How to Safeguard Your People, Reputation and Bottom Line

This article explains how organisations can protect people, reputation and the bottom line by backing a strong speak-up culture with practical internal risk management. It reflects a COVID-19-era discussion about fraud pressure, culture, and the need for leaders to protect the systems that protect the organisation.

Summary

This article argues that safeguarding people, reputation and the bottom line starts with leadership-led internal risk management. It links speak-up culture, cost-cutting, and remote working to the practical need for a safer reporting environment and stronger everyday controls.

Key takeaways

At Core Integrity, we help organisations be proactive and manage integrity-related issues such as fraud, corruption, bribery and workplace harassment.

According to data from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), 42 per cent of fraud committed is due to the individual living beyond their means and 26 per cent is due to financial difficulties. That risk is only expected to rise as COVID-19 increases pressure on Australian families and causes those under financial pressure to rationalise their behaviour, creating the perfect storm for fraud and misconduct.

We're seeing a trend where organisations, which rightfully need to cut costs, are reducing funding in non-revenue-generating departments and activities like risk, compliance and internal audit. While cutting costs is integral to the survival of the company, these changes can have long-term effects on culture and leave your organisation vulnerable and exposed to internal fraud and misconduct.

So how can your business safeguard its people, reputation and bottom line?

Internal risk management comes from the top down. As a senior executive or owner, you have the obligation to set an example for your organisation and encourage a safe speak-up culture where speaking up to report instances of fraud and misconduct is not only accepted, but celebrated!

It's one thing to set out to create the right culture for your business, but it's even more important to ensure you invest in protecting that culture. The impact of a positive workplace culture may not be tangible at first, but happy employees can increase sales, profits, recruitment efforts and staff morale, creating a more productive workforce.

While not all businesses have the budget to implement 'big ticket' internal risk management strategies, you can continue to focus on your proactive strategies to drive trust and culture in your workplace. With remote working the new norm for many of us, make sure your team is still reinforcing your policies and procedures and, importantly, inspecting what it expects.

We need to learn not to sweep the small stuff aside because ultimately those small things can lead to big issues. As we all know from the old saying sooner or later you'll have to pay the piper.

FAQ

How can fraud and misconduct exposure be reduced?

Safeguarding people, reputation and the bottom line depends on leadership-led internal risk management. The practical message is that culture, reporting pathways, and everyday controls all need to work together if you want to reduce fraud and misconduct exposure.

Why does cutting risk, compliance, or internal audit matter?

Those areas are often treated as overhead, but reducing them can leave the organisation more exposed over time. It is not that cost-cutting is always wrong, but that short-term savings can create longer-term culture and misconduct risk if controls become too thin.

What should leaders focus on during remote working?

They should keep policies and procedures visible, reinforce expectations, and make sure the team still understands what good behaviour looks like. Remote working can weaken informal oversight, so the organisation needs to be deliberate about keeping its controls and culture active.