Going public involves a great deal of planning especially when it comes to governance and legal compliance. In this section, you will learn what you need to know in order to create an ethical climate and responsible culture in the workplace.

1. Anonymous Reporting:

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires all public companies to establish procedures for (1) the “receipt, retention and treatment” of employee complaints on internal accounting controls and auditing practices and (2) the confidential, anonymous submission by employees of concerns regarding questionable accounting or auditing matters. Under section 301, a public company’s audit committee is responsible for developing an effective anonymous reporting program.

Listen Up is designed to serve as a two-way confidential communication system that will engender trust in your personnel throughout all levels of your organization. Listen Up will encourage all of your people to bring forward the crucial information you need to know about hidden malfeasance and inappropriate behavior. Listen Up provides you with:

• Masters’ degreed listeners
  
• Full-spectrum information capture
  
• Multiple easy ways to submit, including secure web form
  
• Innovative web-based case management
  
• Ongoing confidential 2-way dialog with management
  
• Highly sophisticated analytics
  
• Client administration and direct entry
  
  

2. Ethics Training:

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines recommend that:

"The organization shall take reasonable steps to communicate periodically and in a practical manner its standards and procedures, and other aspects of the compliance and ethics program, to the individuals referred to in subdivision (b) by conducting effective training programs and otherwise disseminating information appropriate to such individuals’ respective roles and responsibilities."

By establishing an ethics training program for your employees, you can greatly reduce punishments and fines for specific situations that may occur.

Our Ethics in Action course series is a highly effective element of your organization’s reputation management strategy. It communicates both the ethical guidelines your employees must follow on a daily basis and the values specific to your organizational culture. Importantly,it also meets the spirit of the updated Federal Sentencing Guidelines and other code of conduct training and communication requirements. Our courses are fully customizable or can be used as is. Your own values and code of conduct can be easily accommodated. We offer over 20 targeted learning modules including:

• Code of Conduct
• Foreign corrupt Practices Act
• Harassment and Discrimination Prevention
• Confidential Information
• Insider Trading
• Conflicts of Interest
• And many more
  
  

3. Anonymous Surveys:

Administering annual confidential employee surveys is a great way to get to serious issues within your workplace as well as make sure your employees know the ethical guidelines that they need to follow. Allowing employees to freely give opinions and rate their engagement with your values will help you understand what problems your employees are facing and what you need to do to create a healthy work environment.

Here are examples of questions to ask

• Are ethical guidelines known?
• Do directors, senior executives exhibit proper conduct?
• Does your boss act according to ethical principles?
• Do you understand and live the guidelines?
• Ever feel pressure to compromise values?
• Ever feel pressure by peers to behave ethically?
• Are you comfortable raising issues openly?
• Are you confident of no retaliation when you speak up about wrongdoing or sensitive topics?
• Do the people who act according to ethical principles get ahead?
• Do you like your job? Why or why not?
• Do you like the organization? Why or why not?
• Have you thought about leaving, and why?
  
  

4. Anonymous Exit Interviews:

With anonymous exit interviews, you will have the ability to collect crucial organizational knowledge before it walks out the door. Confidential exit interviewing brings unknown issues to the surface and assists organizations in creating the most productive culture. This in turn creates enduring enterprises.

People making confidential submissions require and deserve the assurance that no identifying information will compromise their anonymity. No caller ID. No names. Our masters’ degreed Listeners boast highly developed listening expertise and are adept at handling sensitive issues.

With anonymous interviews, you will:

• Receive aggregated interview results
• Reduce human capital costs
• Identify wrongdoing
• Understand what’s really going on & create a high-performance organization
  
  

Other Helpful Resources:

Corporate Governance Compliance Checklist for Pre-IPO Companies by HellerEhrman LLP

Federal Sentencing Guidelines from US Sentencing Commission

US Securities and Exchange Commission

Sarbanes-Oxley ACT of 2002

"Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage."
Publilius Syrus
100 B.C.