Compliance Perspectives show

Compliance Perspectives

Summary: Podcast featuring the top Compliance and Ethics thought leaders from around the globe. The Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association will keep you up to date on enforcement trends, current events, and best practices in the compliance and ethics arena. To submit ideas and questions, please email: service@corporatecompliance.org

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  • Artist: SCCE
  • Copyright: Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics

Podcasts:

 Adrian Taylor, Ahmed Salim and Nakis Urfi on ESG and DEI [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 15:07

By Adam Turteltaub One of the more well-attended sessions at the SCCE 22nd Annual Compliance & Ethics Institute, promises to be “ESG and DEI: How to Position for Stakeholder Success”. The session will be lead by Adrian Taylor, Director of Diversity, Premier Health; Ahmed Salim, Chief Compliance Officer, iRhythym; and Nakis Urfi, Product Compliance Officer, Babylon Health. ESG and DEI are two of the hottest issues in compliance, and in this podcast preview of their session they start by taking on a controversial topic: Should DEI and ESG be combined? Traditionally, DEI has been its own discipline. Many now argue it should considered a part of the S (Social) in ESG, while others feel that doing so would diminish the emphasis on DEI. Ideally, DEI should not be affected by being included in ESG, they say. If handled correctly, it can maintain its focus and management commitment and even strengthen ESG efforts. When the two are aligned they create a more sustainable business model that balances people, profit and planet. Together they can also help foster engagement with stakeholders, improve culture, encourage greater accountability, and help the company’s reputation. To be successful, Nakis, Ahmed and Adrian argue, organizations need to manage four key challenges of ESG ratings: * A limited focus on DEI * Having accurate, valid data * A lack of standardization * Subjectivity All of these can lead to ratings that are more judgement scores than a true measure of an organization’s commitment to DEI and ESG. Listen in to learn more, including how to identify data that is truly useful for measuring your organization’s DEI and ESG success. Then, don’t miss their session at the SCCE 22nd Annual Compliance & Ethics Institute.

 Crystal Jezierski on Compliance Frameworks and Management [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 11:51

By Adam Turteltaub Crystal Jezierski, Senior Managing Director, Guidepost Solutions thinks that at this point we have enough guidance documents and frameworks for compliance programs. That’s not a criticism but a compliment. She finds the existing prescriptions to be helpful, instructive and reflective of the evolving understanding of best practices for effective compliance programs. They are also flexible enough for new and emerging risks. What’s needed now, she believes, are more opportunities to benchmark, share, apply and test how programs are implemented. As with compliance programs as a whole, that begins with understanding how to assess risk and how others are doing so. If done correctly, of course, a risk assessment can  orient resources to both current and future issues as well as change how the company is doing business. When managing a new issue, she recommends involving a combination of the standard partners – HR, internal audit, finance and technology – as well as additional partners who bring expertise to addressing the risk at hand. One other partner needs to be considered throughout: the board. It can be a tremendous asset for compliance, sometimes more so than leadership. To gain and keep board support, she advocates for regular contact, updates, and conversations about emerging issues. Listen in to learn more about how to leverage the compliance frameworks, learn from others and work with the board to create a stronger compliance program.

 Eric Baim on Compliant Business Communications Through Messaging Apps [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 10:15

By Adam Turteltaub Email isn’t enough anymore, if it ever really was. Employees are communicating with each other, clients and prospects via texts, WhatsApp, Teams, Slack and many, many more tools. Much attention has been paid to the US Department of Justice’s call for organizations to be able to produce all that communication, which is not an easy task. Eric Baim, partner at Dovetail Consulting Group, explains that focusing on producing the communications is important, but it is isn’t enough. Compliance teams need  to train employees to use these technology appropriately. That education process begins with compliance developing an understanding of what these applications were designed to do;  facilitate quick, back and forth interactions, brainstorm, and ask a question less formally than one would via email. The problem is that often these interactions lack context because they are continuations of other conversations. As a result, an outsider seeing them can draw very incorrect conclusions about what was being said. With that understanding in mind, it’s important to make it clear to employees that if they are conducting company activity via these communication tools, they still need to follow company policy. Next, help them to understand the risk of comments taken out of context and to ensure that they add some. If the text, for example, is a follow up to an in-person meeting, reference it. Be sure also to underscore the importance of avoiding jargon, being truthful or making assumptive statements. Stick to the facts and keep personal commentary out. Internally, compliance teams, he argues, should take the time to understand how they can use these channels to communicate with the workforce. Communicating with the business where it is can help keep compliance top of mind and relatable. It can also help foster greater dialog which is, after all, what these applications were designed for.

