Deloitte's new "The CLO's role in corporate culture" makes a strong case for the Chief Legal Officer being optimally positioned vis a vis the company's internal and external stakeholders to take a lead role in shaping and maintaining a favorable corporate culture and mitigating culture risk.
Suggested CLO actions steps include:
- Confirming that the appropriate governance and escalation procedures are in place; that there is a written code of conduct; and that all employees are properly trained to comply with it.
- Walking the talk; serving as a role model.
- Supporting the Board in its culture oversight responsibilities, e.g., in relation to executive performance and succession planning, strategy oversight, risk management oversight, the company's financial and operational performance, and workplace cultural generally - as well as the board culture.
- Examining, understanding, and leveraging internal and external data. Suggested internal data sources include compliance metrics, personnel matters, time entry, expense account utilization, employee satisfaction, cultural assessments, insider threat analysis, and employee engagement. Suggested external data sources include social media monitoring and web scraping/data extraction.
- Developing a crisis response plan so as to be well-prepared for the inevitable crisis and faciliate corporate leadership acting in accordance with the company values even during a disruptive event.