5 Simple Ways to Boost Your E&C Program

In my recently published eBook, I outline 25 Simple Yet Overlooked Ways to Boost Your Ethics & Compliance Program. Below are five of the tips that are included—download the full eBook today to see the rest.

1. Give Employees the Juicy (Anonymized) Details

   When we asked employees in focus groups how compliance training could be improved, the number one answer is almost always: “Use real cases from our company.” This works because it’s an engaging (and sometimes scintillating) look into issues their co-workers have faced.

   • Anonymized cases from your organization drive the point home in ways other efforts can’t. By giving your employees scenarios—with tweaked details—you’re showing how your organization swoops in to handle compliance issues. It becomes not just about lip service, but rather lends credibility to your efforts.
   • Add anonymized cases to training, manager discussions or feature them in your company newsletters. Essentially: any time you have your employees’ attention surrounding compliance issues, engage with them on a relatable level.
2. Scrutinize Your Training Calendar
   Employees’ time is incredibly valuable. Make sure you’re making the most of it and& avoiding compliance training fatigue. Some good questions to ask yourself before creating your next training calendar:
   • Do I really need to have everyone take code of conduct training every year?
   • Can some of my annual training focus only on changes made in the last year?
   • Can I replace some full-length (40+ minutes) training with shorter formats (5-6 minutes)?
   • Can I turn a training course into a simple, or more targeted awareness communication?
3. Raise Your Hand on Cyber Security
   Your IT team is tasked with the daily management and maintenance of keeping your network safe—but they can’t keep your sales director from opening a spammy e-mail that holds your network hostage through ransomware.

   Since the most common source of a data security breach is just human error, compliance officers need to make sure employees are trained on cyber security and how they can protect your organization.

4. Give Your Board Report a Makeover
   Picking the most relevant and impactful stats to show your board will lend credibility to your E&C program. Adding too much data or information generally has the opposite effect.
   • Structure your reports around guidelines. Useful ones to start with are the FSGO or OECD. Use this as an opportunity to help the report align with the board’s oversight obligations.

   • Reports that have a professional look and feel carry more weight than a disorganized or poorly designed report.

5. Offer Third Parties Your Help
   When your third party vendors have effective E&C programs, everyone wins.

   Let your smaller third party business partners know you’re available to answer any questions they have on effective E&C programs. A few things you could do to get them started:

   • Host informational calls or meetings to give them a quick rundown of best practices.
   • Let them borrow your code of conduct to use as a template for theirs.
   • Introduce them to how they can benchmark their data against their peers to evaluate their own third party risk.
   • Assist in creating or accessing relevant compliance training—or other E&C resources.&

For the full resource containing these and 20 more tips, download our eBook, 25 Simple Yet Overlooked Ways to Boost your Ethics & Compliance Program today.