 Jannica Houben and Travis Waugh on Interactive Policies [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 14:27

By Adam Turteltaub In a perfect world, whenever employees face a difficult decision or outright compliance issue, the right policy would automatically pop up in front of them. While that is not likely to happen soon, Jannica Houben, Vice President, Global Legal Transformation and Travis Waugh, Director, Training, both at TD SYNNEX can envision a word in which Outlook could spot issues as they are typed, flag them for the employee and give guidance and pointers to where to call for help. Until then, there are still many things compliance teams can do using off the shelf software to automate compliance processes. It’s a topic they explore in the podcast and in greater depth in their Session “Interactive Policies: Using Technology to Enhance Decision-Making” at the 2023 SCCE Compliance & Ethics Institute. So how do you create this automated future? They recommend beginning by thinking not about what tool you want, but what benefits you want the tool to deliver. Think about the value you want to provide and what would make employees’ lives easier. In addition, expect an iterative process: you won’t get everything right the first time. Once you have that in mind, you can begin the pursuit of the tool itself. At TD SYNNEX the compliance team tried to create the path of least resistance for employees to compliance, including developing an adaptive policy guidance tool. Using BRYTER, which requires no coding, they developed a tool which asks a series of questions to determine what the issue is, gives advice and routes a form to the employee’s manager. The manager can then add notes and recommendations. The tool has a dashboard that can track the whole process. It also can help identify gaps and what the organizations risks are, what policies need to be created and when more training is required. This program has freed up time for the compliance team, enabling it to invest in relationships and add more value. Getting started is surprisingly easy, they report. Listen in for more inspiration, and then don’t miss their session at the 2023 SCCE Compliance & Ethics Institute.

 Bill Piwonka on Privacy, Consent and Compliance [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:42

By Adam Turteltaub With the consent requirements built into privacy regimes, you can’t help but focus on them. Bill Piwonka, Chief Marketing Officer at Exterro, cautions, though, that there is much more than consent to worry about. Consent is very specific around whether people you are interacting with giving you permission to have and use their data for specific purposes. Much focus is given to the pop-up warnings on websites and cookies. Compliance teams, he advises, need to look at all the places where the organization collects data and uses data, including apps, to ensure proper consent is obtained. One other area not to be overlooked: Data subject access requests. It can be an enormous undertaking when a consumer demands to know what information you have on her or him. Even more daunting are similar requests by departing employees. Think of the hundreds of thousands if not millions, of documents that contain data from an employee, everything from HR records to emails to conversation on Teams. So great is the challenge of tracking them all down that employees are starting to use the threat of requiring all this data as a way to leverage a better severance package. Listen in to learn more about these issues and what you need to do to prepare to meet your privacy compliance obligations.

 Jen Hoar on Human-Based Due Diligence [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 10:27

By Adam Turteltaub The proliferation of computer-based due diligence tools, combined with the travel restrictions of the pandemic led to a shift away from in-person due diligence efforts. Technology-based approaches increased dramatically, and, according to Jen Hoar (LinkedIn), Managing Director of Forward Risk, relying solely on them can be a mistake. Talking to human sources, she argues in this podcast, helps augment and provides nuance to open-source public records. Talking to people who have worked with the third party can flesh out what it is like to do business with them and if there are any concerns. Sources to interview can include prior investors, customers, industry experts, and even trade journalists. When conducting the interviews with these individuals, she advocates for an open-ended, conversational approach. Rather than trying to get through a list of questions, give them the opportunity to talk about whatever is important to them and pursue the conversation wherever it leads. Be sure, though, to take note if someone is oversharing.  It may be a sign of an agenda. In terms of your own agenda, she advises against going in with a hypothesis to prove or disprove. Instead, go in with an open mind. Your job is to gather information and to find out what the truth is rather than to test a theory. Listen in to learn more about the role and value of human-based due diligence.

