Employee Feedback And The Board

Overview: The new corporate reforms mandate strong, effective reporting systems that allow employees to blow the whistle on audit and legal irregularities. Yet many corporations still have internal feedback system that fail to measure up. Unless the employees feel free to report illegal or unethical behavior, easily and anonymously, top managers and directors may be kept in the dark. Most ethics and compliance programs have serious shortcomings. Management gives short shrift to employee buy-in, or making the program user friendly. Many compliance programs are reactive and “top-down” driven. Few companies seek employee input in design of their compliance and reporting systems. Many companies are surprised to find they have created a maze of conflicting and confusing employee communications systems. Ultimately, the most important key to success with an ethics and compliance program is whether employees view it as credible and functional, and whether they believe it genuinely empowers them to “speak up.” The suggestions above will help assure that if and when there are problems, management and the board of directors will hear about them.

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Format: PDF | Size: 59KB | Date: Jan 2003 | Pages: 8