It Takes A Village

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Before we proceed further, lets talk about the importance of your village. Who are the key stakeholders in your organization? That’s a critical question to consider as you understand how you can provide the most value to your organization.

No ethics and compliance program can succeed without the support of allies and key stakeholders. It truly takes a village!

In order to be a strategic business partner in the compliance space, it’s important to understand the landscape in your organization. The reason this is important, is because you and your team are just one piece of a complicated cog. The business overall is focused on bringing most value to their shareholders or the customer relationship, while you are focused on keeping the organization safe from a compliance perspective. You can’t do it alone. You need a Village to be successful. So let’s take a look at who is in this village. The Board is responsible for setting the initial governing tone and providing oversight for the ethics and compliance program. Management at all levels are in the village. We’re going to learn today how to use managers at all levels to amplify the compliance strategy.

Professionals. Professionals are such an important part of the village. Not only are they boots on the ground, they are just as important as the board and management in terms of creating an ethical culture. The professional population who tend to have lots of intangible influence across the business, are an important group to establish champions within. You need a few professionals throughout the organization to have your back when new initiatives are launched, etc.

Support staff are those employees who may be hourly, non-exempt or sometimes referred to as direct employees. Within a lot of organizations support staff are the largest part of the population, this group of employees are often overlooked as being significant contributors of the culture. You should always look for day to day opportunities for this group to provide impact.

Know your village and always identify those in your village that can help you amplify your message. If you lead with these thoughts as you make an impact in your organization, you will find your ethics and compliance program will be more effective and engaging.