According to the results of a resent study by Gartner Inc (https://www.cebglobal.com/compliance-legal.html.), twenty-nine percent of employees have observed at least one compliance violation at work during the past two years. The company has samples more than 5,000 at various levels within the organizational hierarchy. The Gartner Inc survey also shows that these employees are twice as likely to leave their company or organization.
59 percent of the sampled workers who observed a compliance violation have admitted that they were actively looking for a new job. In contrast, only 29 percent of the surveyed employees who have not witnessed a compliance violation were considering changing their position and looking for new job opportunities.
“While attrition is not an obvious area of concern for compliance executives, it should be,” said Brian Lee, compliance practice leader at Gartner. “Employee misconduct and the failure of compliance to address it plays a considerable role in motivating employees to leave their current organization.”
Mr. Lee said this sensation is particularly prevalent among employees whose exodus comes with the gravest impact. The employees with the high standards of personal integrity and the ones that exhibit the most discretionary effort are more likely to report such bad behavior at the workplace. 67 percent of the employees that exhibit discretionary effort and have observed compliance violation are also actively seeking a new job with another organization.
For organization, the leave of employees — especially those that are assuming most mission-critical positions – should be analysed and viewed as a a warning sign underlying compliance-related issues, not solely as a generic HR problem.
Many big companies spend millions of dollars annually to retain their employees and the leave of particular conscientious workers can be debilitating: it can have a negative impact not only on the organizational culture but also on the morale and the employee productivity levels.
The survey results point out that executives have to actively work to create and promote a culture of integrity.
“Culture is contagious. If managers and executives demonstrate ethical behavior, employees see the importance of being compliant in their day-to-day workflow and their workplace as whole,” said Mr. Lee. “When leaders set a model example, they can communicate to employees with similarly high standards that their organization is in alignment with their ethical commitments.”
