Andy Hinton joined #NotMe as an advisor. He says that the move is “just a continuation of the mission that I had at Google and GE, which is to leverage the employee population to help organizations do better when it comes to risk detection, risk monitoring, and ultimately, risk management.” Ariel Weindling is the founder of #NotMe. His motivation was to try to solve the problem of misconduct, which he felt was being tackled very inefficiently. He says that he wanted his daughter to have a tool she could use to be safe in the workplace, so she would not be a victim or a witness of misconduct. Both men join Tom Fox on this week’s show for an interesting look at the #NotMe tool and how it helps organizations keep employees safe.
An Employee First Approach
Andy says that #NotMe has the right approach by putting employees first. He comments that it is “a tectonic shift” as other services are focused on the organization’s needs rather than serving and supporting employees. The goal of #NotMe is to change workplace culture and to make workplaces safe for everyone. Tom asks how they can implement that goal. Ariel responds, “We believe that safety is key in the workplace. Whether we are speaking about psychological safety or physical safety, they are key to an organization. They’re key to an employee because employees are not gonna do good work if they are not safe. Safety benefits all stakeholders of the company.” He goes on to explain that misconduct is really about an abuse of power, and shares the two ways #NotMe addresses this issue. “[We want] companies to stop looking at an employee report as a liability, but rather as an opportunity to listen, to discuss, to communicate, and to course-correct.”
A Robust Reporting System Enhances Profitability
Tom cites research that companies with a robust reporting system tend to be more profitable. Andy agrees and adds, “The ability to energize and engage employees to do a better job around risk identification, risk reporting, and risk management is truly a potentially tremendous asset for an organization… When it’s appropriately leveraged, it does make the organization better… [in] profitability and revenue generation.” Ariel describes the features of the #NotMe app as well as the dashboard. The difference between #NotMe and other tools, he says, is that #NotMe belongs to the employee so it preserves and maintains their anonymity throughout. Andy points out that using an independent tool like #NotMe is essentially leveraging your employee population to help you manage risk.”
Prevention Starts with Reporting
Preventing workplace misconduct starts with reporting. Tom comments that #NotMe can provide continuous information that would help an organization continuously improve its compliance program. Andy adds, “#NotMe is an easy way to do that. By deploying it, promoting it you express to your employees that you are taking these issues seriously, and you’re doing fundamental concrete things to address them.”
Resources
Not-Me.com
Ariel@not-me.com
Andy Hinton on LinkedIn
Welcome to a special five-part podcast series where I take a deep dive into the Miller & Chevalier Chartered Latin American Corruption Survey. Over this five-part series I will visit with firm lawyers James Tillen, Matt Ellis, Alexandra Almonte and Greg Bates. Miller & Chevalier and 14 partner firms have tracked perspectives on anti-corruption issues in the region since 2008. It is the most comprehensive survey on the perception of corruption in Latin America.
This year, 54 percent of survey respondents said corruption is a significant obstacle to doing business – up 10 percent since 2012 – while only 45 percent of respondents believe offenders are likely to be prosecuted, down from 66 percent in 2008. Despite Latin America’s anti-corruption progress over the last decade this new survey data reveals corruption risk to be at an all-time high across the region.
In this Episode 2, I visit with firm Member Matt Ellis on some of the Survey’s findings on country specific corruption issues. Some of the highlights include:
- What countries in the region are seen as most corrupt?
- What were some of the most surprising country-specific findings?
- Brazil has been so active in recent years in leading corruption investigations and cooperating with other countries. What does the data say about Brazil?
- Mexico is a focus right now given the various investigations surrounding Pemex. What does the data say about Mexico corruption risk?
- Do any countries buck the trend of more perceived corruption risk?
- The Notebooks Scandal in Argentina was a surprising development. What are Argentines saying about their own anti-corruption laws and efforts?
Join us in our next episode where we explore some of the Survey’s high-level findings on compliance trends with Alejandra Almonte.
