2025 E&C Program Trends and Employee Perceptions Report

Annual Report

2025 E&C Program Trends & Employee Perceptions Report

A dual-lens view: measuring both program practices and workplace experience

At a time when businesses face enormous uncertainty and pressure, data provides clear guidance to manage risk, develop opportunity, and build a blueprint for sustainable success, no matter what the future holds.

The 2025 Ethics & Compliance Program Trends & Employee Perceptions Report offers a dual-lens view into today’s ethics and compliance landscape, combining a deep dive into program practices with rare insights into how employees experience them on the ground. 

Drawing from Ethisphere’s proprietary datasets, this report uniquely benchmarks what organizations are doing to strengthen ethics and compliance — and how those efforts are perceived by the workforce. It reveals where programs and perceptions align, where gaps persist, and what leading companies are doing to bridge the divide. Did you know…

  • Most E&C functions are housed in the legal department, but how do you structure that reporting line?
  • 58% require people leaders to have E&C convos with their teams, but does that translate into employee action?
  • 85% evaluate E&C risk as part of a standalone non-ERM evaluation process, but what does that documentation include?
  • 68% evaluate effectiveness of their entire E&C program annually, but what initiatives are they measuring?

For ethics and compliance leaders navigating shifting regulatory expectations, reputational pressures, and evolving workplace dynamics, this report delivers actionable insights to elevate program effectiveness, strengthen ethical culture, build employee trust, drive leadership alignment, and position the program as a strategic business asset. 

BELA Asks: What Are Great Employee Listening Strategies?

Ethicast

BELA Asks: What Are Great Employee Listening Strategies?

In our BELA Asks series, we address questions posed by members of the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) about wider issues facing the ethics and compliance community. BELA members who have any questions at all about ethics and compliance can send them to us, and then our internal experts will provide an answer and/or direct them to a helpful resource for more information.

In this episode, BELA Chair Erica Salmon Byrne answers another great question from our BELA Members: What employee listening strategies really make a difference? (Hint: it has something to do with playing the game, “Last Word”).

To learn more about BELA, please visit https://bela.ethisphere.com to request guest access to the BELA Member Resource Hub and to speak with a BELA Engagement Director.

If you have a question that you’d like answered on BELA Asks, be sure to use the BELA Concierge Service, and we will get to it as soon as we can.

Ethicast: Best Practices in M&A Due Diligence

Ethicast

Ethicast: Best Practices in M&A Due Diligence

Anna Grover, Global Compliance Counsel for two-time World’s Most Ethical Companies honoree Assurant, explains how she approaches the complex issue of mergers and acquisitions due diligence through the lens of ethics and compliance, including:

  • The role of E&C in M&A
  • When it’s actually a good thing to not find a problem
  • The importance of proactive M&A due diligence
  • Building strong relationships with the deal team

Ethicast Reacts: Kohl’s CEO Termination & NFL Prankgate

Ethicast

Ethicast Reacts: Kohl’s CEO Termination & NFL Prankgate

Ethicast Reacts is a special Ethicast series where host Bill Coffin talks to Ethisphere’s Chief Strategy Officer Erica Salmon Byrne, about E&C incident that have made headlines.

In this episode, they cover the termination of Kohl’s CEO Ashley Buchanan for cause, and an embarrassing data security lapse for the NFL.

Ethicast: At FirstEnergy, Ethics Powers Excellence

Ethicast

Ethicast: At FirstEnergy, Ethics Powers Excellence

In this episode, Brian X. Tierney, Chairman, President & CEO and Antonio Fernández, VP and Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of FirstEnergy discuss their efforts to build a best-in-class ethics and compliance program that has earned the company Ethisphere’s coveted Compliance Leader Verification designation for 2025-2026.

Hear about:

  • FirstEnergy’s long-term view of their ethics maturity journey
  • How support from senior leaders moves the needle
  • Engaging middle managers to be E&C’s front line
  • Advice for prioritizing strategic E&C initiatives

To learn more about our Compliance Leader Verification, click here.