HOW DOES YOUR COMPANY ENCOURAGE THE BEST



HOW DOES YOUR COMPANY ENCOURAGE THE BEST?

A number of company programs have surfaced recently that are designed to encourage employees to do what the company wants them to do. These companies have recognized that they need to reward the behavior they really want from their employees, to walk the walk in order to prove the talk.

1. In order to reward, a key tenet is to communicate what it is the company really wants. Review your communications to employees and the field to determine that there is only one focus. For instance, your focus is the Customer First. If there are communications that push sales dollars as the Focus, you may have a conflict.

And, communicating the company standard that Compliance Is Everyone’s Business, for instance, cannot be said once and forgotten. Some top management says they solicit regular feedback from senior managers about whether compliance programs are working, and what impact the programs are having on the business.

Some companies say that at every meeting of management, senior staff and employees, the same message is given: Compliance is your job. Managers are encouraged to emphasize to their staffs how noncompliant behavior puts the company reputation and the stability of their business at risk.

Other companies have posters or other visual cues throughout the workplace promoting their Compliance focus. For some companies, the message is refreshed by new visual aids and planned activities during Ethics Awareness Month (March).

2. Have procedures in place for employees to perform the behavior the company really wants. For instance, if every employee is supposed to “Provide Outstanding Customer Service!”, make the tools available (reports, on-line access, forms, etc) to everyone in the company who could possibly be in contact with a customer.

Another such tool is a confidential employee help line to answer questions about the desired behavior, encourage employees to be aware of possible issues, and take reports of possible ethics or company standards concerns.

3. Companies have several ways to recognize and reward the behavior they want to encourage. One company that encourages vigilance from every employee in recognizing questionable financial transactions or claims, and raising valid compliance questions, then recognizes each employee who does so in a public meeting within the company.

Another company gives to any employee who has done the same kind of proactive identification of compliance issues, a red flag to display at their workstation – called the Red Flag Award.

Yet a third company confers a Personal Best Award for employees who show outstanding ownership of their jobs. Each award includes a feature in the company publication recognizing that person and the characteristics that made them a winner.

In addition to the worthy goal of improving the company from the grass roots to the top, companies who are communicating and rewarding their desired behavior have found another use for these programs.

A number of companies who have instituted ethics and compliance training, tools, and recognition and rewards are using the documentation of these programs to help provide proof to regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) during market conduct exams and audits.

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