Today’s business world is filled with complexities that increase risks, particularly for firms operating internationally. Mitigating risk is a core objective for compliance departments, and a large part of achieving that is developing policies to guide employee behavior within the legal and regulatory parameters.
For companies operating internationally, though, compliance is a tricky matter. Not only do local laws need to be taken into consideration when developing policies, but so too does the local language and culture. Unfortunately for compliance officers, ignoring on-the-ground realities can lead to gaping holes in their risk management strategies and, worse, potential legal ramifications.
To fully protect an organization, compliance departments need to consider how their compliance training is not only translated into local languages but also adjusted to reflect local customs. Let’s take a closer look at what needs to go into translating compliance policies so that they’re as effective abroad as they are at home.
Adhering to the Letter of the Law
Compliance obviously starts and ends with operating within the framework of legal and regulatory systems.
But in some countries, what’s legal and what’s not, can be a real gray area. “Facilitation payments,” for example, are often a form of legalized bribery, and there are plenty of examples where it is a core part of the local business culture. This potentially exposes an organization to massive risk, as both the Department of Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission can pursue legal action against firms for their employee’s illegal actions under certain circumstances.
The stakes are extremely high in these cases, and it’s absolutely essential that both a firm’s compliance policies and training are translated to the local language. That is, it’s not enough to provide employees with translated compliance policies, they also need to have a 100% clear understanding of how those policies are implemented—and why.
Translating training into local languages will dramatically increase adherence, minimizing the chance for any misunderstandings that might arise without translation.
Translating for Culture
Legal ramifications aside, it’s not enough to simply throw translated compliance documents at a group of employees and expect them to a) fully understand them and b) fully adhere to them. Compliance training is an essential component to ensuring employees behave within the guidelines laid out in policies, and that training needs to be adjusted to the local culture.
This might include adjusting training materials to highlight local, culturally relevant examples, but it also includes using local expressions that capture both the nuances of the policies and the local culture.
For example, employees working in a country where Facilitation payments is an acceptable part of business might not immediately understand why they have to adhere to non-bribery/anti-corruption compliance policies. After all, that’s how they’ve been taught to do business. In cases like these, employees may need to be oriented to the larger corporate culture in order to understand the context of why certain behaviors are not tolerated.
Translations Reduce Risk, Increase Protection
Ultimately, compliance officers need to rely on and trust their employees to behave appropriately. To that end, it’s important for them to do everything within their power to provide employees with the information they need to do their jobs correctly. In fact, taking this extra step can go a long way to protect organizations from liabilities associated with employees who violate the laws, as long as they can demonstrate that they’ve gone the extra mile to provide employees with sufficient training.
If you’d like more information on how to translate and deliver compliance training materials, Xcelus can help. We offer high-impact, comprehensive training solutions and tools that engage employees and help boost adherence levels. Contact us to discuss options for your organization. Visit our course translation page for more information https://www.xcelus.com/course-translations/
Translation Samples
Below is a short micro-learning module that has been translated from English into French and Italian.
