Tag: CCO

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Compliance Into the Weeds

Rough Waters Ahead for Cruise Line CCOs


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 podcast Matt Kelly and Tom Fox take a deep dive into the recent mandate from the CDC that CEOs, CCOs and CFOs certify and attest that each employee who disembarks from a cruise ship has met the CDC requirements to do so, under potential criminal penalty. Three cruise lines, Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruises, and Norwegian Cruise Line have over 100,000 employees cooped up on ships in US ports. The CDC wants to make certain that when they come on land, it is safe for everyone.
Some of the highlights include:

  • What are the CDC requirements?
  • Why does the CDC want CEO, CCO and CFO attestation?
  • Should these corporate leaders agree to do so?
  • What is about the employees on the ships?
  • Given that at least 100 cruise ships that set sail after March 4, the first day that a passenger died of Covid-19 while on a cruise stopping in the United States, is this warranted?
  • What does it mean for potential liability going forward?

Resources
Matt Kelly blog post, Cruise Lines Face Covid-19 Compliance Squeeze

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31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

Day 24 | CCO authority and independence


The role of the CCO has steadily grown in stature and prestige over the years. In the 2012 FCPA Guidance, under Hallmark Three of the Ten Hallmarks of an Effective Compliance Program, it focused on the whether the CCO held senior management status and had a direct reporting line to the Board; stating:
In appraising a compliance program, DOJ and SEC also consider whether a company has assigned responsibility for the oversight and implementation of a company’s compliance program to one or more specific senior executives within an organization. Those individuals must have appropriate authority within the organization, adequate autonomy from management, and sufficient resources to ensure that the company’s compliance program is implemented effectively. Adequate autonomy generally includes direct access to an organization’s governing authority, such as the board of directors and committees of the board of directors.
This Hallmark was significantly expanded in both the 2019 Guidance and the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy. And in so doing, the DOJ has increased the prestige, authority and role of both the CCO and corporate compliance function. The 2019 Guidance has four general areas of inquiry around the CCO and corporate compliance function. (1) How does the CCO salary and stature within the organization compare to other senior executives within the company. (2) What are the experience and stature of the CCO with an organization? Does the CCO have appropriate training for the role? (3) How much autonomy does the CCO have to report to the Board of Directors? How often do the CCO meet with directors?  Are members of the senior management present for these meetings with the Board of Directors or of the Audit Committee? (4) Is the compliance function run by a designated chief compliance officer, or another executive within the company, and does that person have other roles within the company?
Three key takeaways:

  1. How can you show the CCO really has a seat at the senior executive table?
  2. What are the professional qualifications of your CCO?
  3. Does your CCO have true independence to report directly to the Board of Directors?
Categories
FCPA Compliance Report

Why Culture Matters-Episode 3, the Role of the CCO in Culture

Welcome to this special five-part podcast series with Jay Rosen, VP of Business Development for Affiliated Monitors, Inc. (AMI), who is the sponsor of this podcast series. Corporate culture exists in the space between what an organization professes and what it does, yet who bears the responsibility for establishing and maintaining an ethical culture? In this series Jay and I will be exploring key aspects of corporate culture, including why it matters, what influences culture, the CCOs role in culture, assessing corporate culture and how to use that information to improve culture. In this Part III, we consider to what extent the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) should be involved in shaping a culture of ethics and driving ethical behavior.
 Highlights include:

  • Who bears the responsibility for culture?
  • The duty most often falls to the CCO, so both the CCO and the entire compliance function need to be able to coordinate the various inputs and support mechanisms that guide employee behavior.
  • The CCO is often the face of the ethics program for the company – kind of the spokesperson for the company who helps to drive behavior.
  • In hiring and recruiting, a CCO can create a culture where an organization would only hire the right type of people as employees.
  • When managing upward, the CCO has an equally critical mandate through unfettered access to provide information to the Board regarding the compliance and ethics posture at the company, specifically including the culture.
  • What are the warning signs of an unethical culture?
  • It is up to the CCO to understand and have their finger on what the culture is, where the challenges are and what needs to be done to continually strengthen the culture.

Please join us for Episode 4, where we explore how a company can begin to assess its own culture.
For more information see Jay’s blog post What is the CCO’s Role in Strengthening the Organization’s Culture of Ethics?on Corporate Compliance Insights.
For more information on Affiliated Monitors, Inc. check out their website here.

