The “Y” in Comply

Organizations are required to show a commitment to compliance, which touches several aspects of business such as: internal policy, enforceable standards, and governmental regulations. However, to have a successful compliance strategy, the business must address the “why?” in a way that is meaningful to both the community and its users. Paying lip service to mandated compliance “standards” is not enough for an organization to expect any meaningful buy in by managers and employees.

Because I Said So

Vague answers such as “Because I said so” or “Because you’ll lose your job” are not satisfactory. Motivations and processes must be understood in order to get real commitment from stakeholders. In the quest to achieve acceptance from the user community, employees must also be provided with the proper tools to comply with the requested action.
To illustrate the point, assume we have two managers in the food-service industry. Manager A says to a new employee, “In order to comply with the state health and safety codes, and to keep our business running, you need to wash your hands every time you put on gloves. But currently, the sink in the men’s room is out of order, so you need to walk up three flights of stairs to wash your hands.” Manager B, on the other hand, informs a new employee, “When you wear gloves, be a good boy and wash your hands—everything you need is in the cabinet under the sink.”
Neither manager is showing any real commitment to compliance by the lack of articulating the importance of the “why,” and additionally by not providing the tools to make it effortless for the employee to accomplish the task.
TIBCO released a new whitepaper on best practices that demonstrate successful organizations that are tasked to meet and report on their compliance initiatives. If you are vested in rolling out or monitoring compliance, take a moment to download “10 Steps to Compliance.”