In this episode I visit with David Childers, the Senior Vice President at Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI). We discuss ECI’s High-Quality Ethics & Compliance Program (HQP) Self-Assessment Tool.
Some of the highlights from the podcast include:
What are the 5 Principals of a HQP? They include: Strategy, Risk Management, Culture, Speaking Up and Accountability.
What are the 5 operational areas of an E&C program? They include:
- E&C is central to business strategy
- E&C risks are identified, owned, managed and mitigated
- Leaders at all levels across the organization build and sustain a culture of integrity
- The organization encourages, protects and values the reporting of concerns and suspected wrongdoing
- The organization takes action and holds itself accountable when wrongdoing occurs
What is the design of the Self-Assessment tool? While the methodology is fairly complex, for the participant it is only 107 multiple choice questions and it takes less than 30 minutes to complete.
What is it designed to measure? The HQP Assessment measures program maturity based on a combination of questions regarding 27 operating components and more than 100 program practices.
What are the four categories of reporting information for each principal? They include:(1) What to measure/review; (2) Questions to consider ; (3) Potential sources of information and (4) Leading practices illustrative of HQPs.
What are the five-point scale for program maturity? Program maturity is based on five levels, which are represented on a 0-100 scale.
- UNDERDEVELOPED
- DEFINING
- ADAPTING
- MANAGING
- OPTIMIZING
The HQP Assessment tool is a measure of where an organization believes their E&C program operates based on the five principles. The assessment can be used in several ways. We have organizations that are looking for program improvement. The assessment can be a baseline for measured improvement. It can also be a qualification. As we said this isn’t about a score. In some industries, being at the managing level of maturity may be sufficient for their risk. Most of all it is a great way to create dialog and discussion with your leadership using a definitive measure of your program.
How will ECI use this information going forward? We are already seeing important trend and insights from the data. We will introduce many of these findings are our Annual Conference in Dallas, and we are developing working groups within our membership to explore some the findings to refine best practices and guidelines for program improvement.
For more information on the ECI Self-Assessment Tool, go to www.ethics.org
Registration and Information on IMPACT2019 here.
