Compliance Perspectives

By Adam Turteltaub

Richard Powers, the Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Enforcement in the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division was good enough to sit down for a podcast and share where the DOJ’s priorities are in this significant risk area.

His key message:  The DOJ is focused on antitrust compliance and companies should be, too.

At the same time, compliance has never been more important.  As he explains, the Antitrust Division is looking more closely at compliance efforts and is willing to reward companies at sentencing if they have made extraordinary efforts to change their corporate culture after an antitrust violation occurs.  Also, the Antitrust Division is considering ways it could encourage companies to have more robust antitrust compliance all the time, not just after an incident.

So what makes for a good compliance program?  From his vantage point

* It is embedded in the company, not just good on paper

* The right incentives are in place to make sure that the employees understand the rules and are abiding by them

* Senior management is involved, as well as the rest of management

Listen in to gain further insights into the Antitrust Division’s expectations.

By Adam Turteltaub

Insider trading is illegal trading in securities based on material, non-public information in breach of a fiduciary or any other trust relationship.

That’s a lot of legal terms, and the issue is an ongoing headache for compliance professionals at publicly-traded organizations.

Beth Haddock, who has spent over 20 years in compliance and leads Warburton Advisers, explains that to help prevent insider trading violations, it’s essential for compliance officers to be present day to day and with an open door.  Employees have to feel comfortable coming forward with questions and concerns.

To get them in the door and head off risks?  Frequent training is critical, she says, and it works best when it is example-based and models proper behavior.  In this podcast she also advises having written policies and asking employees to certify adherence at least annually.

But don’t stop at the factory gate.  In this interconnected business world it’s important to remember that lawyers, bankers, customers, and vendors all carry insider trading risk.

Finally don’t forget one more risk area: cyberbreaches.  It’s not just the hackers.  Employees and vendors who respond to the breach before it becomes publicly known have information about what may be a material event  They need to be trained not to trade on that information.

Listen in to get the inside scoop on insider trading.

By Adam Turteltaub

Insider trading is illegal trading in securities based on material, non-public information in breach of a fiduciary or any other trust relationship.

That’s a lot of legal terms, and the issue is an ongoing headache for compliance professionals at publicly-traded organizations.

Beth Haddock, who has spent over 20 years in compliance and leads Warburton Advisers, explains that to help prevent insider trading violations, it’s essential for compliance officers to be present day to day and with an open door.  Employees have to feel comfortable coming forward with questions and concerns.

To get them in the door and head off risks?  Frequent training is critical, she says, and it works best when it is example-based and models proper behavior.  In this podcast she also advises having written policies and asking employees to certify adherence at least annually.

But don’t stop at the factory gate.  In this interconnected business world it’s important to remember that lawyers, bankers, customers, and vendors all carry insider trading risk.

Finally don’t forget one more risk area: cyberbreaches.  It’s not just the hackers.  Employees and vendors who respond to the breach before it becomes publicly known have information about what may be a material event  They need to be trained not to trade on that information.

Listen in to get the inside scoop on insider trading.

By Adam Turteltaub

Tone at the top is essential, but it’s also important to ensure that middle and front-line managers are echoing the same tone when it comes to compliance and ethics.  If employees hear great-sounding values from up on high, but see or hear something less laudable from their immediate boss, a lot of good compliance work can quickly become undone.

Marsha Ershaghi Hames, Managing Director Strategy of LRN, Inc. explains that compliance teams need to remember that leaders are employees, too.  Like all employees they need to understand what’s in it for them when it comes to compliance and ethics in general, and setting the right tone in particular.

She shares in this podcast techniques to help make managers more willing and frequent voices for compliance and the organization’s values.  One key, she observes, is to connect the manager’s compliance responsibilities to the business and its goals, including the importance of ensuring that the manager is accessible when employees have concerns.

Listen in as she discusses how to build in metrics and the value of providing managers with a toolkit for communicating with their direct reports.

By Adam Turteltaub

Tone at the top is essential, but it’s also important to ensure that middle and front-line managers are echoing the same tone when it comes to compliance and ethics.  If employees hear great-sounding values from up on high, but see or hear something less laudable from their immediate boss, a lot of good compliance work can quickly become undone.

Marsha Ershaghi Hames, Managing Director Strategy of LRN, Inc. explains that compliance teams need to remember that leaders are employees, too.  Like all employees they need to understand what’s in it for them when it comes to compliance and ethics in general, and setting the right tone in particular.

She shares in this podcast techniques to help make managers more willing and frequent voices for compliance and the organization’s values.  One key, she observes, is to connect the manager’s compliance responsibilities to the business and its goals, including the importance of ensuring that the manager is accessible when employees have concerns.

Listen in as she discusses how to build in metrics and the value of providing managers with a toolkit for communicating with their direct reports.

By Adam Turteltaub

An incident occurs.  Everyone wants to know what happened and what the company is doing about it.

To truly understand the problem, however, it’s not enough to look at what happened.  You need to get to the roots to understand why things happened.  Was there something in the training, culture, tone, incentive program that was the root cause of the incident?

