Personnel in charge of HR compliance and ethics are particularly stressed in the modern workplace environment, according to a survey of 970 professionals in such positions.
Those polled reported that the most difficult aspects of their job were preventing and remediating compliance and ethics violations and keeping up with regulatory and legal changes, Human Resource Executive Online reports. The level of stress was so high that about 58 percent of respondents said they woke up in the middle of the night because of job-related stress.
Slightly more, about 60 percent, indicated they considered leaving their jobs because of stress. According to researchers from the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association, about 58 percent reported that they felt isolated or set against employees in other departments, and few indicated good relationships with their colleagues.
Professor Patricia Werhane told HREO that businesses are better served by a focus on ethics, which gives employees a positive goal to work toward, rather than focusing purely on compliance. That approach, she noted, is actually more effective in creating compliance in the long-term. Experts also told the source that compliance officers, like other employees in difficult roles, need support from leadership in order to succeed. Receiving that support should improve effectiveness and reduce stress levels.
