Companies do not operate in a vacuum.  Political and social forces have a dramatic impact on individuals who in turn constitute a company’s workforce.  We are witnessing significant political forces demanding justice for historical and engrained racism, sexism, injustice and discrimination.  A significant majority of Americans have embraced the Black Life’s Matter movement and with that have demonstrated an increased demand for social justice. This...

To promote a culture of integrity and a commitment to organizational justice, companies have to implement an effective, efficient and reliable internal investigation program.  Such a system has to respond to employee concerns promptly and investigate these concerns fairly and consistently.  Companies have to devote adequate resources and attention to its internal investigation program. In this episode, Michael Volkov discusses how to design and implement...

One of several difficult compliance questions facing companies revolves around reporting of employee concerns. If the number of complaints coming in on a company hotline goes down over time, is corporate misconduct going down or are employees losing trust in the company’s speak up system? These are two diametrically opposite conclusions. Compliance officers have to be realistic and objective when analyzing this question. Misconduct rates...

Every company has put in place a reporting hotline – whether a telephone number and/or website, companies offer employees an avenue to raise a concern. Employees will report concerns, but they have to trust the reporting system to be responsive. When you ask compliance professionals and others who monitor the reporting system if it is valuable, you hear the common statistic – 80 percent of...

You know a company’s culture is suffering when you hear the CEO or senior executives say the best way to develop a “Speak Up” culture is to just tell all the employees “we want to hear from you.” I am an advocate for simplicity but sometimes simplicity can slip into stupidity. A “Speak Up” culture requires a commitment to a number of important principles and...

Ethical companies, by definition, have a robust system for internal organizational justice. A company that suffers from unequal treatment of similarly situated executives, managers, and employees cannot maintain an ethical culture. Unequal justice will undermine  employee morale, reporting of misconduct, and overall productivity rapidly. Cynicism breeds contempt, and there is nothing like employee discontent when it comes to the sustainability of corporate productivity. To ensure...