Four Compliance and Ethics Tips to Set You Up for Success

In today’s business climate, organizations must be vigilant about compliance and ethics. With fraud dominating headlines, and new compliance regulations coming into effect all the time, companies must have systems and procedures in place to prevent and detect illegal or unethical behavior. 

Organizations can minimize the risk of fraud and other unethical activities by offering training to their employees on compliance and ethics. In addition, compliance programs can help build trust with customers and other stakeholders, as they demonstrate a commitment to acting legally and ethically.

Ultimately, paying attention to compliance and ethics is good for business and helps protect an organization’s reputation.

Here are four compliance and ethics tips to set your company up for success.

• Develop Effective Policies and Procedures

Organizations should have policies and procedures in place to prevent and detect unethical behavior. These should be designed to address specific organizational risks and should be regularly reviewed and updated as needed.

For example, if you are concerned about fraud, you might develop policies and procedures related to financial reporting, expense reimbursement, and conflicts of interest.

It is also essential to ensure that employees understand these policies and procedures and know how to report any potential problems. Employees should feel comfortable coming forward with concerns without fear of retaliation.

To encourage this, you can develop an anonymous reporting system and make it clear that the company will not tolerate retaliation against whistleblowers.

• Create the Right Culture

One of the most important things you can do to promote compliance and ethics within your organization is to create a culture of ethical behavior. 

This starts with setting the tone at the top, meaning that senior executives and other leaders must demonstrate their commitment to ethical values. For example, they can do this by speaking out against fraud and corruption and setting an example of ethical behavior. 

This should permeate through the entire organization so that employees know the ethical standards and understand with certainty that unethical behavior is not tolerated and will result in termination.

An integral part of creating the right culture is developing training and education programs on compliance and ethics. These can help employees understand the importance of ethical values and what they must do to comply with company policy and the law.

• Monitor Compliance Risks

Organizations need to monitor compliance risks on an ongoing basis. 

This includes keeping up with changes in the law and identifying new risks that might arise within the organization. For example, you might want to set up a Compliance Review Committee that meets regularly to discuss compliance risks and to proactively identify any potential problems.

In addition, it is crucial to have systems in place to detect and investigate possible compliance breaches. This might include financial auditing records, reviewing expense reports, or conducting background checks on new hires. By monitoring compliance risks, you can help prevent unethical behavior before it occurs.

• Enforce Consequences for Unethical Behavior

Enforcing consequences for unethical behavior sends a message that the company is serious about these issues and that violators will be held accountable.

For example, a policy could state that anyone who violates the policy will be subject to disciplinary action, including termination.

This clear and unambiguous policy sets the tone for the organization and lets employees know that the company takes compliance and ethics seriously.

How showd.me Can Help

Ensuring your employees are properly trained and understand your company’s compliance and ethics policies can be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.  

Showd.me is the solution. We make it easy for you to get your employees trained quickly and effectively through our multilingual on-demand training program and white glove end user support.

Our platform is easy to use, navigate, and customize. Employees can train when they want from any location, on any device. Plus, our content experts use the latest design trends, technology, and software so you can be sure your training meets all regulatory requirements.

Request a demo today.