Stat of the Week – Your Board of Directors Wants Better—Not More—Compliance Reporting
Ever wonder why it’s called a “board” of directors? Hundreds of years ago, a company’s decision makers would sit around an actual board when holding meetings. Back then, the word “board” could mean “table,” “plank,” or “shield”—basically any long, flat hunk of wood or metal. So, while odds are it was probably nothing more than a different term for “conference table,” I prefer to imagine a bunch of men in powdered wigs resting their ale flagons and pounding their fists on an enormous decorative shield.
In a sense, an organization’s board of directors does serve as its shield. We depend on boards to strategically protect companies from competition, risk, and poor leadership. At the same time, board members are sometimes held personally liable for their companies’ misconduct; their assets may directly absorb the financial blow of a lawsuit or regulatory action.
That shield, it turns out, can get pretty worn down by compliance:
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A 2014 BDO USA survey indicated than over 66% of corporate directors consider the challenges of compliance to be their greatest area of risk. However, as the Institute of Internal Auditors reported:
[W]hile audit committees and boards almost universally understand the risks, their schedules are jampacked with conflicting priorities. Nearly half of the directors surveyed said they would prefer to spend more board time on topics such as succession planning (47 percent) and studying industry competitors (45 percent). Some would like to spend more time on risk management (38 percent) and evaluating management performance (32 percent). But only one in six, or 16 percent, wants to spend more time on compliance.
Your board doesn’t want to see more compliance during meetings, but better compliance. Make their lives easier and free up some space on the table/shield by improving your organization’s workforce compliance reporting process. Learn how to use Compligo for fast, detailed, up-to-the-minute reporting.
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