The Network in the News

Put it in Writing: Codes of Ethics Give Board Members Direction

November 03 2010

The sitting president of a board of directors of a homeowners association in Connecticut recently approached management with a proposition.

If he awarded her boyfriend job contracts, the property manager would receive a kickback.

Ken Kohnle, working with Elite Property Management based in Farmington, Connecticut, ended the relationship. He said it was the “most shocking” of ethical breaches he’d seen in 22 years of business. The incident shows what appears to be a problem, not just in New England, but all over the country.

By most estimates, the vast majority of New England condominium boards don’t have a code of ethics, although most board members are honest and want to do what’s best for their communities.

But having a code of ethics that spells…

GRC 101

November 02 2010

Managers who embezzle. Employees who bypass government safety regulations. Financial audits that fail to uncover fraud or wasteful spending.

They’re all modern hazards of doing business, and they’re all preventable.

To guard against unethical behavior, conform to government and industry regulations and otherwise stay on the straight and narrow, more mid-size companies are using governance, risk and compliance, or GRC, programs.

The uptick is helping worldwide sales of GRC and other operational risk technologies grow 6 percent a year, with total revenue expected to reach $2 billion by 2013, according to Chartis Research, a U.K. industry researcher.

But company executives and industry experts say GRC is more than just technology, encompassing the policies, processes and controls a company needs to make…

Data Shows Employee Fraud Incident Reports Declining

October 20 2010

A reminder to compliance executives that it might be a good time to check what’s going on with your firm’s reporting hotline, if you haven’t done so lately: Recent data shows fraud incident reporting by employees is on the decline.

Following a surge of in-house fraud reporting last year, fraud incident reports have returned to nearly the same levels as second quarter of 2008, according to data from the Quarterly Corporate Fraud Index analyzed by The Network Inc. and BDO Consulting.

Fraud-related incidents, including reports on corruption and fraud, misuse of assets, conflicts of interest and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, accounted for 19.6 percent of compliance reporting activity by employees in more than 1,000 organizations worldwide during the second quarter 2010, according to data…

The Latest Training Techniques to Engage a Generation Y Workforce

October 10 2010

Today’s workforce is classified into three main categories: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. As the newest members to the workforce, Generation Y employees, also called Millennials, bring a differing mindset and workplace attitude not found within the previous two groups. The factors that motivate them and increase their level of engagement are unique. Generation Y employees require fresh and interactive training methods to bring them into and maintain a corporation’s ethical culture.

The successful assimilation of your workforce into a corporation’s ethical culture and compliance program is a key element to an organization’s success. It affects everything including company morale, the organization’s development into an employer of choice and, most importantly, the bottom line. According to a National Business Ethics Survey, a strong…

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IN THE NEWS

Strengthening Security Through Compliance

Security measures are essential for protecting people, assets and information, and compliance makes sure those measures are effective. A healthy compliance program will bolster your security measures and find weaknesses before they become problems.