Compliance Perspectives

By Adam Turteltaub What if you had a compliance program and nobody noticed? It’s not likely. But what if you had a compliance program, and nobody understood what it did? That, sadly, is more than a bit of an ongoing problem. To take on that challenge we spoke with Carolina Santos de Silva, Head of Ethics & Compliance EMEA for Bridgestone EMEA and Pauline Blondet, Co-Owner and Chief Operating Officer of Upright Solutions. The two recently published the article “How to Sell Ethics and Compliance to your Organization” in the October issue of Ethikos. They persuasively argue in this podcast for compliance teams to think about their product, brand and having a robust message. Start with your product. Is it ethics, ethics and compliance, integrity? Think through which best defines what you are offering. Your brand is the image the compliance team communicates within the organization and what differentiates you from other departments. It needs to reflect the department’s message. From the brand will come a pitch, or your department’s elevator speech. It should introduce yourself, present your why or purpose, explain what it is that the organization is facing as a challenge and introduce the solution you are providing, and include a call to action. Some other pieces of advice they offer are: Define who your target audiences are, including an assessment of where they are when it comes to compliance, what you expect from them and what the gaps are. To gain leadership support, help them understand the broader compliance context in which the organization operates. Don’t assume leadership understands its role within a compliance program. Show them and then thank them when they help. Seek out as many touchpoints with the workforce as possible. Remember that who sends the message can be just as important as the message itself. Listen in to learn more about strategic and innovative ways to sell your compliance program internally. Listen now

By Adam Turteltaub With the explosion of sanctions regimes globally, and particularly in the US, most any company that exports just about anything now has to have a trade compliance effort. To understand what that entails we spoke with Julia Komarovskaya, Export Compliance Manager at MathWorks. It’s a complex challenge, she explains, with the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) all having a say, and often with overlapping jurisdictions. Organizations need to watch what goods they export, to where and to whom. Knowing your customer has never been more important. To navigate this minefield, she recommends first recognizing that the rules don’t apply only to goods. Services can be covered as well. Also recognize that exporting something as innocuous as a pencil could be prohibited, if sent to the wrong person. Developing an export control program right takes understanding what you are exporting now, working closely with the business team as early in the process as possible, and planning for the long term since regulations are guaranteed to grow more complicated over time. Listen in to learn more about the basics of the complex world of trade compliance. Listen now

By Adam Turteltaub Reports are that there over 50 million people in the world living in modern slavery conditions, and, of those, 60% work in forced labor in the private economy. Ensuring that your organization isn’t sourcing from suppliers who victimize labor is both a moral and a legal obligation, with more and more jurisdictions enacting legislation in this area. Vera Belazelkoska, Managing Director at Ulula urges organizations to look to balancing this risk with a mixture of boots on the ground and technology. Both, she notes, have their virtues and limitations. While having someone visit a factory provides an eyewitness account, it’s expensive, and unscrupulous manufacturers may hide the truth from investigators. Technology solutions are less expensive, but they are not necessarily as precise as they could be, often providing country data, but not the granularity needed. Only with a prudent mixture of the two can an organization gain a better understanding of its supply chain and the presence, or absence, of modern slavery in it. Listen now

By Adam Turteltaub There are hundreds of Compliance Perspectives podcasts, and this is the first one that is a podcast about podcasts. More specifically, the podcasts created by the compliance team at John Deere. The compliance team there had long looked to a wide range of tools for reaching the workforce including a monthly email newsletter, channel on internal social media, an intranet site and even digital signs on TV screens at their facilities. Yet, despite all this effort, they knew they could do more. As Wendy Davies-Popelka, the Associate Director, Global Ethics & Compliance, explains, the compliance team was listening to and hooked on several podcasts, and it occurred to them that they should try and create one of their own. So, they did. The podcasts are generally 5-10 minutes long and are based on actual cases that occurred at the company. Investigators, business people and others are interviewed to tell the story, from initial allegation through dispensation. The series has been very successful with a growing audience. Importantly, it has demystified the compliance program. To learn more about the podcasts and how easy they can be to create, be sure to listen to this podcast about John Deere’s podcasts. Listen now

By Adam Turteltaub Psychological safety is a term we hear a lot in business and elsewhere.  It’s also a concept that Jen Mason, Vice President, Enterprise Compliance & Ethics at McKesson, thinks we in compliance should embrace. It means creating an environment where employees can feel comfortable expressing their thoughts, ideas and concerns without facing negative consequences. It’s not about being nice. It’s about listening, following through on what you say you will do, being respectful of the workloads of others and showing empathy. It’s also about not punishing mistakes, pushing people until they burnout and talking more than you listen. It’s also about having policies that are flexible but consistent. Listen in to learn more about how to create psychological safety, including at those difficult times when there may be a conflict. Listen now

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. Listen now

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. Listen now

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. Listen now

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. Listen now

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. Listen now