In this era of full employment companies are looking for an edge in holding on to top employees. Internal audit departments, in particular, are locked in a battle with peer companies for top talent, and most chief audit executives cite getting candidates with the right set of skills as one it their biggest challenges. Now, a new study may provide a way to get an edge over other organizations in the battle for skilled employees: get cracking on those compliance audits and clamp down on compliance failures.
The study, conducted by advisory services firm Gartner, found that nearly a third (30 percent) of the 5,025 company employees it surveyed observed at least one compliance violation at work in the last year. Additionally, those workers were twice as likely to leave the company. Fifty-nine percent who said they saw wrongdoing were actively looking for a new job, compared with 27 percent who were looking but didn’t observe bad behavior. “Compliance violations drive away the very people organizations need to detect and prevent future misconduct,” Gartner wrote in its report. It labeled the tendency for non-compliance to lead to employee exits a “vicious cycle” that can hinder compliance programs at companies.
