Ethisphere Launches Compliance Program Advisor™ to Assist Clients with Compliance Program Assessment and Benchmark Reporting

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Ethisphere Institute is pleased to announce the launch of Compliance Program Advisor™, a subscription service that offers Ethisphere clients annual benchmarking analysis reports, code of ethics scorecards, and tailored benchmarking data based on continuously expanding GRC resources. Compliance Program Advisor provides companies with an effective, pragmatic understanding of where their compliance program stands against accepted best practices, and in comparison to World's Most Ethical (WME) Companies and peers.

“An organization that seeks to meet the 'periodic review' requirements of the Sentencing Guidelines and satisfy the evolving expectations of regulators and other stakeholders should consider engaging a third party for regular reviews. Effectively benchmarking the performance of ethics and compliance programs is an established best practice,” said Senior Compliance Counsel for Corpedia and former Assistant General Counsel for the United States Sentencing Commission, Eric Morehead. While serving at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Morehead chaired the policy team that most recently revised and strengthened organizational ethics and compliance best practice guidance, including amended guidelines that state organizations should consider the engagement of "outside professional advisor[s] to ensure adequate assessment" of ethics and compliance programs when responding to prior misconduct.

ABOUT COMPLIANCE PROGRAM ADVISOR

As the Department of Justice has noted, one of the purposes of the compliance assessment should be to determine if any new elements of an effective compliance program have been developed in the past year and if they should be incorporated into a company's compliance program. Ethisphere's Compliance Program Advisor Annual Benchmarking Report does just this, including evaluation criteria, scores benchmarked against the average scores of all the WME winners as well as the overall database and commentary and recommendations for improvement where relevant.

COMPLIANCE PROGRAM ADVISOR™ ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY

Ethisphere's Benchmarking Database

Compliance Program Advisor provides clients with insights, comparative metrics and recommendations utilizing Ethisphere's proprietary methodology and growing database of compliance and ethics programs.

World's Most Ethical Companies' Ethics Quotient & Program Assessment

The Compliance Program Advisor Annual Benchmarking Report provides assessment scores for each of the key Ethics Quotient™ (EQ) compliance program assessment categories, based upon the answers provided by the company on the Ethisphere Institute's EQ survey. The scores are benchmarked against the Ethisphere Institute's database and average scores of the 2011 WME company winners. The scores are derived from Ethisphere's EQ methodology and framework, which take into account over 100 different criteria in key assessment categories.

The analysis is performed by Corpedia, a licensed credentialing third-party partner of the Ethisphere Institute. Corpedia's Advisory Services Team is licensed to conduct and fulfill all of the research, benchmarking and analysis required by Compliance Program Advisor. Corpedia utilizes Ethisphere's proprietary methodology and database to fulfill the deliverables and findings for Ethisphere's Compliance Program Advisor services.

COMPLIANCE PROGRAM ADVISOR™ RESOURCES

Companies that subscribe to Compliance Program Advisor have a wealth of resources available to stay abreast of best practices in ethics and compliance program design and implementation in between receipt of their Annual Benchmarking Report, including but not limited to:

• thought-leadership discussions, roundtables, and brown bag lunches
• whitepapers addressing current trends and best practices
• all of Ethisphere's archived and future CLE-accredited webcasts (through our partner, WestLegalEd)
• admission to the annual Global Ethics Summit

ABOUT ETHISPHERE

The research-based Ethisphere^® Institute is a leading international think tank dedicated to the creation, advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, anti-corruption and sustainability. Ethisphere Magazine, which publishes the globally-recognized World's Most Ethical Companies® ranking, is the quarterly publication of the Institute. Ethisphere provides the only third-party verifications of compliance programs and ethical cultures that include: Ethics Inside® Certification, Compliance Leader Verification™ and Anti-Corruption Program Verification™. The Institute's premier membership group, the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance™, is a business ethics forum that includes more than 100 leading corporations, universities and institutions that collectively leverage their experience, expertise and innovative ways to address emerging compliance challenges. More information on the Ethisphere Institute, including ranking projects and membership, can be found at www.ethisphere.com.

For more information about Compliance Program Advisor, contact Ethisphere at 800.369.7583 or by email at info@ethisphere.com.