Employees do not like to see compliance violations. In fact, if they witness two of these occurrences they are likely to start looking for a new job.
According to a study released earlier this month by Gartner, Inc, 29% of employees observed at least one compliance violation at work in 2016 or 2017.
The survey, which sampled more than 5,000 employees at all levels, found that these workers are twice as likely to leave their organization.
Fifty-nine percent of the sampled employees who observed a compliance violation were actively looking for a new job, compared with 29% who did not witness bad behavior.
"While attrition is not an obvious area of concern for compliance executives, it should be," said Brian Lee, compliance practice leader at Gartner. "Employee misconduct and the failure of compliance to address it plays a considerable role in motivating employees to leave their current organization."
Lee said this sensation is particularly prevalent among employees whose exodus comes with the gravest impact. Those employees who are willing to report misconduct are those with high standards of personal integrity as well as those who exhibit the most discretionary effort.
In this Gartner survey, 67% of employees who exhibit superior discretionary effort and have witnessed noncompliance reported actively seeking a job with another company. This is compared with only 26% of employees who exhibit superior discretionary effort but have not witnessed noncompliance.
This finding reinforces the mandate of leaders to create and promote a culture of integrity. Employees of organizations with low-integrity cultures are two to three times more likely than employees of organizations with high-integrity cultures to observe misconduct.
"Culture is contagious,” said Lee.
“If managers and executives demonstrate ethical behavior, employees see the importance of being compliant in their day-to-day workflow and their workplace as a whole. When leaders set a model example, they can communicate to employees with similarly high standards that their organization is in alignment with their ethical commitments."
