In a 2020 full of Blursdays that all run together, it’s perhaps appropriate that the day created in your honor this year happens to fall when you don’t have to be in the office (otherwise known as your bedroom/basement/kitchen table). 

This Saturday, Sept. 26, is “Compliance Officer Day” (hat tip to SAI Global for creating this a few years back), a day to put away the laptop, put on your comfy pants (the ones you’ve been wearing since March), plop yourself down on the couch, and take some time to appreciate all you’ve been through and all you’ve accomplished since this pandemic started more than six months ago. It should be free of Zoom calls, free of bandwidth battles (both internet-related and mental), and free of anything that might remind your overburdened brain that we could be in for another six months of this new reality.

But wait, you’ve mastered this already, haven’t you? You’ve successfully pivoted your staff to remote work, made sure your data is protected from hackers despite employees logging in from unknown networks, kept the company culture on course despite not being face to face, and even helped to create a back-to-office plan for the workplace you’re not sure when you’re going to see next.

At least that’s what the data in our second annual “Inside the Mind of the CCO” survey has told us. We polled 300 practitioners recently and found that, among other things, 65 percent of you had health and safety protocols for an eventual return to the workplace added to your already-full plates during this pandemic. It also told us that employee well-being and the challenges of remote work are your two biggest COVID-related concerns (understandably), but that ethical dilemmas aren’t among your top worries despite the adverse conditions you and your staff are working under.

 

Why? Because the data is telling you that you’ve got this covered. Just 17 percent of survey respondents said they’ve seen an increase in reports of wrongdoing from employees since the start of the pandemic.

The survey also told us that many of you (56 percent, to be precise) have a role in your company’s diversity and inclusion efforts, an initiative that likely has become top-of-mind for your organization in the context of the current social climate.

Through it all, and with a pivotal election looming, your passion for compliance and desire to do the right thing for the right reasons hasn’t changed. How do we know that? Because 96 percent of you indicated that, “all things considered,” you like your jobs. And believe it or not, that’s actually a 6 percent improvement over last year’s response to that same survey question.

So take the day Saturday; you’ve earned it.

Dave Lefort is Managing Director of Compliance Week. Before joining CW, he spent nearly two decades in digital leadership roles with ESPN and The Boston Globe.

Topics

Inside the Mind of the CCO: 2020 a year like no other