Subscriber AreaTo access the ECOA-ERC Benchmark Community page, please log in below. Don't have a user name and password? Signing up to participate in the ECOA-ERC Benchmarking Initiative is easy.
|
Overview of the ECOA-ERC Benchmarking Initiative Question SetThe ECOA-ERC Benchmarking Initiative is intended to yield data about the extent to which your organization's ethics and compliance program is achieving generally accepted outcomes. Data from these questions will provide a snapshot of ethics at your organization, allowing leadership to determine general areas in need of further inquiry. 1. Willingness to Seek Advice - This question asks about employees' willingness to seek advice from the organization's code of conduct or other organizational resources in uncertain ethical situations. 2. Observed misconduct - This question allows your organization to gauge the extent to which employees believe they have observed misconduct. It may be useful to compare data from this question to findings from other evaluation efforts, e.g. risk assessments. 3. Reporting misconduct - This question asks employees who have observed misconduct (per the previous question) if they have reported it. Knowing if employees report misconduct they have observed is one of the strongest indications of the extent to which your organization will be made aware of future misconduct. 4. Accountability - This question asks respondents about the extent to which the organization holds employees at different management levels accountable for following the organization's standards. ERC research shows that employee perceptions about accountability correlate with willingness to report misconduct, satisfaction with the reporting process, overall strength of an ethical culture, and levels of observed misconduct. 5. Pressure to Compromise Standards - ERC research has found that "where there's smoke, there's fire." Pressure correlates highly to levels of observed misconduct; to the extent we believe it is a predictor of misconduct. When combined with demographic data, this question can be a good means to indicate which company sectors face challenges. 6. Situations Leading to Misconduct - ERC has found that about one-third of employees encounter a situation at work they think invites ethical misconduct. These employees are likely to also be the ones who report observations of misconduct. Data from this question can be compared to data from questions 2, 3, and 5, to gain insight into organizational culture, and to question 7 to give an indication that misconduct is taking place. 7. Preparedness to respond - This question asks respondents about their preparedness to respond to situations that could lead to misconduct. The question follows on the previous question and addresses, indirectly, the adequacy of controls and programs meant to identify and reduce misconduct. DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONS - The selected demographic questions have been found to be most helpful in understanding the dynamics within an organization, and potential reasons for differences that exist between one organization's data, and that of another. |
Download a copy of the webcast on the ECOA-ERC Benchmarking Initiative