Consistency of Communication and its impact on China SOX Compliance

A major failure of internal controls is lack of consistent communication throughout the enterprise. If a company is saying different things to different groups, it is hard to centralize around a common vision and achieve superior business results. Standardizing processes, procedures and training is an important step in the C-SOX journey.

When implementing an enterprise risk management strategy, managers will want to look at the role that internal and external communications play. In a risk-aware company, management is much more sensitive to the messages that are broadcast to employees and strive to make sure that all employees get the same message. This is very important in large or geographically-dispersed organizations where there are risks to messages being “lost in the mail.”

When conducting training across a large company with many offices, it is critical that all employees receive the same level of quality instruction. Otherwise, the company will expose itself to undue risks (in product quality, customer satisfaction and potentially legal and financial risks if there is a problem).

The best way to ensure consistent communication is to train staff on the importance of this topic and to use tools (such as email, corporate intranet and other “push” or broadcast technologies) in company communications. For training, many companies now invest in online education or e-learning programs to ensure consistency and quality of message.