For more information on the Miller & Chevalier Chartered 2020 Latin American Corruption Survey, click here. The Survey is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
- SEC uses risk based approach for enforcement. (SEC Press Release)
- Why it all starts at the top. (FT)
- Uber wins back license to operate in London. (WSJ)
- Trump paid $750 in taxes for the years 2017 & 2016. (NYT)
Categories
Episode 030–Joey Coleman
On this episode of The Ethics Experts, Gio speaks with Joey Coleman about engaging with your employees, paying attention to them, and how “compliance” isn’t a restriction after all.
Check out more episodes, and don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform!
CONVERGE is in its 5th year of bringing together the world’s leading companies for 2 days of dynamic speakers, thought-provoking breakout sessions, and opportunities to connect with like-minded professionals. This year the conference has gone virtual. You will leave the conference with new resources and best practices allowing you to continue the hard work of driving ethics to the center of your business. In today’s episode I visit with Sam Silverstein. We visit about his breakout at Converge20 on The Accountability Workshop.
What is Accountability and why have your been getting it wrong. More importantly with the renewed DOJ emphasis on Culture, Culture Assessment, Continuous Monitoring and Continuous Improvement, how can you use Accountability to drive the desired behaviors and satisfy the DOJ. For more registration and information on Converge20, click here.
Next, consider what COSO says about assessing compliance internal controls. In its Illustrative Guide, COSO laid out its views on “how to assess the effectiveness of its internal controls.” It went on to note, “An effective system of internal controls provides reasonable assurance of achievement of the entity’s objectives, relating to operations, reporting and compliance.” Moreover, there are two over-arching requirements that can only be met through such a structured post. First, each of the five components are present and functioning. Second, are the five components “operating together in an integrated approach.” One of the most critical components of the COSO 2013 Internal Controls Framework is that it sets internal control standards against those which you can audit to assess the strength of your compliance internal controls.
Under a compliance regime, you may be faced with known or relevant criteria to classify any deficiency. For example, if written policies do not have at a minimum the categories of policies laid out in the 2020 FCPA Resource Guide, which states “the nature and extent of transactions with foreign governments, including payments to foreign officials; use of third parties; gifts, travel, and entertainment expenses; charitable and political donations; and facilitating and expediting payments”, also formulated in the Illustrative Guide, such a finding would preclude management from “concluding that the entity has met the requirements for effective internal controls in accordance with the Framework.”
Three key takeaways:
- A new revenue recognition standard has become effective. What have you done from the compliance perspective?
- This new revenue recognition standard is much more judgment based and when a standard is more judgment based, there can be more room for manipulation.
- Compliance internal controls now can also be used to gather the information which will be presented to auditors under the new rev rec standard.
Welcome to a special five-part podcast series where I take a deep dive into the Miller & Chevalier Chartered 2020 Latin American Corruption Survey. Over this five-part series I will visit with firm lawyers James Tillen, Matt Ellis, Alexandra Almonte and Greg Bates. Miller & Chevalier and 14 partner firms have tracked perspectives on anti-corruption issues in the region since 2008. It is the most comprehensive survey on the perception of corruption in Latin America.
This year, 54 percent of survey respondents said corruption is a significant obstacle to doing business – up 10 percent since 2012 – while only 45 percent of respondents believe offenders are likely to be prosecuted, down from 66 percent in 2008. Despite Latin America’s anti-corruption progress over the last decade this new survey data reveals corruption risk to be at an all-time high across the region.
In this Episode 1, I visit with firm Member James Tillen on the Survey’s findings on region-wide corruption risks and region-wide perceptions of corruption and effectiveness of local anti-corruption laws. Some of the highlights include:
- Miller has been tracking views of corruption risk in the region since 2008. How do businesspeople perceive corruption risk in this Survey v. prior years?
- What kind of questions did Miller ask respondents to inform these perceptions of risk?
- What is the significance, if any, that risk has gone up at the same time that enforcement has gone up in the region over the last 10 or so years?
- What areas of government in the region are seen as most corrupt and least corrupt?
Join us in our next episode where we explore Survey findings on some country-specific corruption issues with Matt Ellis.
For more information on the Miller & Chevalier Chartered 2020 Latin American Corruption Survey, click here. The Survey is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.