Compliance and ethics go 'pro'

Compliance and ethics represent one of the fastest growing professions in corporate America. Almost every company has implemented a compliance and ethics program or is in the process of doing so. One expert recently estimated that there are approximately 250,000 professionals in this field. Given the fast pace of change, the new profession is facing a major challenge to establish best practices. One approach has been to certify the individuals practicing this emerging corporate discipline, although this presents its own unique problems.

Designing a certification program that attests to the competency of compliance and ethics practitioners – regardless of the industry in which they work – is no easy matter. Some critics went so far as to say it couldn’t be done. But while dissenters tried to derail the idea and skeptics squabbled over the logistics, the Society for Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) forged ahead. The organization assembled a multi-sector team of practitioners, hired a certification consultant and methodically embarked on a path leading to a certification examination. Individuals passing the exam earn the designation of CCEP, or certified compliance and ethics professional.

Proving the value of the CCEP in the court of public opinion, to prospective and current employers, to other compliance and ethics practitioners and to the world at large is something only time and performance will demonstrate – and SCCE leaders welcome the scrutiny. They’re convinced that the time is ripe and the process is sound for the certification trail they’ve blazed.

‘Our profession is relatively young,’ says Roy Snell, CEO of the SCCE. ‘If you were to take a snapshot of the compliance and ethics profession right now across all industries, you could say it’s in its infancy relative to jobs like HR or CFO, which have been around for a long time.’

According to Snell, setting up professional certification for compliance and ethics practitioners at this early stage accomplishes several major objectives. It helps establish the profession’s credibility, provides those who hire compliance and ethics officers with another tool to measure candidates’ ability and recognizes and rewards professionals for their achievement.

Controversy existed from the start, however. Most of the contention surrounds the viability of a certification that establishes baseline compliance and ethics credentials across all industries. ‘We’re certifying that these people understand the essential elements of implementing a compliance and ethics program,’ explains Snell. ‘It’s a natural first step to do this kind of across-the-board generic program.

‘The CPA is a cross-industry [certification] and it’s quite successful,’ he points out. ‘So, too, is the need for testing general compliance and ethics knowledge.’

While a need may exist, the value of the ‘generic’ approach still fuels debate. Susan Hackett, SVP and general counsel at the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), says her organization briefly considered developing a certification program but decided against it. ‘[Compliance] is so specific to the kind of industry you’re in, the kind of company you’re in and what it is trying to accomplish,’ states Hackett. ‘Even though it makes sense on some level, we knew we wouldn’t really be able to meaningfully tell someone that because they’ve attended these five sessions, they are now capable of being a compliance professional in virtually any organization that needs compliance services.’

Less conversation, more action

Nevertheless, with compliance and ethics positions cropping up in virtually every company, SCCE leadership put their certification program on a fast track. ‘It doesn’t help to keep debating the issue,’ says Odell Guyton, director of compliance, anti-trust compliance officer and senior corporate attorney at Microsoft as well as chair of the SCCE advisory board. ‘Just because something is difficult doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it. You’ve got to put a stake in the ground somewhere.’

Even the first step – identifying the profession’s common denominators – proved challenging. The typical background of a compliance and ethics professional ‘isn’t necessarily typical,’ remarks Guyton. ‘That’s the whole point. It’s pretty much a smorgasbord.’ While many practitioners are lawyers, individuals with audit, HR, ethics, philosophy and other backgrounds are entering the field. Further complicating matters, job responsibilities may vary by geographic location as well as industry.

Developing a certification exam required looking beyond regional and industry differences to identify the essential elements of the compliance and ethics function. ‘You want to test for what the job is, not what it might be someday,’ says Snell. ‘When a prospective employer sees that credential, they want to know this person can do the job they need done today.’

A job analysis committee comprised of SCCE members pulled together a list of every conceivable responsibility that a compliance and ethics officer might have. Then they developed and conducted a survey with assistance from Applied Measurement Professionals (AMP), which also helped interpret the results and design the certification exam.

Using survey results, the job analysis committee honed in on responsibilities shared by the broad base of practitioners. Then they scoped out an exam content outline and handed it off to colleagues in the test development committee.

