Categories
31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

Compliance Gap Analysis for HR


Hopefully you now understand that many of the traditional functions of HR can be seen as compliance internal controls. At every touchpoint in the lifecycle of the employment relationship there is a HR touchpoint. Fulfilling those touchpoints can be controls for compliance. If you think of multiple HR functions as compliance internal controls, one of the questions becomes how can you determine if HR is meeting the standards of a best practices compliance program? One place to start is with a gap analysis to determine what HR has in place that can facilitate your company’s compliance program.
Finally,  work with HR to create a consolidated Human Resources Compliance Audit Checklist that can be used to audit (and document) the company’s HR Compliance Program. The key to compliance, in my opinion, is having the proper structure to identify the issues, implement policies and procedures to address the issues, audit for compliance and “Document, Document, and Document”.
 Three key takeaways:

  1. A gap analysis is a key component in the risk assessment process.
  2. The ultimate responsibility should lie with the business units and functional discipline to fully operationalize compliance.
  3. The role of the compliance department is to oversee, provide subject matter expertise and coordinate.

 

Categories
Popcorn and Compliance

Leadership Lessons from Out of Africa


Richard Lummis and I are back. Today, continue our annual review of Oscar winning Best Pictures and the leadership lessons drawn from them. Over the next four weeks we will consider the following movies: Casablanca, Rocky, The Greatest Show on Earth and Out of Africa. Today, we conclude our series with Out of Africa.
Highlights of this podcast include:

  1. What are our favorites scenes from the movie?
  2. What are the leadership lessons from Karen Blixen?
  3. What are the leadership lessons from Denys Finch Hatton?
  4. Is your business resilient?
  5. Culture outside the US?
  6. Do these lessons from this movie hold up today?

Resources
Leadership Lessons from Out of Africa
Study Guide to Out of Africa
A Historian Goes to the Movies
Out of Africa – 10 Inspirational Quotes from Karen Blixen

Categories
The Walden Pond

Insights Without Exposure with Ishaan Nerurkar


 
Ishaan Nerurkar is the Founder and CEO of LeapYear Technologies. He chats with Vince Walden about his company, in particular, the technology that they have developed. Ishaan gives his background in the fields of data and research, and how it birthed LeapYear. He noticed that every heavily regulated industry had challenges with regards to sharing and using sensitive data, and that, while there were solutions, they were unable to prevent the data from being compromised. His company, LeapYear, has created technology to answer the next-generation problem of how to make sensitive data available without exposing the raw data itself, what Ishaan calls “differential privacy.” He describes differential privacy as a lens with a gradient of transparency to opacity as isolation of data increases.
Listen to the episode now:

Vince asks what separates LeapYear’s technology from open source tools. Ishaan shares the key difference between their technology and open source libraries: open-source libraries are designed primarily for research purposes, so they provide tools to obtain that research. They do not provide protection. LeapYear’s technology, on the other hand, is a layer on top of your data whose purpose is to ensure that insights can be obtained without exposing the raw data underneath. LeapYear Technologies’ other purpose is to educate the community on how they can protect their data.
Resources
Ishaan Nerurkar on LinkedIn
LeapYear Technologies

Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

Airbus-Part 4, Cecilia Fellouse-Guenkel on the French Perspective


In this special 5-part podcast series on the FCPA Compliance Report, I am considering the Airbus international anti-corruption enforcement action from a variety of perspectives from some of the top world’s top compliance practitioners and commentators on compliance. They include, Jay Rosen-Mr. Monitor; Mike Volkov-Editor of Corruption Crime and Compliance; Jonathan Armstrong-partner at Cordery Compliance in London; Cecilia Fellouse-Guenkel-Secretary General, The Circle of Compliance and Tom Fox-the Compliance Evangelist. In today’s Episode 4, Cecilia Fellouse-Guenkel discusses what the Airbus enforcement means for compliance in France, French companies and French compliance practitioners.
Highlights include:

  • What was the role of French prosecutors in the Airbus anti-corruption enforcement action?
  • Why is the Airbus enforcement action so critical to the success of Sapin II?
  • What are the three key takeaways for the compliance professional?
  • How should the Board of Directors of a French company respond?
  • Why is culture the critical question?
Categories
Daily Compliance News

February 27, 2020, the Hoskins FCPA verdict edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • GOP chair of SEC voted against penalizing Wells Fargo. (Bloomberg)
  • Another rich, white guy embroiled in sex trafficking allegations. (WSJ)
  • CFPB decides its job is to protect debt holders, not consumers. (Washington Post)
  • Hoskins FCPA convictions overturned by trial court. (FCPA Blog)
Categories
Great Women in Compliance

Ellen Hunt on Succeeding As a CCO: Strategy and Practical Advice From Day 1


Welcome to the Great Women in Compliance Podcast, co-hosted by Lisa Fine and Mary Shirley.
In today’s episode of Great Women in Compliance, Lisa speaks with Ellen Hunt, who is the Senior Vice President and Audit, Ethics and Compliance Officer for AARP.  Ellen has accomplished so much for the compliance community, in the field and is a friend, advocate and mentor to a lot of people, Lisa and Mary included.
Following along from the episode a few weeks ago about a dream compliance team, this discussion is about what makes a great Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer (although the title may differ from place to place).
The discussion includes a discussion of what the roles and responsibilities are and should be for a new CECO.  This includes some thought about how to manage expectations of a Board and executive team, including the idea of looking at a program and seeing what may not be needed before adding new initiatives.
Ellen also talks about the best ways to lead a team, balancing the needs of high performers with other team members as a new CECO.  She provides a few practical strategies that anyone can use at any time with their teams or within the organization.
Join the Great Women in Compliance community on LinkedIn here.

