6. Compliance Training Systems
Good employees begin their careers with good intentions. They want to do their job, earn a living, and pursue future career advancement. Unexpected circumstances may change a person’s behavior. Left to their own devices, employees may feel inclined to act out of character in the face of crisis or career disenchantment.
A robust compliance program can alter the equation.
Proper training builds a two-tiered system that both reduces a company’s exposure to charges of fraud and its risk of becoming a victim of the fraud itself. It creates a supportive corporate culture that can remediate fraud before it occurs.
Effective compliance programs may keep top-of-mind the consequences of violating rules, regulations, and laws. People may be less inclined to engage in misbehavior when they understand the costs and penalties associated with a government investigation or prosecution for white-collar crime.
Good compliance programs can make all the difference. The more proactive measures a company takes, the more effectively it can show a good-faith effort to comply with laws and regulations. Good compliance lessens the possibility of litigation.
Establishing a compliance and training system begins with a commitment to transparency. The first step would be to document the company’s story and the value proposition it offers to consumers. The next step would be to write a process map and training schedule. The more detail leaders can bring to the process map, the more they will minimize exposure or vulnerability to a government investigation.
Ideally, the process map would include details of every function, including:
- How the business goes about recruiting staff,
- How the business organizes its hierarchy of positions,
- How the business compensates staff members,
- The roles and responsibilities of each staff position,
- How the company trains staff members,
- How the company attracts customers,
- How the company selects vendors,
- How the company processes customer orders, and
- How the company retains records.
Documenting the company story should show the company’s good-faith effort to operate in compliance with all regulations and laws.
Further, the training should help all stakeholders understand consequences that can follow for those who fail to comply with the company’s policies and procedures. Resources from the Department of Justice and various regulatory agencies show that transparency goes a long way toward protecting the business and the people that build careers in the business.
Training will lessen a business’s exposure to charges of fraud, but it can also lessen a company’s risk of becoming a victim of fraud. Our team members at Compliance Mitigation have worked with more than 1,000 people that have been charged with white-collar crimes.
Those people claim to have begun careers with the best of intentions. Somehow, circumstances changed for them. As a result, some of them became less vigilant about ethics or morality. Other times, they broke laws without knowing how they were putting themselves and their companies at risk. Good training will lower the company’s risk profile. If that training includes lessons on the consequences of white-collar crime, more people may refrain from making the kinds of decisions that lead to criminal prosecution.
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