Twenty-twenty has been a long, strange year. A worldwide pandemic has sickened millions, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and thrown economies around the world into chaos.

As a series of coronavirus-induced shutdowns disrupted businesses large and small, compliance professionals have been asked to take on new, pressing responsibilities with the same (or smaller) budget and staff. They had to figure out how to manage and motivate their staffs remotely. And they were forced to rework established processes—for training, auditing and monitoring, conducting risk assessments, and investigating potential misconduct—on the fly.

Aaron Nicodemus is the Editor-in-Chief of Compliance Week. He previously worked as a reporter for Bloomberg Law and as business editor at the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass. Email: aaron.nicodemus@complianceweek.com LinkedIn:...