Tag: Speak up culture

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Great Women in Compliance

Great Women in Compliance: Roxanne Petraeus and Susan Divers on Building a Listen Up Culture

In this episode of Great Women in Compliance, Hemma and Sarah visit with Roxanne Petraeus and Susan Frank Divers to talk about intentionally building a “Listen Up” culture. Tune in to hear the powerful origin stories of two great women in compliance who have been moved to drive significant impact in this space, from enterprising business solutions, to innovative learning and development strategies, to thoughtful approaches to measuring culture and employee sentiment as a measure of success.

Highlights include the ways in which listening builds trust, how to measure impact, not activity, how to achieve integrated risk management, how to design your employee training with employee experience and employee sentiment in mind, and despite our aspirational claims to be building a strong speak up culture, how our employees will always be the actual arbiter of our success.

You can learn more about Roxanne and Susan’s work at www.ethena.com.

Biographies:

Roxanne Petraeus is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ethena, a compliance training platform startup with intuitive and powerful admin tools that make required training easy, engaging, and effective.

Roxanne previously consulted for McKinsey, and before that, she was an officer in the US Army. She found that no matter the setting, whether consulting or in the military, there remained an opportunity to make compliance training better. She started Ethena in 2019 with Co-Founder Anne Solmssen.

Ethena enjoys incredibly positive word of mouth within the HR community, and is trusted by thousands of companies like Figma, Notion, Noom, Pinterest, and Carta to provide actionable training. And the employees love it: Ethena has a 93% positive rating, and over 2M positive reviews. Roxanne is a natural leader, and her eagerness to question and reinvent old paradigms is at the heart of Ethena’s ascendance.

Susan Frank Divers serves as an advisor to Ethena, Inc., an all-in-one compliance training platform that helps companies create more ethical and inclusive work cultures. Prior to joining Ethena, she was the director of thought leadership and best practices for LRN Corporation for seven years.

She has 30+ years’ accomplishments and experience in the ethics and compliance arena. This expertise includes building state-of-the-art compliance and training programs, designing user-friendly means of engaging and informing employees, fostering an embedded culture of compliance, and sharing substantial subject matter expertise in anti-corruption, export controls, sanctions, and other key areas of compliance.

Prior to joining LRN, Ms. Divers served as AECOM’s Assistant General for Global Ethics & Compliance and Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer. Under her leadership, AECOM’s ethics and compliance program garnered six external awards in recognition of its effectiveness and Ms. Divers’ thought leadership in the ethics field. In 2011, Ms. Divers received the AECOM CEO Award of Excellence, which recognized her work in advancing the company’s ethics and compliance program.

#GWIC is proud to announce that it has been nominated for the WomenInPodcastAwards.  This is a people’s choice award and whether you vote for #GWIC or other nominees, we ask that you send the elevator back down by voting. Voting opens August 1, 2024, and details can be found on the #GWIC LinkedIn page at http://www.linkedin.com/groups/12156164

Resources:

Join the Great Women in Compliance community on LinkedIn here.

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Compliance Tip of the Day

Compliance Tip of the Day: How a Culture of Speak Up Improves Corporate Culture

Welcome to “Compliance Tip of the Day,” the podcast where we bring you daily insights and practical advice on navigating the ever-evolving landscape of compliance and regulatory requirements.

Whether you’re a seasoned compliance professional or just starting your journey, our aim is to provide you with bite-sized, actionable tips to help you stay on top of your compliance game.

Join us as we explore the latest industry trends, share best practices, and demystify complex compliance issues to keep your organization on the right side of the law.

Tune in daily for your dose of compliance wisdom, and let’s make compliance a little less daunting, one tip at a time.

In this episode, we explore how a culture of speaking up improves corporate culture.

For more information on the Ethico ROI Calculator and a free White Paper on the ROI of Compliance, click here.

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Compliance Tip of the Day

Compliance Tip of the Day: The ROI of a Culture of Speak Up

Welcome to “Compliance Tip of the Day,” the podcast where we bring you daily insights and practical advice on navigating the ever-evolving landscape of compliance and regulatory requirements.

Whether you’re a seasoned compliance professional or just starting your journey, our aim is to provide you with bite-sized, actionable tips to help you stay on top of your compliance game.