 In Depth: Cecilia Muller Torbrand on The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 32:37

By Adam Turteltaub For organizations working to avoid corruption it can be a lonely fight. While a sales or compliance team may know that there are many others out there who would not pay a bribe, when facing a corrupt demand, they tend to be on their own. The maritime industry, though, has taken a major step to change the dynamic. In this extended, in-depth podcast, Cecilia Muller Torbrand, Chief Executive Officer at Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN), explains how they pursued a collective action approach that now includes about 200 companies. The maritime industry is very exposed to corruption risk. A given ship can touch many jurisdictions over a short period of time. Captains are often very far from their headquarters and encounter multiple government touch points when approaching a port. The corruption they face varies dramatically, but it is frequently manifested with requests for facilitation payments: some token of appreciation. The challenge is a legal one since facilitation payments are prohibited under the UK Bribery Act. It is also a practical one, when the appreciation turns into a demand and expectation. When a captain turns down the request, it can lead to a host of problems, ranging from confiscated passports to endless, time consuming inspections. To help fight this problem MACN began about 10 years ago with just 8-10 companies. It has since grown to around 200. The companies recognized they could not fight the problem alone and had to work together. Success has been driven by a focus on solutions rather than finger pointing. They also, when possible, seek to bring in the local government. Armed with a database of over 50,000 incidents of corrupt demands they are able to use data, rather than anecdotes, to advocate for change and demonstrate how systemic the issue is. The results have been substantial, and over time the MACN logo on a ship has come to mean a great deal in countries where they are active. It actively helps dissuade bribe seeking. MACN has also created a Global Port Integrity Program (GPIP). It leverages the data collected on corruption incidents to provide members with a port-by-port look at corruption risk, enabling better preparation. Secondly GPIP has enabled them to provide a level of transparency not before seen that can help ports understand how they need to improve. All these efforts have led to remarkable results with measured improvements on the ground. Listen in to learn more about what MACN has done, and, perhaps, use it as a model for your industry.

 Guillem Casoliva Cabana on Ambassador Programs [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 14:06

By Adam Turteltaub More and more organizations seem to be adopting compliance ambassadors or champions programs. In a nutshell, these efforts involve having members of the business unit serve as the eyes and ears, and sometimes arms and legs, of the compliance office. Guillem Casoliva Cabana (LinkedIn), Compliance Manager, Training & Education, at Booking.com shares his insights on the topic in this podcast. The company’s ambassadors program began over 10 years ago. Recruiting and training ambassadors is a critical part of the process at Booking.com. They are not nominated by their managers. Instead, all are individuals who volunteered to take on the role. At times, it can even be competitive. If more than one person in a given unit volunteers, there is a vote taken in the unit to make the selection. The onboarding process includes seven distinct steps, including a live session with the compliance and ethics team that goes deep into the scenarios that they may face. Experienced ambassadors serve as mentors to newer ones. And, on an ongoing basis, ambassadors are supported through in-person meetings, an online portal, newsletter and quarterly webinars. The program’s durability is a reflection of how successful it has been. The ambassadors have helped support the ethical tone of the company, served as examples of the company’s values and proven to be a cost-effective means of embedding compliance without adding to headcount. Listen in to learn more about how the program has worked and what you need to do to start a successful ambassadors effort of your own.

