By Adam Turteltaub

Business people are given all kinds of goals for revenues, profitability, efficiency and more. For compliance, though, not so often. Many organizations struggle with how to set compliance goals, or even if they should set them.

Madrid-based, Juan Ignacio Paillás, Head of Global Compliance Business Sectors for Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, explains how it should be done. First, he advises, understand the context in which you are working, particularly about how your organizations manages objectives. For example, some organizations embrace very rigid goals, while others take a more flexible approach.

When approaching management and the business unit about setting objectives, he cautions that you should expect pushback. To counter it, remind them this is about taking the company’s values and turning them into concrete, measurable behaviors. It is also an exercise in setting priorities within compliance efforts to have the greatest impact on the organization and its performance.

As you go to set the goals, determine which levels of the organization you will cover and what is important for each of them. Start with leadership and then enlist them in the efforts

Also, he advises being open to business people setting their own goals. Listen in to the interesting goal one person set, and what impact it had.

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