ERC in the News

For the past two years, U.S. businesses have been predicting the disintegration of internal misconduct reporting at the hands of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new whistleblower program.

Those fears may be overblown, according to a study released Thursday.

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This week is Public Service Recognition Week: a time set aside "to honor the men and women who serve our nation as ... government employees and ensure that our government is the best in the world." For the majority of the four million hard working employees serving in the executive branch of the federal government, the accolades are well-deserved.

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More than two decades after the U.S. Sentencing Commission implemented the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, a number of substantial challenges remain that could cause companies to reduce their commitment to ethics and compliance programs.

That's according to the latest research from the Ethics Resource Center (ERC), which concluded that pro-compliance corporate practices and government policies created by the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines are not working together in the most effective and self-sustaining ways.

In the 20 years since their enactment, a set of recommendations governing the sentencing of corporations has led to unprecedented reforms in corporate culture and governance, according to a new report.

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations sparked the broad adoption of compliance programs and a profession of thousands of compliance and ethics managers to staff them, the report said.

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (FSGOs) have surpassed almost all expectations in their furtherance of corporate ethics and compliance programs in the U.S. — indeed, across the world — over the past 20 years.

Companies are making strides when it comes to building an ethical culture. The amount of misconduct that employees observe has reached a historic low. At the same time, workers are likelier to report any wrongdoing they see.

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How should a company handle a whistleblower?

A spirited debate ensued during a panel discussion at the Dow Jones Global Compliance Symposium on how whistleblowers should be handled within and outside of companies. In one corner, Stephen Kohn, executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center. In the other: Sarah Bouchard, a partner at Morgan Lewis Brockius LLP.

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A survey by a corporate research and watchdog group that predicts “a potentially significant ethics decline ahead” in American workplaces is a clear warning to employers to address employee disaffection, experts say.

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As social media usage continues to rise, it’s only natural that statistic correlations will be made about the individuals who use the medium. This isn’t a bad thing; it’s common to deep-dive into demographic information and behavioral data. While there will always be exceptions to the “correlations” that emerge from such data, universal truths about social networking usage and user behavior can be valuable.

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When it comes to business ethics, there’s good news and there’s bad news. Despite what you may see in the headlines, observed misconduct in US workplaces has reached historic lows and more employees than ever before are blowing the whistle on workplace misconduct. Unfortunately, retaliation claims have risen sharply at the same time.

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