Originally Published in The Wall Street Journal | June 5, 2013 | By Christopher M. Matthews
More than 40% of the chief compliance officers polled for a recent survey said their companies’ performance appraisals and employee incentive programs ran contrary to compliance and ethics standards.
The survey, released Wednesday by the Consero Group, found that 43% of chief compliance officers felt their employers’ incentive programs didn’t “positively support compliance and integrity objectives.” Three quarters of the CCOs, or 75%, also said that educating employees on compliance issues and regulatory trends was their biggest priority.
“CCOs have their hands full familiarizing employees with ever-changing rules, and they need to leverage incentives that support their efforts,” Paul Mandell, Consero’s chief executive, said in a news release. “These findings indicate that the task of matching incentives to desired employee behavior requires greater focus in the remainder of 2013 and beyond.”
The survey, which posed 15 questions to CCOs at multinational companies in March, also found that 72% of CCOs believed the role of chief compliance officer should not also be held by a company’s general counsel. A previous survey by Consero found that 60% of European general counsel also felt the roles should be separated.
Other findings from Wednesday’s survey include: