THE IMPORTANCE OF A STRONG RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPLIANCE AND BUSINESS TEAMS
The partnership between an organisation’s compliance team members and internal business stakeholders is critical in building a culture of compliance, enabling the business and protecting a company’s corporate reputation and operations from potential regulatory and legal risks and scrutiny. A proactive relationship between compliance team members and internal stakeholders cements critical and sustainable compliance processes throughout an organisation. Further, many regulatory agencies have memorialised expectations that underscore the need for commitment from business partners as it relates to an organisation’s compliance programme. Companies should consider various aspects when solidifying this relationship, as outlined below.
Encourage a commitment to compliance. A commitment to compliance cannot be forced, but it can, and should, be emphasised throughout an organisation. Compliance is essential for any organisation. It strives to ensure that a company and its employees follow regulatory and legal requirements, and internal policies and procedures, upholds an organisation’s values and culture, and meets its duties to stakeholders. Business partners that are committed to compliance understand and recognise that their actions, regardless of how large or small, impact an organisation’s compliance programme and overall corporate culture. Business stakeholder accountability for compliance is also an important component to bolstering a company’s commitment to compliance. An organisation’s compliance team can help drive internal partners’ accountability by sharing the compliance programme’s priorities, engaging in ways to assess whether compliance goals support and align with commercial initiatives, and through transparent dialogue that encourages a ‘speak up’ environment should a potential concern be identified, or specific risk require remediation.
Jan-Mar 2023 Issue
Patterson Companies, Inc.