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Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance-Episode 9-Dagger of the Mind


In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider the episode Dagger of the Mind which aired on November 3, 1966, Star Date 2715.1.
The Enterprise makes a supply run to planet Tantalus V, a colony where the criminally insane are confined for treatment. The facility’s director is Dr. Tristan Adams, a psychiatrist famous for advocating more humane treatment of such patients. After the Enterprise delivers supplies and receives cargo from Tantalus, a man emerges from the container taken aboard and assaults a technician. Reaching the bridge, the intruder demands asylum, but Spock subdues him with a Vulcan nerve pinch. In sickbay, the intruder identifies himself as Simon van Gelder, and a computer check reveals that he is not a patient, but Dr. Adams’ assistant.
On the Enterprise van Gelder becomes increasingly frantic, warning that the landing party is in danger. Spock learns that the neural neutralizer can empty a mind of thoughts, leaving only an unbearable feeling of loneliness and that Adams has been using it on inmates and staff to gain total control of their minds.
Kirk decides to test the neutralizer on himself, with Noel at the controls. Adams appears, overpowers Noel, seizes the controls, increases the neutralizer’s intensity, and proceeds to convince Kirk that he has been madly in love with Noel for years. Adams inadvertently reactivates the neural neutralizer, emptying his mind completely, killing him. Back on the Enterprise, Kirk is informed that van Gelder has destroyed the neural neutralizer. McCoy is surprised that loneliness could be lethal, but Kirk, after his experience, is not.

Compliance Takeaways:
  1. Be careful at Christmas parties.
  2. How do you test new protocols?
  3. How you treat your direct reports is critical for your success as a CCO.
Resources
Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein for Daggerof the Mind
MissionLogPodcast.com-Daggerof the Mind
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Great Women in Compliance

Episode 19-Stacey Hanna on Evolving with Compliance

On this episode of Great Women in Compliance, Lisa Fine speaks with Stacey Hanna, General Counsel, Ethics & Compliance at Lonza, which is an  integrated solutions provider in the areas of pharma and biotech, and is headquartered in Switzerland. While Stacey started as an attorney, she was in the mergers and acquisition world, and how this influences her approach to ethics and compliance.  She discusses the evolution of her organization’s compliance program and how she works to promote business growth, discussing some real-life examples and strategies to build relationships as a compliance officer. Stacey also discusses evolution in other areas, including work and life complimenting one another and in the compliance space as a whole.
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Across the Board

Across the Board – Episode 3: Not Enough Time/Not Enough Depth

In this special 5-part podcast series, I am visiting with David Greenberg, Special Advisor at LRN. We take a deep dive into the LRN White Paper entitled, “What’s the Tone at the Very Top: Board and Compliance: The Role of Boards in Overseeing Corporate Ethics & Compliance”. In this podcast series we explore the white paper in depth and provide the Chief Compliance Officer and compliance practitioner with succinct and practical tips for educating, dealing with and reporting to a Board of Directors. In Episode 3, we consider many CECO’s concern that Boards do not dedicate sufficient time and priority to compliance nor go into sufficient depth into compliance programs and potential outcomes . Some of the highlights from the podcast include:

  • Why don’t Boards put in more time around E&C programs?
  • Why is compliance often the last item on the Board agenda and equally as often, left off for later?
  • CECOs want to be challenged by their Boards but often are not.
  • Does your Board have a compliance game plan?
  • Why don’t BODs go deeper into E&C programs? How would they do so?
  • Are Boards even asking the right questions?

Check out the LRN White Paper What’s the Tone at the Very Top: Board and Compliance: the Role of Boards in Overseeing Corporate Ethics & Complianceby clicking here.

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Across the Board

Across the Board – Episode 5: The Road Ahead

Over this special 5-part podcast series, I have visited with David Greenberg, Special Advisor at LRN. We take a deep dive into the LRN White Paper entitled, “What’s the Tone at the Very Top: Board and Compliance: The Role of Boards in Overseeing Corporate Ethics & Compliance”. In this podcast series we explore the white paper in depth and provide the Chief Compliance Officer and compliance practitioner with succinct and practical tips for educating, dealing with and reporting to a Board of Directors. In this fifth and final episode, we look at the road ahead. The White Paper stated, “Over time, the gulf between CECOs and boards should be bridgeable. We believe the bridge should be built quickly. The sooner that CECOs have the board’s ear – and that directors are fully aware of what CECOs and the initiatives they lead can bring to the table –the stronger and more resilient their companies will be.
Some of the highlights from the podcast include:

  • What practical steps should be taken to engage the board more actively and effectively in ethics and compliance oversight?
  1. More time, higher priority, stronger signals from boards in ethics and compliance oversight.
  2. Boards need to question whether ethics and compliance are genuinely integral to business operations.
  3. Elevate the CECO and establish direct and confidential reporting lines?
  • What lays on the road ahead?