Categories
Compliance Into the Weeds

Barr Sentencing Memo and Trump Pardons


Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. In this episode we take a deep dive into Donald Trump ordering (via Twitter) the AG to reduce the length of sentence requested for Roger Stone and his pardons of 13 convicted white-collar criminals.
Some of the highlights include:

  • What is the background to the Barr Sentencing Memo?
  • Can white collar defense lawyers use the DOJ reasoning to decouple of the sentencing guidelines?
  • What does all this mean for corporate culture?
  • When will Trump start attacking companies for doing business ethically?
  • What are the implications for the compliance discipline and CCO?
  • What tensions does all this create for the corporate compliance and corporate legal functions?
  • What happens when arbitrary behavior emanates from the top of an organization?

Resources
Matt Kelly blog post, Lessons from Justice Department Meltdown

Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

Airbus-Part 3, Jonathan Armstrong on the UK-SFO Enforcement


In this special 5-part podcast series on the FCPA Compliance Report, I am considering the Airbus international anti-corruption enforcement action from a variety of perspectives from some of the top world’s top compliance practitioners and commentators on compliance. They include, Jay Rosen-Mr. Monitor; Mike Volkov-Editor of Corruption Crime and Compliance; Jonathan Armstrong-partner at Cordery Compliance in London; Cecilia Fellouse-Guenkel-Secretary General, The Circle of Compliance and Tom Fox-the Compliance Evangelist. In today’s Episode 3, Jonathan Armstrong considers the UK’s Serious Fraud Office role in the enforcement involving Airbus.
Highlights include:

  • The transparency in the UK-Deferred Prosecution Agreement process allows greater information to for the compliance professional.
  • What are the key differences in the UK and US DPA process?
  • The breadth and scope of the UK investigation.
  • The UK-DPA is not the end of the story as there may well be significant individual enforcement actions going forward.
  • What does Airbus mean for the new SFO style of anti-bribery enforcement action?

Resources
Cordery Compliance Client Alert on the Airbus enforcement action here.

Categories
Daily Compliance News

February 26, 2020, the Altuve Plunked edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • SAP in deep trouble in South Africa. (Fin24)
  • Trump says there is no coronavirus problem but asks Congress for $1.8bn to fight it. (Washington Post)
  • Spying in the luxury hotel world. (WSJ)
  • Altuve plunked in first at bat in preseason. (247Sports)
Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Ethics and Compliance In The Morning Show with Sean Freidlin


 
This week’s guest on the Innovation In Compliance show is Sean Freidlin, Director of Product Marketing at SAI Global. He and Tom Fox chat about the article he recently posted on LinkedIn, Rise and Shine: The Morning Show’s Wakeup Call to Corporate America.
 

 
Overlapping Themes
Sean says that the central themes in movies often overlap with the common themes in ethics and compliance programs. In particular, he noticed that Apple’s flagship program, The Morning Show, tackles almost every issue that compliance teams build training about or write about in their code of conduct. Issues such as sexual harassment, diversity and inclusion, whistleblowing and retaliation are issues that many companies deal with. Sean comments that he applauds the risk Apple took to make the show, which shows their commitment to speak up about abuse of power when they see it.
Compliance and Ethics Issues
Tom asks Sean what is the general story arc of The Morning Show. Sean summarizes the plot, which includes a sexual harassment scandal, and comments that the show explores the butterfly effect on the culture and the people working there, as well as the corporate politics that are involved in managing a scandal. Sexual harassment is one of the top two issues that ethics and compliance professionals have focused on in the last year, according to Sean. He highlights several lessons ethics and compliance professionals can garner from the show, including:

  • Some people don’t know what isn’t allowed;
  • There should be a deeper commitment to communicating company values and policies;
  • The show highlights the role personal connections and relationships play in perpetuating a culture where people don’t do the right thing.

A Dilemma
You might find it harder to do the right thing if you like your boss or your colleague, but you know they’re doing something wrong. Your relationship with that person may cloud your judgment, Sean says. A positive and ethical leader has a positive influence on employees’ behavior; but a manager or leader who disregards the rules, policies and values of the company, will negatively affect everyone else. The bottom line, Sean points out, is that relationships are an essential part of a compliant organization or a culture where people do the right thing. 
Tom quotes a line from Sean’s article, “Successful and powerful men can manage to survive and even thrive on their charm and influence, despite the unethical and immoral choices they make.” He and Sean discuss the moral and ethical dilemma of doing the wrong thing if it will help you be more successful.
The Reality of Whistleblowing
Sean says that The Morning Show does an excellent job of exploring what happens after you blow the whistle. A common mantra today is ‘If you see something, you should say something,’ However, saying something is just the beginning, Sean says. The one who blows the whistle faces more than just retaliation: the emotional impact is even weightier. That person has to live with the stress of knowing that the misconduct they reported is ultimately going to be the catalyst for so much drama, such as people losing their jobs, and the company losing money.
Resources
Rise and Shine: The Morning Show’s Wakeup Call to Corporate America 
Sean Freidlin on LinkedIn
SAIGlobal.com
sean.freidlin@saiglobal.com