Over the summer I presented the results of our third Compliance and Ethics Culture Survey to the Board of Trustees Audit and Compliance Committee and I wanted to share those results with you in this edition of the IntegrityStar. Our office began measuring the compliance and ethics culture at UCF in 2016, distributing surveys to employees asking questions about their awareness of the various components of the compliance and ethics program, their view of leadership, witnessed misconduct, their comfort reporting misconduct and perceptions regarding protections from retaliation. We repeat this survey every two years and benchmark results against prior years’ results. This year we worked with a third party, Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. Ethisphere is probably most well known in the compliance and ethics field for its publication of the World’s Most Ethical (WME) Company list. In partnership with Ethisphere, this year’s survey was distributed by email to 13,492 employees and we received 2,365 completed surveys for a response rate of 18%. As we have done in previous years, we benchmarked the results against our prior year’s survey results and Ethisphere benchmarked UCF’s results against similar organizations in size and regulatory scope which included a large portion of companies that have achieved WME status. The results were very interesting. Take a minute to read the article titled Compliance and Ethics Culture Survey Results and let us know your thoughts.
Another article that you might find interesting is the UCF IntegrityLine Report. Each calendar year, the office prepares and issues this report containing a summary of the types of reports submitted through the UCF IntegrityLine, the investigation outcomes and any trends that were identified during the year.
Directly tied to the results of the culture survey and IntegrityLine report is an article on Ethical Leadership. Please also take a minute to read the Audit Unlocked article and the FAQ section.
Although we are unable to devote a full article to the following announcements, I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to recognize the University’s Ombuds Office and remind you of Ombuds Day which occurs the second Thursday each October (for more information, check out our previous article on this topic. I’d also like to announce that Compliance and Ethics Week is celebrated nationally the first full week of November (this year it occurs during November 2-6, 2020 so keep an eye out for an announcement regarding scheduled virtual activities to participate).
Thank you for taking the time to read this edition of the IntegrityStar. As always, we welcome your suggestions for future topics and your feedback. Please write to us at complianceandethics@ucf.edu.