Real Talk About Workforce Compliance With Our CEO Rob Warmack
“When I look at most companies’ compliance programs as they relate to workforce interaction, they are run like an old fashioned switchboard where the compliance team has to manually connect activities with people, one by one. … A dropped call, a missed connection—this is what exposes businesses to risk. This is why organizations look to automation to gain efficiency and better protect their businesses.”
So says our CEO, Rob Warmack, in the latest installment of GRC Illustrated, an ongoing publication put out by the Open Compliance and Ethics Group and Compliance Week. Whether you’re old enough to remember switchboards, or have only glimpsed them in classic films and episodes of Mad Men, Rob’s analogy puts the modern state of workforce compliance into sharp perspective: if your program isn’t automated, it’s dangerously out of date.
In a roundtable interview moderated by OCEG co-founder and president Carole Switzer, Rob joined Patrick Sanders, general counsel at The Mungenast Automotive Family, to discuss how and why many organizations need to rethink workforce compliance. Together, they addressed the importance of organization-wide communication, which traits make a company well-suited for automation, the challenges associated with an automated compliance system and more.
While you can check out the interview for yourself, in GRC Illustrated, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some of insights Rob shared—as well as some portions of his answers that were left on the cutting room floor.
What Does Modern Workforce Compliance Really Mean?
“Compliance doesn’t live just in the compliance department or human resources department. It lives throughout the company, and should be ingrained in the culture and reflected in how a company conducts its business.”
Whether you’re old enough to remember switchboards, or have only glimpsed them in classic films and episodes of Mad Men, Rob’s analogy puts the modern state of workforce compliance into sharp perspective.
From policies and training materials to company assessments and reports, every element of compliance should be available to every member of an organization, says Rob. Otherwise, departments become disconnected and compliance initiatives become outdated. Up against industry upheaval, employee turnover and rules and regulations that constantly change, a company’s only anchor is a central, automated compliance management system.
The 4 Traits of Companies Who Need Compliance Automation
What makes an organization well suited for an automated CMS? Rob sees 4 common traits.
For more from Rob, check out the complete roundtable interview. The roundtable is part of the most recent GRC Illustrated, which also includes an article about workforce compliance in the gig economy and an infographic on balancing your compliance program. Download it for free for a limited time at oceg.org.