Join us as we explore the latest industry trends, share best practices, and demystify complex compliance issues to keep your organization on the right side of the law.

Tune in daily for your dose of compliance wisdom, and let’s make compliance a little less daunting, one tip at a time.

In this episode, we explore the ROI of a speak-up culture.

For more information on the Ethico ROI Calculator and a free White Paper on the ROI of Compliance, click here.

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Compliance Tip of the Day

Compliance Tip of the Day: Benefits of a Speak Up Culture

Welcome to “Compliance Tip of the Day,” the podcast where we bring you daily insights and practical advice on navigating the ever-evolving landscape of compliance and regulatory requirements.

Whether you’re a seasoned compliance professional or just starting your journey, our aim is to provide you with bite-sized, actionable tips to help you stay on top of your compliance game.

Join us as we explore the latest industry trends, share best practices, and demystify complex compliance issues to keep your organization on the right side of the law. Tune in daily for your dose of compliance wisdom, and let’s make compliance a little less daunting, one tip at a time.

In this episode, we discuss some of the benefits of a culture of speak up and reporting

For more information on the Ethico ROI Calculator and a free White Paper on the ROI of Compliance, click here.

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31 Days to More Effective Compliance Programs

One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program Through Culture – Day 15 – The ROI of a Culture of Speak Up

We are now at a place where there is sufficient data, academic research, and actual use cases from corporations and businesses that demonstrate good ethics and compliance programs are not simply good for business but when properly used, they lead to greater profitability.

For 15 years, Ethisphere has been collecting data around its World’s Most Ethical Company awards. Companies that receive this designation have been found to outperform their peers on various stock indices. Ethisphere calls this the “Ethics Premium.” Ethisphere Executive Vice President (EVP) Erica Salmon Byrne has noted, “In tracking how the stock prices of publicly traded honorees compare to the U.S. Large Cap Index, we found that listed World’s Most Ethical Companies outperformed the large cap sector.” In 2010 that number was a delta of 4.5%. Yet by 2020, that number had skyrocketed to 13.5%. Clearly, Ethisphere has been on to something.

Academic research has also shown the efficacy of ethics and compliance programs. George Serafeim and Paul M. Healy demonstrated in their paper, An Analysis of Firm’s Self-Reported Anti-Corruption Efforts, that companies with robust compliance programs do better financially in countries prone to corruption than companies with less effective compliance programs. Without a robust compliance program, even with high sales in a high-risk country, the sales will drop off and lead to a negative Return on Equity (ROE) of between 24% to 30%.

Dr. Kyle Welch, Assistant Professor at George Washington University (GWU), in his paper, co-authored with Stephen Stubben, Associate Professor from The University of Utah, entitled “Evidence on the Use and Efficacy of Internal Whistleblowing Systems” (Report). In this paper, Welch and Stubben reviewed some 15 years of anonymized data from NAVEX Global, Inc. This data was from the company’s hotline reporting systems. Some of the key findings included that companies with a robust whistleblower and reporting system had greater profitability and workforce productivity as measured by Return on Assets (ROA) there were fewer material lawsuits brought against the company overall and there were lower settlement costs if a lawsuit did occur. Finally, there were fewer external whistleblower reports to regulatory agencies and other authorities.

 Three key takeaways:

1. It’s not simply speaking up, it’s a culture of speaking up.

2. Companies with speak-up culture, have a material reduction in legal fines and penalties.

3. Use Companies with a speak-up culture, to have a higher ROI.

Do you want to improve your culture? How can you assess your culture and develop a strategy to improve it going forward? In this free webinar on the new tool, The Culture Audit with Tom Fox and Sam Silverstein on Tuesday, November 28, 12 CT. For more information and registration, click here.

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Innovation in Compliance

Breaking the Silence: How Speaking Up Enhances Corporate Cultures – Tom Fox on the ROI of a Speak Up Culture

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series on enhancing corporate culture through a great speak-up regime. This podcast series is sponsored by Case IQ. Over this series, Tom Fox will visit with Sharlyn Lauby, Jakub Ficner, Kenneth McCarthy, and Meric Bloch on the different facets of a great speak-up regime and how each of those facets will improve your corporate culture. They will tackle such topics as the indicia of a great corporate culture, the importance of triage and internal investigations in improving corporate culture, non-retaliation and protections for those who speak up, tying your entire system of speaking up to improving culture, and conclude with some thoughts on how an entire system of speaking up drives corporate culture to be better run and, at the end of the day, more profitably. In this concluding Part 5, Tom Fox discusses the ROI of a true culture of speaking up.

