By Adam Turteltaub

Having a compliance champions or ambassadors program can be a great boon for the compliance program, if you keep the champions engaged. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. If not managed properly your champions may end up sleep walking through the job.

In this podcast, Matt Silverman, author of the book The Champions Network and Global Trade Director and Senior Counsel at Viavi lays out several strategies for maintaining the involvement and commitment of your champions network.

To ensure engagement, he recommends remembering that the people who decided to be champions did so for a reason. It may be for a wage stipend or for altruistic reasons.  Tapping into that motivation is essential.

On an ongoing basis it’s important that they see the impact of their work on the organization and their own career. That means sharing outcomes, as best you can, and providing them with access to development opportunities. These could be specific to deepening compliance expertise or as broad as developing business and soft skills. Whichever you choose, it is a way for them to see what’s in it for them.

Give them an opportunity, as well, to be recognized for their work, whether that’s an official recognition by the CEO or an opportunity to interact with leadership. Remember, appreciation can be a powerful reward.

And, of course, make sure there is actual work that they need to do as a part of being a champion. Having the title alone is not enough.

Listen in to more about how to create engaged compliance champions.