Corporate compliance training, Part II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
By Cary J. Griffith | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cultivating a legal and ethical business climate is a two-step process. First, the courts, regulatory agencies, and other governmental bodies need to have the legal and financial wherewithal to investigate and prosecute corporate wrongdoing. Second, corporate America and its employees need to be aware of the changing regulatory and legal landscape, so they can be sure they keep to the straight and narrow path. In part, Congress took the first step by passing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and strengthening the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ also responded by revamping their governance rules. "If you look at [the new laws] closely," comments David Simon, President and Founder of WeComply, a corporate compliance training vendor, "revised listing standards and the amendments to the sentencing guidelines have been helpful because they are explicit about training requirements." By 'helpful' Simon means 'good for business,' because explicit training requirements mean companies have specific guidelines about what their employees need to know. And corporate compliance training companies have clear guidelines about what their courses must contain, and how they must be taught. Today WeComply is one of a handful of training compliance companies well positioned to provide corporate America, and the world with whatever it needs to train its employees and management on everything from Antitrust to Whistleblower Claims. Most of these companies have been in business long before the Enron debacle. And most have been quick to leverage and enhance new technologies to provide companies with a variety of methods for training their employees. In a general sense, the four vendors listed here all provide a similar process and product for helping companies train employees and management. That does not mean they are all the same. Each of these vendors would be quick to illustrate the features that set them apart from their competitors. And each deserves a thorough review by companies contemplating outside assistance with in-house legal and ethics training. Having noted the preceding, all of these vendors share some similarities worth noting, and that should give potential users a good idea of how they operate.
According to Cathleen Sullivan, President and Founder of RedHawk Communications, some of their training efforts include "a library of different tools on every single code topic, because training is not a one time event." Some of the tools Ms. Sullivan mentions include: posters, articles, e-communications, brochures and manuals that can be used to "help build an ethical culture." In the nod to the new international business environment, LRN "enables employees to view their entire online education and certification experience-not only course content but curriculum lists, training instructions, completion data and virtual report cards-in their own language," explains Kathleen Brennan, LRN Director of Communications. LRN's courses are available in over 30 different languages. And Integrity Interactive continues to break new ground exploring streaming video and audio. Comparison Grid for Corporate Compliance Training Vendors/Applications
1Gives users the ability to interrupt course and return to position from which they left off. The verdict is still out on whether these new laws, regulations and rules have had a positive or negative effect on the marketplace. But in the world of corporate compliance training their affect has been to usher in a new era of educational opportunities. Today, no companies can afford to be out of step with the new requirements of doing business. And training vendors like the four listed in our grid can provide business with tremendous new training and tracking capabilities. |
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