Dennis Muse
Chief Executive Officer
Organizations need to ensure that all employees, no matter their locale, have access to the same ethics and compliance tools enjoyed by employees at the organization’s primary location. Employees should have easy access to their Code of Conduct and the ability to report workplace concerns both telephonically and via the web, using their local languages. Organizations should ensure their ethics and compliance programs are celebrated, communicated, and comprehended at every location and at every level. In particular, it is vital that this message comes from the top and is not only voiced but demonstrated by executive levels.
Because of legislative activity and differing requirements from country to country, maintaining an effective ethics and compliance program is becoming exponentially more complex. Organizations need to understand the culture and laws of every country in which they do business. Whistleblower mechanisms must be flexible enough to capture a wide range of allegations in one nation and very limited allegations in another. As such, organizations must be prepared to devote significant internal resources to developing and maintaining such programs or seek the counseling and services of a trusted outsourced provider. Dealing with such complexity is the cost of doing business on the world stage, but the rewards for doing so, I believe, will more than make up for any bumps along the way.  |
