UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The University’s Office of Ethics and Compliance has announced a new compliance training plan for employees that consolidates current University-wide compliance training efforts, increasing their effectiveness and efficiency.
“We want to be more strategic regarding our ethics and compliance training efforts,” says Regis Becker, chief Ethics and Compliance officer. “It’s unreasonable to expect every employee to be aware of all of the nuances in the laws and regulations we’re expected to abide by in higher education. The idea with this new Annual Compliance Training is to plant a seed, where employees are able to spot potential issues when they arise and pass the information along to the experts who know the actions we need to take to remain compliant. Also, we want to be respectful of people’s time, and with this new Annual Compliance Training, 88 percent of our employees will only take one simple course each year.”
The plan will take effect this semester with the launch of a new online Annual Compliance Training module for employees. All employees will be required to complete the Annual Compliance Training, which will serve as a short “refresher” course to summarize the compliance obligations for employees at Penn State. This will replace the recurring requirement to complete Reporting Child Abuse training for most employees.
These changes are part of the University's efforts to combat child abuse and sexual misconduct.
For the spring semester, the Title IX Office is planning to launch a sexual misconduct training module for all employees. Once all employees have completed the two new trainings, a new recurrent training schedule for all employees will take effect. The timeline is:
For employees:
2016
- New Annual Compliance Training for all employees; due during Fall semester.
2017
- New Title IX/Sexual Misconduct Training for all employees; due during the spring semester.
For new employees:
- New Employee Orientation.
- Reporting Child Abuse Training.
- Title IX/Sexual Misconduct Training.
- Clery Act Training for Campus Security Authorities only, as defined in Policy AD74.
Recurring:
- Annual Compliance Training, annually for all employees.
- Reporting Child Abuse, annually for Pennsylvania Mandated Reporters only, as defined in Policy AD72.
- Clery Act Training, annually for Campus Security Authorities only, as defined in Policy AD74.
Individuals who require the full Reporting Child Abuse and Clery Act training modules will still complete those courses annually. These employees will be designated by the Human Resources Strategic Partners in their respective units.
For more information, contact: psoec@psu.edu