“Organizations do not commit violations of the law or misconduct. These are committed by people in the organizations.”
Compliance combines goals and functions to comply with laws and rules in the company and to create the framework that misconduct is avoided. In practice, compliance looks different for every company: Of course, every company has to adhere to the legal provisions, thus acts “compliantly” per se. But for a craft business, other laws and internal rules are important than for an IT company or a logistics company. All internal rules that go beyond the law are formed from industry practices, stakeholder expectations and corporate values.
In many medium-sized companies, compliance measures are distributed individually throughout the company without a conscious central responsibility. This entails risks, as transparency and coordinated procedures are made more difficult. A concrete occasion, such as the necessary implementation of the EU Whistleblower Directive with a whistleblower system or a concrete suspicion, can be used well to set up compliance in a transparent and structured way for a secure corporate future.
When THE MAK`ED TEAM accompanies its clients in setting up a compliance organization, the aim is of course to identify all relevant current legal and internal rules and to bundle them in a transparent system. For successful compliance measures that are accepted within the company, it is important to define a target picture: What are our values? What are the guidelines for our actions? How much of this do we include in our compliance management?
Compliance Organization in small and medium-sized Companies
The compliance organization consists of various company-relevant measures which, in their interaction, lead to compliance with the obligatory standards and to the quick detection of errors. It is important that all relevant rules and laws are communicated to the employees in a clear and understandable way so that they know what is allowed in the company and what is not. In terms of prevention, the rule of thumb is: the fewer gaps there are in the internal control system (ICS) and the more rule-compliant, fair and responsible the corporate culture is, the less likely criminal acts will be. The management level plays an important role here: The management should set a good example for its employees. If the top management and the senior management act as role models in terms of law-abidingness and make it clear to the staff through respectful and transparent communication that the company attaches great importance to a “clean slate”, this rubs off positively on the team. Advice and information raise awareness in the organization and point to the right courses of action. The compliance organization develops proactive measures in the event of damage and provides contingency plans to be able to act in a controlled manner when it matters.
In addition, a company can voluntarily assume social responsibility and advocate for more fairness or better standards, because not everything that is permitted can be advocated by a company. If a company imposes such rules on itself, this can noticeably strengthen the company’s reputation and have a positive effect on the return on investment. In most cases, the assumption of ecological and social responsibility is positive for the financial performance and the sustainable success of the company.
Thanks to its high level of expertise in the field of compliance, THE MAK`ED TEAM knows how to strike a balance between the fulfilment of obligations and a positive corporate culture when organizing compliance measures. We support medium-sized companies in the successful development and installation of a forward-looking compliance management system – which is sometimes much closer than you think.