Strong reporting systems and a robust corporate culture must be balanced in business efficiency. One great academic paper demonstrates how companies with robust whistleblower and reporting systems enjoy greater profitability, increased workforce productivity, and fewer material lawsuits. Tom has seen firsthand the transformative power of a culture of speaking up. He emphasizes that it’s about having a hotline and an entire system with employee engagement. This culture of ‘SpeakUp’ can provide actionable information to prevent, detect, and remediate issues before they become legal violations and can contribute to a functioning and ethical corporate culture. A culture of trust and empowerment ultimately leads to motivated employees who can contribute to business efficiency and greater profitability. Join Tom Fox on this Breaking the Silence: How Speaking Up Enhances Corporate Culture podcast episode to delve deeper into this fascinating topic.

Key Highlights:

  • Academic research
  • Q2C and P2P
  • Material differences

Resources:

Case IQ

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Blog

Improving Your Compliance Program Through a Culture of Speak Up

I recently concluded a podcast series with Case IQ. Over this series, I visited with Sharlyn Lauby, Jakub Ficner, Kenneth McCarthy, and Meric Bloch on the different facets of a great speak-up regime and how each of those facets will improve your corporate culture. We tackled such topics as the indicia of a great corporate culture, the importance of triage and internal investigations in improving corporate culture, non-retaliation and protections for those who speak up, tying your entire system of speaking up to improving culture, and will conclude with some thoughts on how an entire system of speaking up drives corporate culture to be better run and more profitably. This blog post series will expand on these topics. In Part 4, we will consider how to improve your overall compliance program through a robust culture of speaking up with Meric Bloch.

Meric Bloch is passionate about investigations. Meric created the Winter Method® for conducting workplace investigations, a methodology emphasizing root-cause analysis and business-related guidance. The Winter Method is a framework for investigators to consider the business risks created when misconduct arises. He designed, implemented, and managed workplace-investigations processes globally for three multinational companies and a healthcare system. He has trained thousands of HR, internal audit, legal, and compliance professionals to conduct investigations.

Meric has conducted over 800 internal fraud and serious workplace misconduct investigations globally. He has extensive professional experience counseling business executives on the legal and business issues arising from investigations. He is on the faculty of the Society of Corporate Investigations and Ethics’ Investigations and Ethics Academy, as well as a member of its Board of Directors. Finally, Meric is a Certified Fraud Examiner, a Certified Financial Crime Specialist, a Certified Information Privacy Professional – Europe, a Professional Certified Investigator, and a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional-Fellow.

Workplace investigations are crucial in maintaining a culture of compliance within organizations. Meric, who specializes in training investigators and improving investigation processes, emphasized the need for organizations to create a culture where employees feel comfortable reporting issues and understand their role. He highlighted the challenge of integrating a culture of speaking up within organizations, stating that it goes beyond just setting up a hotline and establishing policies. Instead, organizations need to understand who is speaking up and why.

One of the key points raised by Meric is the importance of making speaking up meaningful and credible. He pointed out that companies often must communicate what should be reported, leading to employee clarity. To address this, organizations need to go beyond generic statements and provide specific guidance on what constitutes a reportable issue. By doing so, employees will better understand their role and the importance of their contribution to maintaining compliance.

Another challenge highlighted by Meric is the need for follow-up interviews and reporter education. He stressed the need for organizations to engage with reporters and gather additional information to understand better the context and potential gaps in the initial report. This not only helps in conducting thorough investigations but also ensures that reporters feel valued and supported throughout the process.

Meric also discussed the importance of addressing friction points within organizations. He mentioned that employees often hesitate to speak up due to concerns about the involvement of headquarters or fear of retaliation. Organizations must actively address these concerns and create an environment where employees feel safe and supported when reporting issues.

Organizations must move beyond passive measures such as hotlines and policies to create a culture of speaking up. They must actively engage with employees, educate them about their role in the process, and provide clear guidance on what should be reported. By doing so, organizations can foster a culture of compliance where employees feel empowered to speak up and contribute to maintaining ethical standards.

