Research, Collaborate, Take Action

Racism, Discrimination and Abuse of Power: Shifting Awareness to Action

The murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, closely following the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, was one of a series of tragedies and high-profile cases that prompted global racial justice protests and led to intense public dialogue about racism, discrimination and the abuse of power (RDAP)...

Partnering with Middle Managers to Enhance Ethics & Compliance Success: Toolkit and Resources

Headlines about repeated financial scandals rocked the ethics & compliance (E&C) world in the early 2000s and highlighted the importance of top leadership and their role in culture. “Tone at the top” rightly became the foundation of E&C programs. It was clear that without top leadership setting the proper tone...

Metrics, Data Analytics, and Key Stakeholders

Metrics, including the analytics behind the data, are increasingly important in ethics and compliance (E&C). Not only do metrics showcase the effectiveness of a compliance program, they also demonstrate the value and impact of a successful approach to program sustainment. This means E&C can leverage metrics to set priorities, initiatives,...

Positioning Ethics and Compliance as a Strategic Leader in Times of Stress or Crisis

In October 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic was arguably at its peak. The “normal” stressors of life and work seemed to pale in comparison as this unexpected crisis loomed over the globe. The Ethics and Compliance Initiative (ECI) tasked a working group to explore how Ethics and Compliance (E&C) professionals could...

Addressing Ethics & Compliance Challenges for Multinational Organizations

Building and implementing an E&C program is a challenging endeavor in organizations of any size. These challenges are compounded in multinational organizations, because E&C program elements must be implemented and sustained across multiple lines of business and/or legal entities. Organizations must contend with multiple governments and regulatory agencies. They must...

Ethics & Compliance Considerations In a Remote Working Environment

How does a company create a sense of connection to its purpose and values with new employees who have never met any of their colleagues in person? Can misconduct investigations be effectively conducted solely through video interviews? Are there unique risks that need to be addressed when a company has...

A Guide to ESG: What Ethics & Compliance Professionals Need to Know About the Rise in ESG Investing

Expectations regarding the role of the corporation in society are shifting. As a consequence, many investors and companies are reexamining and adjusting the way they do business. For decades, the nearly unquestioned wisdom, at least in the United States, has been that, as economist Milton Friedman famously declared in 1970,...

Unconscious Bias: Increasing Awareness, Providing Training and Mitigating the Impact of Bias in Workplace Investigations

Unconscious biases happen outside of our control and are ingrained habits of thought that can lead to error in how we perceive, remember, reason, and make decisions. Recognizing and understanding that all humans have biases and that these biases are neither good nor bad, is the first step to overcoming...

The Framework for E&C Excellence

In 2016, ECI published the Blue Ribbon Panel report entitled “Principles and Practices of High-Quality Ethics & Compliance Programs” (the “HQP Report”). Since its publication, a number of ECI members have expressed interest in having additional guidance and/or a measurement framework to assist with assessing an ethics and compliance program....

Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer’s Guide to High-Quality Program Assessment

Chief Ethics and Compliance Officers (CECOs), and the executives and boards to whom they report, often look for benchmarks to assess the quality of the ethics and compliance (E&C) programs. The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Organizational Guidelines, which outline the seven elements of an effective compliance program, and the Department of...

Risk Assessment – Basic Compliance Risks

When considering the undertaking of an organization-wide risk assessment, clarifying the scope of the risk assessment is an important first step. The appropriate methodology and assessment activities will differ depending on the scope of the assessment. The type of risk assessment is closely linked, and often drives, the scope for...

Essential Skills and Qualities of the E&C Professional Today and in the Future

Why should the best and brightest professionals seek out careers in the Ethics and Compliance (E&C) profession? What training will they need, and how will their teams successfully confront emerging organizational and technological challenges? What educational opportunities will be available to support them? Will their careers in E&C keep them...

ECI Benchmarking Group on Ethics Ambassador Programs

In September 2017, ECI formed a benchmarking group to review best practices in EA Programs. EAs, also known as Ethics Liaisons, are increasingly used and relied upon in organizations as an effective and cost-efficient element of an overall ethics & compliance (E&C) program. Typically, an EA is a regular, full-time...

Defense Industry Initiative Small Business Toolkit

The purpose of a self-audit is to assess whether an Ethics and Compliance Program is operating as intended. This audit procedure examines the effectiveness of an ethics and compliance program against the nine steps noted below. You can use these procedures for the nine-step process or for only those steps...

Blue Ribbon Panel: Principles and Practices of High-quality Ethics & Compliance Programs

Ethics and compliance (E&C) has become an identifiable function in many organizations today. In some cases, E&C programs are born out of necessity in the aftermath of wrongdoing. In many other instances, programs arise from an organizations voluntary investment in the strategic goal of conducting business with integrity. Regardless of...

Understanding Ethical Fading: Why Good People Go Astray

History books and newspapers are filled with stories of individuals who make unethical choices that do an extraordinary amount of harm to others. But the vast majority of wrongdoing in workplaces isn?t committed by calculating sociopaths who choose whatever advances their desires, with no regard for the law, basic decency,...

Encouraging Employee Reporting Through Procedural Justice

Reducing Perceived Pressure to Behave Unethically: The Role of Leaders and Coworkers

Using data from the 2004/2005 industry sector survey, the research team examined the extent to which perceived pressure to behave unethically was linked to actions on the part of top managers, supervisors and coworkers, and the relative impact of these employee groups on perceived pressure to behave unethically. The analyses...