The Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) said it is nowoffering 50 online courses dealing with regulatory compliance.

The courses--designed by WeComply, a leading provider of onlinetraining--offer risk practitioners a wide variety of compliancetraining programs, all written by experienced attorneys andeducators, RIMS said.

"Today's savvy risk managers must have a holistic view of theirenterprise. Risk professionals seek to identify where potentiallyunseen risk may pose cost challenges across the entire company,"said Janet Barnes, member of the RIMS board of directors and riskmanager for Snohomish County Public Utility District No.1.

Ms. Barnes added, "The Compliance and Business Ethics Trainingcourses are being offered to RIMS members to be used as apreventative measure against costly claims resulting fromnoncompliance."

The Compliance and Business Ethics Training programs covertopics such as code of conduct in the workplace, informationsecurity, records management and the foreign corrupt practices act,as well as courses on many more issues and topics.

Risk practitioners can enroll in courses at any time and receivea certificate upon completion. Courses were created with UnitedStates legal standards in mind and companies outside the UnitedStates are advised to check if the courses are applicable. Mostcourses are offered to RIMS members for a fee of $25 percourse.

"These courses will provide RIMS members with a quick,inexpensive opportunity to learn more about the compliancechallenges facing their companies," said David Simon, president ofWeComply.

Mr. Simon noted that "more than 75,000 charges of discriminationand harassment were filed with the U.S. Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission (EEOC) last year. And, in 1998, the U.S.Supreme Court ruled that having an anti-harassment policy andtraining employees on that policy are defenses to liability andpunitive damages. Yet many companies fail to meet the necessarycompliance standards."

He said that viewing WeComply's "Preventing Discrimination andHarassment" training program will help provide insights to helprisk managers see where they can suggest a corporate need forimprovement. WeComply programs have been translated into 25languages and deployed in some 50 countries.

For a complete list of RIMS online courses, visitwww.RIMS.org/onlinecourses.

For a complete list of RIMS professional development workshops,visit www.RIMS.org/education.

For more information on the RIMS Fellow designation, visitwww.RIMS.org/aboutRF.