 Amii Barnard-Bahn and Melanie Sponholz on Getting Paid What You’re Worth [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 16:55

By Adam Turteltaub While many would say that you couldn’t pay them enough to take a job in compliance, managers often feel as if compliance officers are being paid too much. So how do you get what you deserve? In this podcast, and at the 2023 SCCE Compliance & Ethics Institute, Amii Barnard-Bahn, Partner, Kaplan & Walker and Melanie Sponholz, Chief Compliance Officer, Waud Capital Partners, take on this touchy subject. Before asking for more money, they advise doing your homework. Take the time to talk to peers and recruiters to see what the market rate is. Also, know your employer’s compensation system. Do they tend to pay at the top, bottom or middle of the range. You can also check the SCCE or HCCA compensation survey and sites like Glassdoor and Indeed. When you do meet with your manager or leadership, go in knowing that this is a difficult conversation for them as well as for you. Do your best to keep things professional. Focus on why the increase in compensation is beneficial for them and not just for you. Spell out what contributions you have and will be making. Above all, be realistic and don’t go in angry. Want to know more? Listen in to learn how to make the conversation successful, what to do if it isn’t, and how to ask for more compensation or a changed title when your role is expanded. And, don’t forget to attend their session at the 2023 Compliance & Ethics Institute.

 Mike Lifshotz on Retaining Staff [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 11:53

By Adam Turteltaub When an employee announces a departure to another job, there is a temptation to think that it was for more money. That’s probably a mistake, says Mike Lifshotz (LinkedIn), founder and CEO of Hatch Compliance. The new position may pay better, but employees are more likely to depart due to issues such as work/life balance, room for advancement, greater challenges, lack of appreciation and what they perceive to be a bad culture. To get them to stay, he advises, first and foremost demonstrate respect. That should begin with the hiring process, during which you should both lay out your expectations for the candidate and what they should expect from you. The organization’s values are particularly important in this regard. They are integral to setting expectations and need to be communicated from the onboarding process and on an ongoing basis. Be sure to keep the communication process going in general. Employees cannot be expected to trust their managers if the managers don’t take the time to know them. From a compliance perspective, knowing employees and their personalities can help identify when something is wrong and help you act accordingly. Compliance can also help with employee retention by providing a safe place for workers to share their concerns without fear of retaliation. One last piece of advice he offers: take the time to survey the workforce regularly. Use the survey both to measure the culture and as a way to demonstrate that the organization is willing to listen. Then, act on the results. Listen in to learn more about how to manage the challenging issue of employee retention.

 Regina Gurvich on Staying Motivated [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 11:55

By Adam Turteltaub Regina Gurvich, Chief Compliance & Risk Officer for Omni Opthalmic Management Consultants knows from first-hand experience that it’s not always easy for compliance officers to stay motivated. There is often a strong headwind, and sometimes a brick wall. To stay motivated she advises focusing on getting your voice heard, staying true to yourself and finding enjoyment in what you to do a daily basis. For her, that begins with clinging to her idealism and the belief that few people wake up in the morning looking to do the wrong thing. Focus, she advises, on the fact that for many people the right thing just isn’t clear enough.  Think about ways to educate them and look to do so on a continuous basis. Encourage them not to just know what the law is but understand what it means and how to operationalize it. Also, grab onto your natural curiosity. Take the time to learn as much as you can about the business and how people go about doing their jobs. Understand where the money comes from and where it goes. That’s more important than ever over the last five to ten years, especially in healthcare. Then, as you work with others on putting compliance controls in place and seek solutions for a problem, be willing to negotiate and don’t lose your sense of humor. Listen in to learn more about how to make the day go a bit better.

 Lauren Kornutick on ChatGPT Compliance Risks [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 10:30