Ethisphere’s Erica Salmon Byrne has spent a great deal of time examining and researching the issue.  Compliance teams, she reports, have grown much more interested in finding the root causes to truly solve the problem.  The US Department of Justice is also encouraging companies to dig to the roots of compliance issues.

In this podcast Erica shares insights into what makes for an effective root cause analysis including:

* Knowing how deep to dig

* The importance of a good taxonomy

* What data to have and how to look at trends

* Training investigators, and

* Having the right case management system

Listen in to learn more and get to the roots of what makes for good root cause analysis.

By Adam Turteltaub

An incident occurs.  Everyone wants to know what happened and what the company is doing about it.

To truly understand the problem, however, it’s not enough to look at what happened.  You need to get to the roots to understand why things happened.  Was there something in the training, culture, tone, incentive program that was the root cause of the incident?

Ethisphere’s Erica Salmon Byrne has spent a great deal of time examining and researching the issue.  Compliance teams, she reports, have grown much more interested in finding the root causes to truly solve the problem.  The US Department of Justice is also encouraging companies to dig to the roots of compliance issues.

In this podcast Erica shares insights into what makes for an effective root cause analysis including:

* Knowing how deep to dig

* The importance of a good taxonomy

* What data to have and how to look at trends

* Training investigators, and

* Having the right case management system

Listen in to learn more and get to the roots of what makes for good root cause analysis.

By Adam Turteltaub

Congratulations:  they’ve given you a new laptop or phone.  Condolences:  you better know what they plan on doing with your old device.

It’s not enough to simply put them in the trash or send them off to any ewaste recycler, explains David Brent of ERI, an electronic waste recycler.  There are a variety of laws that affect how technology is disposed of from both a privacy and ewaste perspective.  GLBA, HIPAA Hitech, GDPR, FACTA and the FTC Final Disposal Rule provide a reasonableness standard for disposal of protected information.  In addition, 32 states have data disposal laws of their own.  These laws typically require destruction or erasure so that the data cannot be practically read or reconstructed.  And don’t forget that phones and laptops aren’t the only devices to worry about.  Printers, copiers, and even projectors may hold data on them as well.

Adding to the risk:  Electronic waste contains toxic metals.  Eighteen states plus the District of Columbia have landfill bans on electronic equipment.

For these reasons companies often turn to electronic recycling firms.  They can help manage the environmental and data risks.  However, due diligence is critical, Brent explains.  Having the right certifications can be a good sign, when assessing a vendor, but it’s important to do your own due diligence to ensure that they are doing what they are supposed to and that your devices and data don’t end up in the wrong place or hands.

Listen in to the podcast to learn more.

By Adam Turteltaub

Congratulations:  they’ve given you a new laptop or phone.  Condolences:  you better know what they plan on doing with your old device.

It’s not enough to simply put them in the trash or send them off to any ewaste recycler, explains David Brent of ERI, an electronic waste recycler.  There are a variety of laws that affect how technology is disposed of from both a privacy and ewaste perspective.  GLBA, HIPAA Hitech, GDPR, FACTA and the FTC Final Disposal Rule provide a reasonableness standard for disposal of protected information.  In addition, 32 states have data disposal laws of their own.  These laws typically require destruction or erasure so that the data cannot be practically read or reconstructed.  And don’t forget that phones and laptops aren’t the only devices to worry about.  Printers, copiers, and even projectors may hold data on them as well.

Adding to the risk:  Electronic waste contains toxic metals.  Eighteen states plus the District of Columbia have landfill bans on electronic equipment.

For these reasons companies often turn to electronic recycling firms.  They can help manage the environmental and data risks.  However, due diligence is critical, Brent explains.  Having the right certifications can be a good sign, when assessing a vendor, but it’s important to do your own due diligence to ensure that they are doing what they are supposed to and that your devices and data don’t end up in the wrong place or hands.

Listen in to the podcast to learn more.

By Adam Turteltaub

As long as there have been compliance programs there has been compliance training.  Despite that constancy, how that training is delivered has changed dramatically.  It has evolved from lawyers standing in front of the room with acetates, to online training, phone-based training, and even compliance games.

What’s driven the evolution?  Part of it is certainly technology, but as Kirsten Liston, Founder and Principal of Rethink Compliance, argues, much of it has been driven by compliance people asking, “What does it take to be effective?”  Training, after all, isn’t an objective.  It’s a strategy for helping to prevent compliance breaches.

That invites a constant reexamination of how the training is offered.  At first, PowerPoints delivered online seemed like a great leap forward, which, in many ways, they were.  But since then, Kirsten argues, the digital landscape has changed.  People have grown used to seamless digital environments where the content seems to flow effortlessly.  Compliance and ethics training that doesn’t do so can be jarring.

In addition, with more of online life being led on mobile devices, we have all gotten used to shorter messages.  That, too, calls for rethinking of training, both mobile and on the desktop.

Listen in as she discusses these issues and how to succeed in your compliance training efforts.