Consero Compliance & Ethics Forum wrapped up earlier this week in Coral Gables, FL. Bringing together an exclusive community of compliance practitioners from multiple industries, the forum truly embodied collaborative learning. I had the pleasure of hosting a panel on why Differentiating your Compliance & Ethics program through Marketing and Communication strategies can promote workforce engagement, accountability and inspire principled behavior. I was joined by a distinct group of Compliance Officers representing sophisticated and seasoned industry perspectives: Ashlee Foltz, CINTAS; Robyn Farmer, The Coca-Cola Company; Lisa Hughes, NBCUniversal; Ula Ubani, BMO Financial Group; Travis Winslow, Carnival Corporation & Plc.
We discussed some of the unique challenges in their organizations, including methods to balance varying country culture business nuances and priorities of targeted communication when workforce carries a spectrum across education and job levels. Embedding the corporate DNA through values-based messaging can sometimes be a challenge when building a campaign across dozens of countries and hundreds of thousand employees worldwide. Integrating opportunities for learning and communication to blend was a common strategy, pointing to shorter bits offering opportunities for microlearning. The cadence of how often companies communicate and educate was at the forefront of the discussion, with the overwhelming majority agreeing that more frequent engagement drives greater impact. The role of front-line management emerged as a critical success factor to frame accountability and contextual relevance of the risk areas and company priorities. When the direct line manager walks the talk the narrative of the Compliance & Ethics program begins to stick. Several panelists cited examples of how their organizations are providing tools and resources to front-line managers to learn how to #ListenUp, to build a dialogue around the compliance and ethics program. More importantly, the panel agreed that regular targeted communication from the top down and the middle through will foster a culture that feels comfortable raising concerns, reporting misconduct and #SpeakingOut.
Thanks to the Consero Compliance & Ethics team for the opportunity to be a part of such a crucial conversation! #ConseroCCE2017