Compliance Perspectives

By Adam Turteltaub

We live, to say the least, in polarized times. While it’s easy to look to politicians as the cause, Karthik Ramanna, Professor of Business and Public Policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government and author of the book The Age of Outrage: How to lead in a Polarized World, argues there are other causes to consider.

In the latest Compliance Perspectives podcast he explains that multiple factors are leading to polarization. These include:

Fear of the future: Many believe that the world is and will continue to change for the worse due to factors such as AI, climate change and shifting demographics.

A belief that they have been handed a raw deal: They perceive leaders have not managed the issues well and that they have been short-changed in the process by globalization and other factors

An Us vs. Them Mentality: A climate of decreasing trust has eroded the belief that we are all in it together

So what should compliance teams do in this era? He recommends humility. Set modest goals and don’t seek to radically transform the culture. Instead focus on setting boundaries for your program and focus on what you can do.

Second, look to build trust before a crisis breaks. The more you can establish relationships now, the better off you will be later.

Listen in for more insights into how to navigate through these polarized times.

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By Adam Turteltaub

The Corporate Transparence Act was a part of landmark anti-money laundering legislation passed in 2021. It was designed to shift reporting of corporate ownership from a hodgepodge of different financial institutions to the owners or the companies.

As Jamie Schafer (LinkedIn), Partner at Perkins Coie explains in this podcast, the goal is to create a national registry of non-public companies that would be transparent to law enforcement. These companies had previously not been required to provide ownership information, which increased the potential for them to be used for money laundering purposes.

Due to the complexity of the law and the many exemptions, as well as the fact that publicly-traded firms may even have to report entities they control, she urges organizations to read the law carefully to determine whether they will need to report.

Listen in to learn more about the complexities behind whether your organization will have to complete what is, quite often, a fairly simple report.

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By Adam Turteltaub

Are employees where you work suffering from ethical burnout? What is it exactly and how can you tell?

To understand more we spoke with Richard Bistrong (LinkedIn), newsletter author and CEO off Frontline Antibribery, who co-authored with Dina Denham Smith and Ron Carucci an article for  Harvard Business Review, “4 Warning Signs of Ethical Burnout on Your Team.”

Ethical burnout, as they defined it, is a state in which commercial goals and demands are so overwhelming that workers no longer have the time or energy to consider compliance and ethical obligations. They simply want to get the job done and over with any way that they can.

It has a number of potential roots including:

Increased commercial pressures and targets, including goals gone wild

Survival mode thinking

Decision-making overload and speed

Envy of unhealthy status symbols

So what should compliance teams do to prevent ethical burnout? First, be aware of when the stress levels are high and any of these potential roots are growing. That’s the time to double down on ethics and compliance. Also, keep your ear to the ground then reach out proactively and intentionally.

Finally, be sure to pay attention to individuals who are particularly susceptible. That star performer may be so addicted to his or her status that they might do whatever they can, ethical or not, to keep it.

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By Adam Turteltaub

Back in November 2023 on a previous podcast,  Jason Meyer (LinkedIn), founder of Meyer Business Law and President of LeadGood Education, shared with us an interesting statistic: Estimates are that about 20% of the workforce has some sort of neurodiversity such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, sensory integration and executive function issues.

In this podcast, he shares that with such a large population there are two risks that the compliance team needs to be aware of and address. First, the training and other content being delivered may not be effective for segments of the neurodivergent population. Second, there are Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) considerations to be addressed.

The ADA, he explains, covers physical or mental impairments that substantially limit one or more of life’s activities. Thinking, reading and communicating all fall under major life activities and are affected by neurodivergence.

Consequently, if you know or should know that one of your employees is neurodivergent then you are obligated to engage in a dialogue and make a reasonable accommodation. The ADA is not triggered, however, if the employee is making or not requesting one.

There is also risk if your organization fails to hire or promote people because of their neurodivergence.

So what should compliance teams do? Add this to the risk assessment and start working on mitigation plans, starting with your compliance messaging and training.

Listen in to learn more about how to address this risk that affects one fifth, or more, of your workforce.

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By Adam Turteltaub

Governments don’t only want to prosecute companies for paying bribes. Increasingly, they are looking for companies to join with them to reduce the global challenge of corruption.

To learn more we spoke with Shruti Shah, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption at the US Department of State. In this podcast she outlines several initiatives in which the business community can play an important role, working alongside state actors and organizations like the OECD. These include:

Blue Dot Network

Galvanizing the Public Sector GPS initiative

CIPE's PROTECT program on critical minerals

USAID's JET Minerals Challenge

USAID's Doing Business with Integrity

All of these programs have in common a desire to engage all the parties interested in reducing corruption, particularly in the developing world. As importantly, they reflect a growing recognition that the business community is a part of the solution.

Listen in to learn more about what each of these initiatives are and how you can become a part of them.