The podcast episode highlighted the importance of workplace investigations and employee compliance culture. It emphasized the need for organizations to go beyond superficial measures and actively engage with employees to create a meaningful and credible reporting system. Organizations can build a culture that values integrity and ethical behavior by addressing the challenges associated with speaking up and maintaining compliance.

Join us tomorrow to discuss how a robust culture of speaking up will make your organization run better and have greater profitability.

Listen to Meric Bloch on Innovation in Compliance here.

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Innovation in Compliance

Breaking the Silence: How Speaking Up Enhances Corporate Cultures – Jakub Ficner on How Triage and Investigations Can Drive a Culture of Speak Up

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series on enhancing corporate culture through a great speak-up regime. This podcast series is sponsored by Case IQ. Over this series, Tom Fox will visit with Sharlyn Lauby, Jakub Ficner, Kenneth McCarthy, and Meric Bloch on the different facets of a great speak-up regime and how each of those facets will improve your corporate culture. They will tackle such topics as the indicia of a great corporate culture, the importance of triage and internal investigations in improving corporate culture, non-retaliation and protections for those who speak up, tying your entire system of speaking up to improving culture, and conclude with some thoughts on how an entire system of speaking up drives corporate culture to be better run and, at the end of the day, more profitably. In Part 3, Tom Fox visits with Jakub Ficner on the importance of your triage protocol and investigative process to foster a culture of speaking up.

Jakub Ficner has over 15 years of experience in the internal investigative space and is currently the Director of Partnership Development at Case IQ. He strongly advocates for the importance of the triage process and technology in organizational compliance. Jakub emphasizes the need for a rigorous reporting, triage, and investigation process, even before receiving a complaint or allegation. He believes that effective means of documenting and tracking investigative processes are crucial for establishing accountability and defensibility in compliance processes. Drawing from his extensive experience, Jakub highlights the significance of having a documented process, especially for multinational companies with compliance officers in various regions. He recommends using technology, such as a case management solution, to ensure accountability, defensibility, and easy information retrieval. Join Tom Fox and Jakub Ficner on this episode as they delve deeper into these topics of triage and investigations.

 Key Highlights:

  • The importance of effective triage
  • Improving Response Time and Setting Expectations
  • Effective Compliance Documentation and Tracking
  • Using Technology to Establish Accountability and Defensibility

Resources:

Jakub Ficner on LinkedIn

Case IQ

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Blog

Non-Retaliation and Protections for Those Speak Up

I recently concluded a podcast series with Case IQ. Over this series, I visited with Sharlyn Lauby, Jakub Ficner, Kenneth McCarthy, and Meric Bloch on the different facets of a great speak-up regime and how each of those facets will improve your corporate culture. We tackled such topics as the indicia of a great corporate culture, the importance of triage and internal investigations in improving corporate culture, non-retaliation and protections for those who speak up, tying your entire system of speaking up to improving culture, and will conclude with some thoughts on how an entire system of speaking up drives corporate culture to be better run and, at the end of the day, more profitably. This blog post series will expand on these topics. Part 2 considers the need for non-retaliation and affirmative protections for those who speak up with Kenneth McCarthy.

Kenneth McCarthy retired from the Canadian Public Service in 2020 and created Integrity by McCarthy Inc. to raise the bar on how organizations prevent and resolve incidents of workplace harassment, violence, wrongdoing, and fraud. He has seen the devastating consequences on individuals and organizations and set out to make a difference. McCarthy has led a workplace investigation program for a workforce of over 15,000 employees. He has also provided executive oversight in more than 500 workplace investigations and has designed and delivered investigation training sessions to 500 front-line managers.

Sexual harassment retaliation is a pervasive issue that creates a toxic work environment and discourages victims from reporting incidents. McCarthy stressed the importance of addressing sexual harassment retaliation and encouraging workplace reporting, which was discussed in detail. He highlighted a case where women who reported harassment faced severe retaliation, leading to a loss of trust in the reporting process. This fear of being labeled a “rat” or “gossip” often prevents victims from coming forward and seeking justice. To combat this issue, non-retaliation protocols are crucial to protect individuals and ensure legal compliance.

