Compliance is not just an HR responsibility. It is a management responsibility.

In one case featured in Global Lessons, a routine payroll handover at an overseas subsidiary uncovered several “ghost employees” who had remained in the payroll system for years.

The incident was not simply the result of individual misconduct. It exposed weaknesses in governance, oversight and operational controls that had gone unnoticed over time.

This is why preventing fraud cannot rely solely on trust or individual ethics. It requires clear processes, appropriate oversight, regular audits and systems that make misconduct difficult to conceal.

One point I emphasise throughout this case is that when these incidents occur, stakeholders rarely ask only, “Who was responsible?” They also ask, “What systems did the organisation have in place to prevent it?”

Effective HR management is built not only on developing people, but also on building organisations that employees, customers and society can trust.

This is one of many case studies featured in Global Lessons: A Page from Modern Japanese Human Resources Management.

📖 For those interested in exploring these topics further, the book is available here: https://a.co/d/0c0NCy4A