A recent study of ethics at U.S. Fortune 500 companies holds good news and bad news for compliance officers: Employees are more willing than ever to report wrongdoing, but levels of misconduct and whistleblower retaliation remain high. Among the top findings of the survey is that larger companies experienced more misconduct, despite better systems to […]
Ethics & Culture
Posted inEthics & Culture
Hotline Benchmarking Report Reveals Insight Into Compliance
The 2012 Corporate Governance and Compliance Hotline Report has some alarming findings for compliance officers: fraud and instances of retaliation against those who report it are on the increase. According to the report, the percentage of incidents related to fraud continues to grow, hitting 21.1 percent of all reports, up from 13.6 percent in 2007. […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
State of Compliance 2012
The good news for compliance programs is that many are finally getting the added resources they need to get the job done. The challenge, however, is how to best leverage staff and technology to keep pace with the regulatory onslaught they face and the increasingly complex, specialized issues they must handle. Those insights were among […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
The Future of Compliance: Metrics and Communicating Risks
What’s on the horizon for the world of compliance and ethics? According to some top compliance executives, metrics and communicating risks will dominate the agenda. The past few years have been heavily focused on regulatory issues, especially the Dodd-Frank Act, and more intense Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action on the part of the Department […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Workplace Ethics on the Decline?
A Recent study of ethics at companies across the country reveals early warning signs of a potentially significant decline in ethics on the horizon. According to the National Business Ethics Survey conducted recently by the Ethics Resource Center, negative indicators include a sharp rise in instances of retaliation against employees who blow the whistle, more […]
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Study: Whistleblowers Want Anonymity, Monetary Rewards
A recent poll indicates that more than a third of Americans say they have firsthand knowledge of misconduct at their workplaces. So why aren’t they reporting it? The same poll says that most of them would, but only under certain circumstances. According to the survey conducted by law firm Labaton Sucharow of 1,007 adults, 78 […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Taking the Snooze Factor Out of Corporate Ethics Training
Most compliance and ethics officers are fairly confident about the content of their ethics training programs. It’s delivering it in a way that doesn’t put employees to sleep that is the hard part. To meet that challenge, more companies are looking to Hollywood for inspiration. They are creating their own ethics movies and company-tailored television […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Spending on Compliance Increasing
Good news for corporate compliance officers: operating budgets for the compliance function appear to be on the rise, while pressure to reduce spending has declined. A recent poll of 233 compliance executives conducted by research firm Lexakos finds that, while nearly half (49 percent) of respondents expect their department’s overall budget to remain at 2011 […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
The Reasonable Person: Internal Audit’s Role in Internal Investigations
Corporate scandals and misconduct in the workplace will always be around. No strategy or set of controls can ever completely shield a company to the risk of fraudulent behavior. But a lesson that often needs repeating and relearning is that how you conduct the internal investigation can be as critical as the effect of the […]
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
Board Checklist: What Every Director Should Know
An increase in regulatory enforcement actions and more focus on corporate governance issues by shareholders is requiring corporate board members to interact more regularly with the company’s general counsel. During a panel discussion at the Association of Corporate Counsel’s annual conference in Denver last week, legal executives led a conversation on how general counsels and […]