McCarthy emphasized the significance of non-retaliation protocols in encouraging reporting. He shared a disturbing case from his government days, where individuals who reported sexual harassment expressed regret and advised others to stay silent. The retaliation they faced was systemic and created an environment where they could no longer work with their colleagues.

The fear of retaliation is deeply rooted in the perception of being a whistleblower or complainant. McCarthy underlined the importance of having strong policies, consequences for violators, and open workplace conversations to empower bystanders. Bystanders play a crucial role in identifying and reporting harassment but often fear retaliation or loyalty conflicts.

McCarthy’s vision is for individuals to report concerns without even realizing they are whistleblowers or complainants. This can be achieved by fostering a culture where employees feel comfortable sharing any observations that don’t feel right. Real conversations between middle and senior managers and their staff are essential to emphasize the importance of raising concerns, no matter how small they may seem.

He also highlighted the need for confidentiality in reporting processes. Protecting the identity of whistleblowers and complainants is crucial to ensure their safety and prevent further retaliation. McCarthy emphasized the importance of continuous monitoring and promptly addressing incidents. You need a culture that provides resources for workplace issues and emphasizes the importance of bystander involvement, strong retaliation policies, and confidentiality in reporting processes. Organizations can create a safer and more inclusive work environment by encouraging bystanders to come forward and protecting them when they do.

Balancing the factors involved in addressing sexual harassment retaliation and encouraging reporting is challenging. Employers must navigate the tradeoffs between protecting individuals and maintaining the integrity of the reporting process. However, the long-term benefits of creating a workplace where harassment is not tolerated far outweigh the challenges.

The Me-Too movement has highlighted that addressing sexual harassment and discrimination is not solely the responsibility of the victims. Everyone is responsible for speaking up when they witness inappropriate behavior, regardless of whether it directly affects them. This shift in mindset is crucial to creating a culture of accountability and support.

In conclusion, addressing sexual harassment retaliation and encouraging workplace reporting requires a multifaceted approach. Strong non-retaliation protocols, open workplace conversations, and the empowerment of bystanders are key factors in creating a safe and inclusive work environment. By prioritizing the well-being of employees and fostering a culture of trust, organizations can effectively combat sexual harassment and ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

Join us tomorrow to discuss the importance of your triage and investigation process to foster a culture of speaking up.

Listen to Kenneth McCarthy on Innovation in Compliance here.

Categories
Innovation in Compliance

Breaking the Silence: How Speaking Up Enhances Corporate Cultures – Kenneth McCarthy on Non-Retaliation and Protections for Those Speak Up

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series on enhancing corporate culture through a great speak-up regime. This podcast series is sponsored by Case IQ. Over this series, Tom Fox will visit with Sharlyn Lauby, Jakub Ficner, Kenneth McCarthy, and Meric Bloch on the different facets of a great speak-up regime and how each of those facets will improve your corporate culture. They will tackle such topics as the indicia of a great corporate culture, the importance of triage and internal investigations in improving corporate culture, non-retaliation and protections for those who speak up, tying your entire system of speaking up to improving culture, and conclude with some thoughts on how an entire system of speaking up drives corporate culture to be better run and, at the end of the day, more profitably. In Part 2, Tom Fox visits with Kenneth McCarthy on the importance of non-retaliation and protections for those who speak up.

Kenneth McCarthy is a seasoned professional with a diverse background in government and entrepreneurship and a wealth of experience in handling whistleblowers, including sexual harassment cases. Kenneth’s perspective on addressing sexual harassment retaliation and encouraging reporting in workplaces is rooted in his belief in the importance of non-retaliation protocols and processes. He emphasizes the need to create a safe and supportive environment for individuals to report concerns, particularly in cases of sexual harassment. Drawing from personal experiences, he has seen the damaging effects of retaliation on individuals’ willingness to speak up and the potential legal and reputational implications for employers who fail to protect whistleblowers. Join Tom Fox and Kenneth McCarthy as they delve deeper into this topic in this episode.

 Key Highlights:

  • Systemic Retaliation in Sexual Harassment Cases
  • Creating a Safe Reporting Environment
  • The Crucial Role of Empowered Bystanders
  • Encouraging Bystanders: Protecting and Supporting Witnesses

Resources:

Kenneth McCarthy on LinkedIn

Integrity by McCarthy

Case IQ