Compliance Committee Training Initiative

THE WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY COMPLIANCE COMMITTEE

2022 TRAINING INITIATIVE

In 2018 the University formed a committee to address compliance issues across campus. https://wmich.edu/compliance    

The committee began with creating “heatmaps” of risk and compliance and ultimately developed compliance matrices in 2018 – 2019.  Those matrices can be found at:  https://wmich.edu/compliance/matrices 

On February 28, 2020, the committee held a Compliance Summit with the theme “Creating a Culture of Compliance”.  Over 100 employees from WMU, WMed, and KVCC attended the event to hear from consultants, industry compliance experts, and University employees about compliance.  https://wmich.edu/compliance/compliance-summit-resources 

Unfortunately, two weeks later the Covid pandemic would make the world a much different place.

The committee had intended to make 2021 “A Year of Training”.  With the challenge of our return to work and the disruption in normal operations that occurred, the Compliance Committee, like so many initiatives on campus, lost some momentum.  However, the committee continued to work on training in our virtual meetings.  A training subcommittee was formed dedicated to collecting all the various training resource on campus in a single, dedicated place – much like the University Policy Committee efforts to collect all policies in a single, dedicated place.  (https://wmich.edu/policies)

Under the leadership of the chair, Lee Ryder, the training sub-committee has collected training materials from 15 key campus offices and linked them all in a unified webpage:  https://wmich.edu/compliance/wwwwmicheducompliancetraining.    

But there is more work to be done in collecting training.  Ultimately, the committee would like to have all University training materials and an A – Z training link on the site.  For example, if you need training on the Human Subject Institutional Review Board (HSIRB) you would only need to go to the ‘H’ link. 

We need your help.  Visit the training website and if your training does not appear, please email Lee Ryder at @email and let her know.  She will coordinate adding your unit’s training to the site. 

Prioritizing Training

One of the objectives of the training committee was to identify what training is expected for all employees in general or employees in a given job category, what training is recommended for all employees or employees in a given job category, and what training is aspirational for advancement for a given employee.  That effort continues. 

Some initials thoughts are:

Required Training of All Employees:

• All employees must know the essentials of the University’s non-discrimination policy
• All employees must know about internet and cyber security
• All employees must know about student privacy and FERPA
• All employees must know what constitutes a conflict of interest and a conflict of commitment

Recommended Training for All Employees

• All employees should know about HIPAA and the privacy of health information (required for those in health care or HR)
• All employees should know about environmental health and safety on campus, including the University’s sustainability efforts
• All employees should know about the HR policies and procedures that affect their job group

Recommended Aspirational Training

• Research Training (required for those in ORI or who do research)
  • Human Subject Institutional Review Board
  • Animal Care
  • Export Control
  • University budget and accounting training
  • Building Cultural Competencies and Implicit Bias

Of course any given employee will have required training based on their job duties, so these are merely illustrative.

When the federal government investigates a compliance failure, one of the items it considers in assessing the failure is whether the institution or organization had deliberate and sufficient compliance training.  Compliance training is in the best interest of the employee and the University.