According to Canda Meuller, an AMP program manager who worked closely with both committees, ‘We tried to make sure that not only were [committee members] from various industries, but also that we had good representation geographically.’ Meuller trained test development committee members to write various exam ‘items,’ a term the committees used to refer to multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank statements and other exam components. ‘At first it’s difficult for everyone to understand what you’re trying to do in terms of writing a good, sound, psychometrically defensible item,’ says Meuller.

‘We spent hours and hours and days and days together writing questions,’ recalls committee member Debbie Troklus, associate vice president for health affairs/compliance at the University of Louisville’s Health Sciences Center. ‘It’s a very grueling process, but you learn a lot from it.’ Troklus already holds a CHC (certification in healthcare compliance) from the Healthcare Compliance Association (HCCA), which introduced its certification program about eight years ago. She also serves as president of the Healthcare Compliance Certification Board.

‘Some questions are just a given,’ Troklus continues. ‘You write it, you throw it out and everyone agrees.’ Other items might create an hour or more of debate because different organizations do things differently. ‘You have to figure out how to write the question to bring in more general terms,’ she explains.

Consequently, test development committee members scrutinized every word in the exam – even the wrong answers in multiple-choice questions. ‘You can spend a lot of time trying to determine what the distracters, or wrong answers, should be,’ observes Troklus. ‘We tried very hard to ensure that the distracters are not tricky or leading in any way.’

Drawing from a range of sources

Use of an outside resource such as AMP reinforces the SCCE’s aim of creating an independent certification process. To ensure that the program remains flexible and tests a wide range of knowledge, the source of qualifying continuing education units (CEUs) can come from a variety of recognized courses, not just SCCE offerings.

‘This is an independent certification that doesn’t require you to be a member,’ affirms Snell. ‘You don’t have to buy any of our books. You don’t have to go to any of our conferences. It just tests your knowledge.’

This arm’s-length approach may help the CCEP certificate gain accreditation from the National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA), which certifies credential programs. Further, enabling candidates to glean CEUs from various sources may spark support from other professional groups.

‘Everybody’s going to have a different perspective on how compliance works,’ warns Hackett. ‘There probably isn’t one place that will provide everything you need to know.’

Attaining a CCEP certificate is just the beginning. Professionals wishing to maintain their designation must continue their education, adding 40 CEUs every two years. Down the road, they may even have the opportunity to attain a fellowship, a more advanced credential that the SCCE is contemplating.

Now is the time for the new designees to prove their mettle. The SCCE describes the CCEP as a ‘professional with knowledge of relevant regulations and expertise in compliance processes sufficient to assist corporate industries to understand and address legal obligations and promote organizational integrity through the operation of effective compliance programs.’ That’s a lofty assignment – with lots of people to convince.

‘I’m not so keen on certificates,’ notes Patricia Werhane, Wicklander Professor of Business Ethics for DePaul University and Ruffin Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. ‘It is not sufficient to guarantee that a person will be able to translate learning into the specific issues a company faces. It would be a good place to begin, but if you think that’s the end, it would be a dreadful mistake.’

Adds Hackett, ‘It would be nice if you could say that a compliance officer could guarantee the company’s compliance with all laws and all regulations.’ However, she points out that there are ‘tens of thousands’ of federal and state regulations, not to mention foreign rules applying to multinational companies.

Having certified professionals is not in and of itself an indicator that a company will be more successful. ‘You still have to have management buy-in,’ says Hackett. ‘You still have to have effective systems. You still have to have a willingness to measure results and make any changes if you find problems. You still have to know that what has been designed as best practice by your certified compliance professional actually works in your industry and that it covers the right subject.’ 

Dean Krehmeyer, executive director of the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, believes there is a benefit to a certification program or any other initiative that continues to bring ethics and compliance top of mind. Having a certified individual or individuals on the senior management team may contribute to the ‘positive signals’ that corporate leadership sends to the organization. Nevertheless, there is an important caveat.

‘I don’t think organizations ought to let ethics be the responsibility of one individual or a small group of individuals who have letters after their names,’ concludes Krehmeyer. ‘Ethics really has to be the responsibility of the entire organization. It starts with the chief executive officer, but it really has to be everyone’s responsibility if the company is going to thrive and be a leader in its industry.’