Setting the Scene
Mazda Motor Europe, the European headquarters of the global automotive brand, manages a complex regulatory landscape spanning more than 20 national jurisdictions. With growing compliance expectations and a distributed workforce across Europe, the organization needed a way to standardize its policy management, automate attestations, and gain insight into whether employees were truly engaging with critical policies.
By implementing Mitratech Policy Management, Mazda streamlined compliance operations, strengthened accountability, and created a more dynamic, data-driven policy management ecosystem.
The Challenge
Mazda Motor Europe operates in one of the most complex regulatory environments in the world. With overlapping EU, national, and industry regulations — including the U.S. FCPA, the UK Bribery Act, the EU Whistleblower Directive, and financial reporting requirements — the compliance team needed a centralized, scalable way to manage policies across business units, functions, and countries.
Before Mitratech, policies were simply posted on the intranet. The compliance team had limited visibility into whether employees ever opened, read, or understood them. Collecting attestations required manual tracking, spreadsheets, and constant follow-up. Employees were not receiving tailored content, and there was no meaningful way to verify comprehension or identify gaps.
Mazda also needed a way to orchestrate complex policy oversight across HR, Legal, Finance, IT, Internal Control, and whistleblowing governance functions — all without introducing administrative burden or bottlenecks.
The Solution
Mazda implemented Mitratech Policy Management in 2017 to create a structured, automated, and data-rich policy management framework. As an experienced administrator, Bela describes Mitratech’s policy management solution as transformative:
As Mazda’s first dedicated policy management platform, Mitratech immediately replaced manual and fragmented workflows. What had previously required intranet postings, email reminders, and ad hoc onboarding acknowledgements became a centralized, trackable, and repeatable compliance process — reducing administrative lift for Compliance and HR teams while enabling Mazda to scale policy governance across 21+ countries.
Key Policy Management Capabilities Implemented
- Automated Attestation & Compliance Tasks: Eliminated manual collection of Code of Conduct and policy attestations — providing automated tracking, structured follow-ups, and reliable reporting for both new hires and existing employees.
- Instant Reporting & Compliance Dashboards: With “per mouse click” reporting, Mazda can see compliance status across business units, functions, and countries in real time
- Employee Engagement Through Quizzes: Mazda uses quizzes with up to seven randomized questions to confirm that employees truly read critical policies and understand key concepts. This adds a measurable layer of comprehension to attestation.
- Annual Conflicts of Interest Survey: The mandatory survey is conducted entirely through Mitratech Policy Management, including embedded training to ensure employees think critically before responding.
- Background Analytics & Usage Insights: Compliance can see which policies employees visit most frequently, enabling agile updates when rules are unclear or new questions arise.
- Management Escalation Workflow: Managers get informed about the compliance status of their team. They understand the responsibility better and can take action if employees do not complete the compliance task on time.
- Targeted Policy Delivery: Employees only see the policies relevant to their roles, such as finance-specific policies for Finance employees, which improves clarity and relevance, and helps sustain strong completion rates.
The Results
With Mitratech Policy Management in place, Mazda transformed its policy management into a predictable, accountable, and insight-driven process.
Stronger Organizational Engagement
Mazda’s executives strongly support compliance initiatives, and Mitratech provides the transparency and analytics that leadership needs.
As Bela notes: “We all benefit from having this system, and now we can react appropriately.”
Better Analytics to Drive Continuous Improvement
Mazda now uses Mitratech’s policy management reporting to:
- Identify trends in policy usage
- Understand which rules generate questions
- Detect potential risk areas before issues arise
- Encourage friendly competition between business units on completion rates
Improved Accountability Across Teams
Management escalation emails ensure team leaders take ownership of compliance outcomes.
As Bela notes: “They understand the responsibility better… that they need to take action.”
Greater Confidence in Employee Understanding
Through quizzes, surveys, and embedded training, employees demonstrate comprehension — reducing the risk of misinterpretation, misconduct, or regulatory violations.
Measurable Improvements
- 90% completion rates for required policies and quizzes across the organization
- Faster review cycles and fewer follow-up tasks
- Standardized global governance across 21 European jurisdictions
- Reduction in manual workload for compliance teams so that they can focus on other strategic initiatives
Looking Forward + Next Steps
Mazda continues to strengthen its compliance ecosystem by integrating Mitratech Policy Management with broader internal control initiatives, whistleblowing systems, and training programs. Future focus areas include expanding analytics-backed insights, enhancing cross-department collaboration, and maintaining Mazda’s strong alignment with evolving regulatory requirements across Europe.
By integrating policy management, training, and oversight frameworks, Mazda is building a compliance culture rooted in clarity, accountability, and employee engagement.
Policy Management 
