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By Herbert Zinn
A corporate-wide, comprehensive compliance program at Arizona Public Service Company went into effect on January 1, 1994. In the weeks that followed, supplies of instruction guides, video- taped introductions and codes of conduct were distributed to managers responsible for over 7,000 employees throughout the Company's operations in Arizona and New Mexico. The plan was to have each manager orient his/her staff on the new program using a predetermined script. Each employee was expected to review the code of conduct in its entirety, become aware of its contents, and gain intimate familiarity with those requirements that related to his or her job. If there were questions, they were to be raised with the manager, who in turn could call upon the Law Department or Audit Services for support.
Those of us who manned Compliance Central in the Company knew that the orientations were taking place when the phone calls began to come in a steady stream. At first, it was gratifying to realize that our creation was being accepted into the employee community. The problem was that we had not envisioned the wave of inquiries that would come in so quickly. Questions were expected, but we were inundated with thought-provoking inquiries on a diverse set of issues that deserved timely, thought-out answers.
Like any new product, we had to stand behind it now, while our employee-customers became acclimated to it. if they asked us questions and did not get prompt and meaningful answers, they would surely see this as another program without substance. An effective mode of responding to questions had to be devised, so the ComplianceGram was conceived.
A ComplianceGram is a written communication that serves at least three important purposes. First, it is a written confirmation of the verbal answer that an employee receives when he/she asks a question about compliance. Questions can come to us in a variety of ways, but the most common two are by telephone and E-Mail. Our policy is to contact each employee per- sonally so that we can get a complete understanding of the employee's question. After the initial discussion with the employee, we generally are able to answer the question over the phone. Many of the early questions were merely requests for clarification. They were important to us as a means of gauging how well the message was being absorbed. Some of these compliance issues were new to the majority of the employees, so we confirmed the verbal responses in writing using the ComplianceGram format, so the employees could consider the response at length.
Second, the ComplianceGram is a means of mass communication throughout the employee's department. Although the memorandum is directed to the employee who asks the question, he or she is encouraged to post it in a conspicuous place or share it with their fellow employees in some meaningful way, e.g. at a staff meeting, so that everyone in the department has the benefit of the information that we send out.
Third, the ComplianceGram is a tool of Company-wide mass education. We recognized that many areas of the organization probably have similar issues, but might not realize it, so we merged all the ComplianceGrams issued in any given week into an E-Mailed bulletin that went out at the end of that week to all managers - with instructions to review those that were rele- vant with their staffs. The effect this had on the management of the Company was gratifying. It boosted the Program's credibility and popularity, and made the employees and managers realize that the Program was indeed a benefit to them rather than a burden. The outreach that the ComplianceGram process provided tended to anticipate problems before they even came to mind. This was comforting to the managers at a time when they were trying to learn enough about the Program to effectively teach it to their staffs; and it was beneficial for employees at a time when they were navigating their way through the risks defined by the Code of Conduct.
Another valuable lesson about communication was learned in these early days. Too much communication can be a bad thing too. In our zeal to get all these great questions out to the masses of employees in the Company, we issued some E-Mails that were over fifteen computer screens long! Although we had taken it for granted that the managers would scan the messages for points of concern, some did not. Bright and early one morning, I received an E-Mail from my vice-president (who is also the Company's Compliance Officer), forwarding an angry complaint from a manager who already had too much on his plate and did not appreciate having to wade through screen after screen of questions and answers. The answer to this dilemma was easy - address the mass dissemination of ComplianceGrams through their inclusion in a bulletin board on the Company's E-Mail system.
There were many advantages of the ComplianceGram:
The problem with ComplianceGrams is that they are more work; they require the dedication of substantial resources to produce a consistent product. A company cannot use it as a means of getting employee attention, get employees to rely upon it, and then drop it. That will cause more problems than not doing it at all. So early in the process, in order to employ a program modeled on ComplianceGrams, each company needs to develop a process that will work for its own organization - meaning a simple, easy to administer mechanism that makes wise use of resources. Here are some simple considerations for this type of communications network:
As a lawyer and a principal designer of our Company's compliance program, the ComplianceGram mechanism taught me important lessons about applying the Compliance Program in everyday work settings in the Company; how to lift the Sentencing Guidelines minimum criteria off the page and into real life; and how to make compliance less of a lawyer's exclusive province and more an area that has real appeal for all employees in the organization.
Herbert Zinn is Senior Attorney for Arizona Public Service Company. Among his major responsibilities is the implementation of the firm's compliance program.
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