile devices can be most helpful.

Share-ify’s platform drives the Compliance Culture™ to support companies that see compliance as a value and a cornerstone of their business and need an environment where accountability is shared across business partners (internal and external) and teams. In this ecosystem, every employee and member of the supply chain, no matter their role, recognizes the importance and actively supports the compliance culture. This is demonstrated in the training, daily practices, leadership, and business systems that reinforce this value system.

Share-ify helps companies BUILD and ENHANCE their Compliance Culture™ in a simple, non-invasive manner by assisting people to implement compliance processes with a proven, robust solution.

To download this whitepaper, click here Share-ify-5 Barriers to Compliance Culture.

To learn more, please email us at [email protected].