By Adam Turteltaub ChatGPT is, like the movie title, seemingly everywhere, all the time, and all at once. Individuals and corporations have rushed to embrace it, sometimes with great results, other times, not so much. For better or worse, ChatGPT and other AI-driven solutions are here to stay, and with it comes a host of new risks to manage. In this podcast, Lauren Kornutick, Director Analyst, Legal and Compliance at Gartner shares the findings of recent research the firm conducted on ChatGPT. They found several risks for compliance teams to focus on: * Fabricated and inaccurate answers. As with the case of the lawyer linked to above, ChatGPT sometimes make things up because it was trained on inaccurate material of it was unable to understand the context of the question. * IP Risks. Employees may not understand that once data is put into an open source tool it becomes part of the public domain. That means more training on how to protect IP in the new AI era. * Often the data set used to train the AI relies on data that is biased. A human review is absolutely essential to ensure that existing biases aren’t furthered. * Fraudsters are particularly adept at finding nefarious uses for new technology. * Consumer Protection. Some states require that it be made clear when consumers are interacting with a person, and when they are interacting with a bot. The FTC has also stressed that AI needs to be transparent, accountable and empirically correct. Listen in to learn more about how to protect your organization from the risks of ChatGPT. Be sure, too, to check out the press release. Gartner subscribers can learn more detail by accessing “What Legal and Compliance Leaders Need to Know About Large Language Model Risks."

 Matej Drascek on Urban Myths About Ethics [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 14:23

By Adam Turteltaub For the cynical, business ethics, itself, is a myth. For those of us in the profession, we know it is not. Still, that doesn’t mean that certain urban myths don’t arise. Matej Drascek (LinkedIn), in this provocative podcast, and in an article from Compliance and Ethics Professional® (CEP) magazine, argues that there are, in fact, a number of them. They are: * Myth 1: The code of conduct supports ethical behavior. * Myth 2: The compliance program helps the organization become more ethical. * Myth 3: Whistleblowing tools reduce the risk of unethical behavior. * Myth 4: More training in ethics is better. * Myth 5: Individual “unethical” characters can be curbed with the right controls. * Myth 6: Goals related to ethics or compliance help people behave more ethically. Sound more like truths than myths? As you will hear, his comments are more warnings about the complacency traps that can arise. For example, we may think a code of conduct is helpful, but if it’s read once and then forgotten, it’s not. Or, just because there’s a whistleblower line doesn’t mean it will be used; the fear of retaliation may keep an employee from reaching out. Listen in to learn the subtle nuances. If you don’t, your ears will fall off. Okay, maybe that’s Myth 7.

 Anitha Vittal on the Risks of AI in Healthcare [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:26

By Adam Turteltaub The excitement over Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often met with concerns about its negative potential. That’s especially true in healthcare where the potential gains are met by the principled and practical requirements of protecting patient data. Anitha Vittal, Head, Risk and Compliance, Providence Global Center in India tackles the topic head on in this podcast. She sees AI as having great potential to revolutionize research, diagnosis and treatment, if we can successfully create guardrails for its responsible use. To do so, she recommends focusing on the risks. The big ones are: * Data protection and security. AI requires huge amounts of data, which raises potential privacy concerns. * If the data is biased, then the output will be as well. * Transparency and Accountability. It can be very difficult to understand AI systems. That’s why it’s essential to bring transparency and accountability into the process. Compliance teams also need to be educators, helping the AI team and businesspeople understand the ethical considerations involved. One potential technique involves creating case studies and requiring participants to play different roles to better understand perspectives and risks. Listen in to learn more about managing the  opportunities and risks of AI, including the importance of what she calls the Four E’s: Establish, Embed, Enforce and Evolve.

 Stephen Paskoff on Making Compliance Training Effective [Podcast] | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:17

By Adam Turteltaub Stephen Paskoff, the President and CEO of ELI, believes that we need to think about compliance training differently.  Instead of it being about communicating information, it needs to be about cultivating a culture of compliance and activating organizational values. So how do we get there? He recommends focusing on education designed to be retained and applied by the learner. To do that you need to be clear not on just what the standards are but also why they are important. As importantly, the training can’t stand alone. It has to be linked to broader initiatives and relevant to employees. Even if employees don’t get every nuance of the law or regulation, they have to have a sense of what is right and wrong and be reassured that they will be welcomed if they speak up and raise a concern. Getting to that point requires making compliance as normal a part of the dialog as discussing sales, manufacturing and other issues. Organizations need to stop treating compliance as something separate and apart and more of a norm of doing business. That begins with the CEO and leadership team treating it that way. It also means knowing what the barriers are and implementing programs to overcome them. Listen in to learn more about how to improve your compliance training, including the five C’s and how they can help.

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