Employee Engagement: The Last Mile of Compliance & Ethics
Compliance and ethics are at the core of building a resilient, trustworthy organization that is focused on integrity. These functions are the basion of corporate integrity, and I have stated for twenty years that the CECO/CCO should be the CIO – the Chief Integrity Officer.
Unfortunately, too often, compliance and ethics gravitate to the back-office. Teams work tirelessly to monitor regulatory change, update policies, and ensure controls are in defined. These efforts are essential, but they aren’t the end of the story. Compliance success ultimately hinges on employee engagement — that “last mile” of compliance and ethics that transforms policy into action. Compliance isn’t just about knowing the law or maintaining policies; it’s about ensuring that employees act in ways that uphold these standards every day. To do this, organizations need to prioritize employee engagement as the backbone of compliance, ethics, and governance. This is the era of employee engagement on compliance and ethics, as well as broader GRC (governance, risk management, compliance), and is done through mobility.
The Human Firewall: People as the Core of Compliance
An organization can be aware of every relevant law and regulation, have policies written in impeccable prose, and maintain perfect documentation, but if employees don’t know, understand, or remember these policies, compliance is compromised. The human firewall is built on employees who are informed, empowered, and engaged in the organization’s ethical standards and compliance requirements. Yet, this firewall will falter if we fail to make engagement with compliance information easy, relevant, and ACCESSIBLE.
To build this firewall, organizations must create a culture of compliance where employees feel invested in ethical practices. This means compliance must be woven into the everyday experience of employees at all levels — not just at headquarters or in the compliance department. Every employee, from the executive team to frontline staff, should be well-versed in compliance and ethics that affect their work. The challenge is making compliance and ethics engagement readily available, easy to access, and most importantly, tailored to each role.
Policies and Awareness: The Road to True Compliance
Policies and codes of conduct only fulfill their purpose if employees actually read, understand, and internalize them. Too often, policies are treated as static documents to be acknowledged once and filed away. But policies are living documents that guide behavior, set expectations, and safeguard the organization. They need to be communicated effectively, refreshed regularly, and, importantly, be part of an ongoing dialogue with employees. Engagement isn’t just about distribution; it’s about comprehension, recall, and action. And the ability to get questions about policy, particularly in a specific context, answered.
Employees should not only know where to find policies but should also have clarity on how these policies apply to them, especially in complex, fast-moving environments where regulations evolve rapidly. It’s the difference between checking a box and fostering genuine awareness — a shift from passive to active engagement.
Moving Beyond the Hotline: Modernizing Compliance and Ethics Engagement
Traditional methods like hotlines and call centers are outdated. These channels can be slow, intimidating, and disconnected from employees’ day-to-day experiences. Today, organizations need to engage employees where they are: on their mobile devices, in real-time, and in ways that feel natural to them. Just as mobile technology has transformed how we communicate, shop, and access information, it can revolutionize how employees engage with compliance and ethics. Mobility allows employees (and third parties) to easily report issues and get questions answered.
Imagine compliance training that’s accessible on an app, allowing employees to learn in bite-sized segments, tailored to their role, process, or location. Mobile engagement can be contextual, responsive, and adaptive, shifting compliance from a static task to an interactive experience. In this sense, compliance engagement becomes as effortless as checking a sports score or sending a quick message. Organizations can empower employees with compliance tools that fit their day-to-day, not merely as a series of one-off trainings or infrequent policy reviews.
Contextual Awareness: Compliance in Real Time
A significant advantage of mobile engagement is the potential for contextually aware compliance tools. These tools can be designed to recognize an employee’s specific role, the tasks they perform, and even their location, delivering timely reminders and guidance tailored to their situation. An employee in a high-risk area may receive prompts about local compliance risks, while a sales team member can access policies related to anti-bribery and corruption as they hit the ground in high-risk countries, presented in a way that’s directly relevant to their interactions.
This level of contextual awareness brings compliance to life in the workplace. Employees are not just passive recipients of information; they are active participants who can access relevant compliance guidance as they need it. In an environment where compliance risks are constantly evolving, such responsiveness is crucial.
I get calls every month from organizations looking for solutions because they have discovered they have twenty-eight policy portals (seriously, this happened) and policies are different and out of date on these portals and lack engagement. But it gets worse when training is in separate LMS systems. Employees, on their personal time, go out to Facebook. They can watch a YouTube video on Facebook. They do not have to click on a link go and watch the video on YouTube and then go back to Facebook to comment on it. However, this is what is happening with policies and training. This is not the modern tech mobile experience that employees are used to. Things need to change.
Engaging the First Line: Empowering Every Employee
To bring compliance into the daily fabric of operations, organizations need to focus on the first line: senior executives, managers, and every frontline employee. The back office of compliance — the regulatory change, policies, controls, and documentation — is essential, but it’s the front-line engagement that ensures these tools are effective. Employees need to feel empowered to make compliant choices, know how to raise concerns and feel confident that their voice matters. This approach transforms compliance from a distant function to an integrated part of the business, owned by everyone.
Employee engagement goes beyond merely “following the rules”; it’s about aligning personal actions with corporate values. When compliance becomes part of the organizational culture, employees are more likely to act ethically even in ambiguous situations. This proactive engagement builds a foundation of trust, integrity, and shared accountability.
The Shift to Mobile: The Future of Compliance Engagement
We live in a mobile-first world where access to information is always at our fingertips. Entering a concert or sporting event without a mobile phone is almost unthinkable — so why should compliance be any different? Mobile engagement provides a powerful way to connect employees to compliance content, making training, policy updates, and whistleblower channels available wherever they are. It allows for a more flexible, scalable, and inclusive approach to compliance, creating a unified compliance experience across geographies, departments, and roles.
With this shift, the market for compliance solutions will evolve as organizations prioritize employee engagement capabilities when choosing compliance platforms. Vendors who focus solely on regulatory change and policy documentation for the back office risk being left behind. The future of compliance tools lies in mobile-first, context-aware platforms that actively support employees in making ethical decisions, rather than simply enforcing top-down mandates.
The New Generation of Employee Engagement: A Call to Action
As organizations rethink compliance and ethics, solution providers must take note. Employee engagement will increasingly drive purchasing decisions for compliance and ethics solutions, and by extension, broader GRC systems. The need is clear: solutions must prioritize first-line engagement, bridging the gap between the back office and the front line. Employees want tools that are intuitive, immediate, and mobile-friendly, and that support them in real-world, role-specific contexts.
Organizations and vendors alike should ask themselves: How effectively are we engaging employees in our compliance efforts? Are we still relying on outdated, passive methods, or are we evolving with the times? The future of compliance and ethics lies not in a stronger back office, but in a more engaged, empowered, and ethical front line. With the right tools, organizations can turn compliance from a static function into a dynamic force, aligned with business goals and embedded within daily operations.
Employee engagement is the cornerstone of authentic, effective compliance. Building a “human firewall” that upholds ethical standards is a collaborative effort that requires more than policies or documentation; it requires real, responsive, and mobile engagement. By modernizing compliance through mobile, contextual, and first-line-focused approaches, organizations can create a culture where every employee, no matter their role, contributes to the organization’s ethical standards.
In the end, compliance is about people — and people need tools that meet them where they are. It’s time for compliance to go mobile, empowering every employee to be an active part of the organization’s ethical journey. The last mile of compliance is about engagement, and the future is in the hands of organizations ready to make it happen.