Matt Curtis
Director, Governance & Ethics
Sprint Nextel
Tiffany McDowell, PhD, MBA
Manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Human Capital
José A. Tabuena, JD, CHC, CFE
Center for Corporate Governance,
Deloitte & Touche, USA LLP

      Often the question is posed as “How do you measure culture and determine whether your ethics and compliance initiatives really work?” But is this just one question or actually two distinct areas for measurement? Does having a strong ethical climate mean that your program is “effective” and/or does a robust program necessarily translate to a strong ethical climate?
      In this interactive session we will clarify the distinctions between culture and ethical climate, and between measuring ethical climate versus program effectiveness. Practical steps in utilizing employee perception surveys to assess both the ethical climate and the impact of ethics and compliance program activities will be covered. Measurement is essential to determine if a company is on track, and the most accurate metrics should be associated with outcomes. Learn about:

• Implications from recent workforce surveys that point to relationships between work-life balance and productivity to positive ethical behaviors at work, as well as the impact that management and direct supervisors can have
• The challenges of measurement and the use of cultural assessments and employee perception surveys for measuring ethical climate and program impact—and how these measures can complement each other to demonstrate program effectiveness and identify improvement opportunities
• Specific considerations for survey development: ethical climate versus program impact questions; survey objectives and design process; instructions and response scales; question development and caveats; multiple measures on the same topic; collecting demographics; use of open-ended questions