By Blandine CORDIER-PALASSE, Revue RH&M n°52 p.53
In particular, Compliance has a role to play in preventing and reducing risks. It has established itself as an essential vector in the dissemination of a company's values within the organisation. It contributes to a sense of pride among employees, but also externally. The main reason for this is globalisation. Reconciling development and compliance with standards has become a real challenge for companies.
Risk management is now at the heart of strategic concerns. This is due to increasing competition and ever higher targets. There are also increasingly complex national and international regulations and standards.
Jean-Martin Folz is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eutelsat, having previously headed PSA for many years. He points out that "risk management is now clearly recognised as a necessity. Internal control tools have been identified and widely used. But beyond procedures and tools, the key factor for progress is and will remain the individual and collective ethics of management and all staff".
Compliance, in its highly operational and cross-functional sense, goes beyond respect for the law. It also goes beyond compliance with regulations and national, international and professional standards.
It ensures the efficiency of the organisation's processes and better protection of investments. It also ensures respect for the values and ethical spirit instilled by management. The company's compliance is the result. Failure to comply may result in legal or administrative sanctions. This can lead to financial losses and damage to the company's image or reputation. This is one of the company's most important intangible assets. In addition, the civil and criminal liability of the company and its directors may be called into question. Empowering people, giving meaning to their actions, informing them of the risks to which they are exposed in the course of their duties enables them to understand why and how to act rather than "piling on" processes which, if not assimilated, can become counter-productive.
So that the company " Be good "It's not just about "looking good", it's about everyone recognising themselves in the values adopted by the company and deciding to follow them. This tends to give employees a sense of belonging to the same value system, and consequently a sense of pride in belonging to their company.
The Board of Directors, which determines the strategic direction of the company's activities and deals with all issues relating to its smooth running, is increasingly taking on the role of a "board of directors". the importance Compliance as a strategic issue. The most advanced even see Compliance not simply as a means of controlling threats, but as a forward-looking tool for assessing and controlling future threats in support of corporate strategy.
The Compliance Officer function is expanding
The figure of the Compliance Officer is now emerging to ensure the efficiency of the organisation's processes and better protection of investments. However, they can only implement an efficient programme with the real and verified support of their superiors. The guarantee must therefore not be "cosm'ethical". It must be given from the top of the pyramid, "Tone from the top".
Its mission is matrix-based. The OC must correlate and adapt the risk management programme according to the company's parameters. These include the company's challenges, markets, culture, history and risks - active or passive corruption, antitrust, CSR, conflicts of interest, psychosocial risks, sanctions, image and reputation, and so on. The OC develops a compliance policy and culture. It develops a 'compliant' mindset and behaviour and aligns it as closely as possible with the company's business challenges.
Consequently, it must first understand and defining DNA of the company.
There is no denying the alliance between compliance with regulatory standards and ethical behaviour. This has to be passed on to a very large, diverse and dispersed workforce. At the same time, it has to be adapted to each country and each region, while remaining cross-border and cross-regional.
The Compliance Officer must demonstrate leadership, courage and independence in his or her role. Other qualities include a sense of rigour, charisma, integrity and absolute confidentiality. One recommendation that stands out is to be a good communicator. The Compliance Officer must also know how to bring people together by being educational, humane and firm.
Promoting these good practices will contribute to the company's positive image. By being more compliant, the company can reduce the risk and the threat, but also increase the opportunities, creating value.
Blandine CORDIER-PALASSE
After working as a lawyer at Slaughter & May and then as a legal director in listed groups (Parfinance, Gemplus and Siparex), Blandine Cordier-Palasse turned to human capital. She was a partner at Boyden in charge of the legal, tax, compliance and financial communications practice. She then decided to set up BCP Executive Search. She also holds a doctorate in law and is co-founder and Vice-President of the Cercle de la Compliance. For further information : www.lecercledelacompliance.com