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By Adam Turteltaub

Woo hoo! You got the interview. Now, how do you make the most out of the opportunity to determine if this is the job of your dreams or of your nightmares?

Lisa Fine, Senior Director, Global Ethics & Compliance at Pearson takes a break from her Great Women in Compliance podcast to share that you need first to focus on the basics, starting with who the job is reporting to, what the employer thinks the compliance program should be addressing, and what resources you will have in the role.

Learning that information early, either from the position description, recruiter or your own online searches, will enable to you maximize the time in the interview on more sophisticated matters such what they anticipate the role becoming and how real the commitment to compliance is.

Some other things to scope out during the interview:

Is the job in-person, remote or hybrid, and how does the rest of the company work? If you’re the only remote employee, that may be a warning sign.

What do the code of conduct and annual report indicate about the compliance program?

Are you the chief compliance officer, or do multiple individuals hold that title?

Why is the job currently open? What happened to your predecessor can be telling.

Is there a helpline, and how easy is it to make a report?

Finally, she advises spending some time asking yourself what it is that you want from the job. It’s very different if you are looking for your first compliance job, than if you are looking to it to be your last.

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By Adam Turteltaub

Fair Market Value (FMV) calculations in healthcare, if done improperly, can lead you down the path to civil monetary penalties or even prison. To help understand the challenge and how to meet them, we spoke with Bob Wade, Partner at Nelson Mullins and host of the Stark Integrity Podcast Series.

Calculating FMV has proven to be somewhat of a moving target. For some time benchmarking multiple sources and calculating an average was sufficient. Then in 2007 the expectation changes, as they did again in 2021 in the final regulations under the Stark law. Now, the rules are transaction specific, requiring compliance teams to look at the market, benchmarking data as well as business-specific factors.

If that seems like a lot, it can be, which leads some to outsource the work. It may be better, though, to do so only for larger transactions. He notes that, if you do outsource, be sure to give the third party the best data you have available, otherwise garbage in can lead to a garbage FMV.

When you receive the valuation, don’t just accept it at face value. He advises to take the time to study it to determine if it makes sense and accurately reflects the data and market situation.

Listen in to learn more about how to get Fair Market Value calculations right.

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By Adam Turteltaub

So how do you ensure the next time you’re searching for a chief or senior ethics and compliance officer that the search is successful? We put that question to executive recruiter Jamie Browne, Managing Director, Corporate Governance, Leonid Group. Jamie recently shared advice for candidates on finding their next position.

In this podcast he offers a wealth of advice including:

Focus more on a candidate’s hands-on experience as a compliance officer rather than education or industry background

Be flexible on hybrid options: the fewer days you require in the office, the wider the geography it’s practical to recruit from

Fully-remote jobs have the largest candidate pool since it’s possible to recruit nationwide

Be sure to consider what personality will fit with the existing compliance team

Define a reasonable set of stages for recruiting and the gaps in time between them so you can manage candidate expectations

Be sure the salary is commensurate with the experience level you expect

Don’t expect a candidate to have deep experience in every compliance risk area

Listen in for more and deeper advice on how to increase the likelihood of success for your hiring effort.

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By Adam Turteltaub

Yes or no: Do you do investigations? Do you prepare questions in advance? Are those questions yes or no in nature? Did you know that may not be the best way to do it?

In this podcast, Michael Johnson (LinkedIn), Chief Strategy Officer, Traliant, explains that closed-end questions are often unproductive. Worse, questioning the target of an investigative with the goal of securing a confession can be dangerous since it may yield a false convention and, potentially, a lawsuit.

Instead, he argues for a different approach. Start by thinking through the report that will eventually be written and what factual questions it will need to answer. That can help you think through the potential sources of evidence. Next, determine who needs to be interviewed and in what order.

When it comes to the interviews, take a cognitive approach. Establish rapport and help get the person talking by asking about their background and responsibilities. Minimize the use of closed-ended questions, asking, instead, opened-ended questions which invite them to tell a story about what happened. If there are blanks or confusing parts, go back and ask more specific questions.

Another technique to try is to ask them to tell the story in reverse order. It’s much more difficult for the person to do so if they are lying.

Listen in to learn more about this technique and how it could help improve your investigative efforts.

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By Adam Turteltaub

The new EU General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) replaces the previous directive of 2001. While there are many similarities between the two of them, reports Ferry Vermeulen, Co-Founder of 24hour AR, there are a few key differences.  The GPSR now applies to all consumer goods sold, not just those that were not yet covered by other regulatory schemes. In addition, sellers are required to conduct a risk assessment to determine the hazards of the items they are selling.

Other provisions include the requirement to have a responsible economic operator in the EU. It can be the manufacturer, itself, or if the manufacturer does not have operations in the EU, it can appoint an authorized representative, whose address must appear on the product.

Manufacturers must also develop systems for tracing where their products go, in case of a recall.

Listen in to learn more about the new EU General Product Safety Regulation and what your organization needs to do to comply.

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