Check out the LRN White Paper What’s the Tone at the Very Top: Board and Compliance: the Role of Boards in Overseeing Corporate Ethics & Complianceby clicking here.

Categories
Across the Board

Across the Board – Episode 2: BOD Understanding and the Game Plan

In this special 5-part podcast series, I am visiting with David Greenberg, Special Advisor at LRN. We take a deep dive into the LRN White Paper entitled, “What’s the Tone at the Very Top: Board and Compliance: The Role of Boards in Overseeing Corporate Ethics & Compliance”. In this podcast series we explore the white paper in depth and provide the Chief Compliance Officer and compliance practitioner with succinct and practical tips for educating, dealing with and reporting to a Board of Directors. In Episode 2, we consider the average Board of Director’s knowledge of compliance and your game plan going forward. Some of the highlights from the podcast include:

  • Why don’t Boards have a better understanding of the compliance function within their organization?
  • Why do BOD’s have such little knowledge of the CECO role?
  • Why does the BOD tend to focus on what has passed rather forward looking?
  • Does your Board have a compliance game plan?
  • Why does a BOD need to develop a framework for discussing, evaluating, and measuring ethics and compliance?
  • Why should BODs relate ethics and compliance to their companies’ core strategy and be able to have a sufficient point of view to guide and oversee it?

Check out the LRN White Paper What’s the Tone at the Very Top: Board and Compliance: the Role of Boards in Overseeing Corporate Ethics & Complianceby clicking here.

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Innovation in Compliance

Making Compliance Training Fun with Andrew Rawson


What if compliance training didn’t have to be boring? Joining us on this episode is Andrew Rawson, the Chief Learning Officer for Traliant, a compliance training company. Today we’re talking about the future of compliance training: how to make it truly effective, useful, and even fun.

The importance of training
The last couple of years have seen the intersection of two seismic forces that have created tremendous demand for quality training. The first was the #MeToo movement, which has brought up the whole topic of compliance training around sexual harassment — so much so that it’s become a need to have instead of a nice to have, even in states where it isn’t required. The second was a change in regulations in different states across the country, now requiring more than 10 million people to be trained.
Effective compliance training
There is a difference between teaching people about the law and teaching them what to do. At Traliant, they wanted to train people how to behave. What do you do when you’re faced with a particular situation? That should be the focus.
The training is also intentionally more modern: well-designed interfaces, interactive videos, professional actors, point systems, getting senior management to record training segments for their peers  — all of which help make learning more engaging.
An important part of making training effective is making sure that people are encouraged to speak up, and that when they do, they’ll be protected. You might not be able to stop bad actors, but you can encourage witnesses to point out the behavior.
Moving away from check-the-box training
Much of compliance training is very check-the-box: a once-a-year thing that companies do to get it over with. But that’s not an effective approach. Traliant has gone from doing one-and-done sessions to creating a more holistic training approach. Examples are 15-20 minute courses for managers involved in investigations and two-minute training videos on dating in the workplace that they call “sparks” — because they’re meant to spark conversations.
Preventing Workplace Sexual Harassment: 4 Top Trends for 2019

  1.  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is keeping workplace harassment training front and center, remaining one of its top priorities.
  2. Harassment training continues to evolve, and we’re seeing a shift from helping companies avoid liability to helping people behave properly.
  3. Training is highly state-driven, given their different requirements. So Traliant has built a platform where people can access the training relevant to them, instead of a one-size-fits-all course.
  4. There is a focus on building respectful, inclusive work cultures that embrace compliance training not because they have to, but because they want to.

Resources
Andrew Rawson (LinkedIn)
Traliant (Website)
Preventing Workplace Sexual Harassment: 4 Top Trends for 2019

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Compliance Into the Weeds Daily Compliance News

Compliance into the Weeds: Episode 118-Hotline Metrics

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, Matt Kelly (the coolest guy in compliance) and I take a deep dive into recently released NAVEX Global 2019 Ethics & Compliance Hotline Benchmark Report. We consider the details from the report and ask the following question “are you using all the right intake channels to capture a true sense of misconduct and corporate culture at your organization?” Some of the highlights include:

Some of the highlights include:

  • What are the intake channels available to your organization?
  • If you are only tracking complaints through a formal system, you may well be missing a wider variety and rich source of information.
  • Moving your intake past simply what the law requires will give you a much better accounting of your organization’s culture.
  • How can you improve your intake?
  • Has closure time for reported increase or decrease?
  • What has been the continued impact of #MeToo?

For more reading check out Matt’s blog post “Hotline Metrics-are you missing any?”
To read the full NAVEX Global 2019 Ethics & Compliance Hotline Benchmark Report, click here.