When you hear about corruption within a corporation, that’s the end result of a long line of things that went wrong. Organizations are supposed to have checks in place that prevent employees from engaging in unethical behavior, and in many ways when those wrongs are exposed, it shows the failure of the system in place.
In another sense, though, if the unethical behavior is brought to light, it means other processes went right. For one, somebody acted as a whistleblower and put ethics over corruption. For another, the Department of Justice (DOJ) probably had something to do with it. At the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics’ 23rd Annual Compliance & Ethics Institute, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri called the DOJ’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (ECCP) “An invaluable resource for companies.” She added, “It is the roadmap Criminal Division prosecutors use to evaluate a company’s compliance program, including the questions prosecutors will ask as they assess a compliance program in determining how to resolve a criminal investigation.”
The DOJ recently updated the ECCP, and they’ve emphasized using data to assess practices. Here’s what that means and how the same metrics could be used for any organization.
Updated ECCP
Argentieri said the updated ECCP has critical additions in three areas. One of them addresses artificial intelligence, as the updated ECCP includes an evaluation of how companies are assessing and managing risk related to the use of new technology such as AI, both in their business and in their compliance programs. The second addition revolves around evaluations of companies’ commitment to whistleblower protections.
It’s the third addition, though, that could present a challenge to many companies. “Our prosecutors will assess whether a compliance program has appropriate access to data, including to assess its own effectiveness,” said Argentieri. “As part of this assessment, we will also consider whether companies are putting the same resources and technology into gathering and leveraging data for compliance purposes that they are using in their business.”
The challenge
Any organization that has tried to gather data on behavior knows it can be easier said than done. Numbers are black and white. If governed correctly, you can trust that you are dealing with actionable data that can help give you results.
What the DOJ is looking for here, though, is less about the numbers and more about information that can be harder to measure, such as how comfortable employees are with the processes that are in place. These are the types of questions that can be asked in a survey, but surveys are only as good as the time people spend on filling them out, and if they do it at all. So how do you gather information that doesn’t automatically pop up on a spreadsheet, like the numbers do?
Getting the data in any organization
Sometimes it’s not the fact that employees have to fill out a survey but the type of questions a survey asks that can be a deterrent to people completing it. Getting at specific questions such as trust in leadership or comfort in the work environment can lead to increased participation. When the survey is given also helps. If people feel their time is being valued and the survey is not a wasted effort, they are more likely to spend the time providing quality answers.
Including employees in the creation of the surveys is never a bad idea. As in any data-gathering process, including stakeholders from every aspect of the organization helps get buy-in to the process. Transparency also helps. Some organizations gather compliance data by monitoring internal organizational communication, with certain key words alerting officials to potential problems, but those systems only work if all employees are aware of which aspects of their work life are being overseen.
Just because you’re a smaller company that isn’t at risk of a DOJ investigation doesn’t mean you can’t employ some of the same strategies. The same questions about comfort at work or trust in leadership, or any kind of platform where employees can provide feedback can contribute to a healthy organizational culture. There are always numbers that can help provide insight into potential problems as well. Close monitoring of expense reports and making sure budgets add up is always a clue to whether employees are behaving ethically. In order to make sure you’re taking advantage of that data, though, you need the right analytics solution in place.
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