Many organizations are falling short when it comes to training executives and board members on ethics and compliance issues, according to a recent survey.
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“Organizations of all sizes understand that ethics and compliance training is critical to building an effective ethics and compliance program, but these same organizations continue to struggle with basic training program elements,” said Ingrid Fredeen, JD, vice president of online learning content for NAVEX Global and author of the 2016 Ethics & Compliance Training Benchmark Report. “Fundamental to program success is providing effective training to everyone. One audience segment, however, remains chronically under-trained and that is the executive leadership. Boards and the C-suite are the stewards of the program and are responsible for its oversight and funding. If they don’t understand the risks, they cannot lead effectively.”
NAVEX Global found that 76% of survey participants train employees on workplace harassment and the same percentage provide training to employees on conflicts of interest. However, the percentages of organizations that offer such training to board members is significantly less—with only 12% providing workplace harassment training to board members and 33% training them on conflicts of interest.
While 69% train employees on cybersecurity, only 22% offer training on that topic to board members. “Failing to educate board members about cybersecurity is a major vulnerability and is, frankly, shocking considering the sensitivity of what is on their devices,” said Fredeen. “Cyber breaches are increasingly about external entities, including state actors, seeking intelligence on corporate decision-making, plans and IP [intellectual property], not just accessing consumer data.”
Overall, NAVEX Global found that “more than 40 percent of organizations don’t train board members and only 20 percent train new board members.”
Most participating organizations continue to focus on basic program elements over innovation and engagement issues. In fact, less than 20% use mobile learning, gamification, just-in-time learning, collaborative or social learning, or training portals, the company reports.
Nearly 40% of participants indicated that their programs are basic or reactive, while 50% said their programs are maturing, and 12% rated their programs as advanced.
“This was the first time we created a maturity index, and it’s clear that getting a program to the next level improves performance,” Fredeen said. “Organizations noted a real difference—including markedly different results in terms of creating a speak-up culture, improved morale, and higher trust in leadership—if they had more mature programs.”