Innovation in Compliance with Tom Fox

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series on Operationalizing Your Compliance Program, sponsored by Broadcat LLC. Over this series, we consider a variety of ways to more fully operationalize your compliance regime, including the design and effectiveness of your communications, why the operationalization of compliance is a team sport, why simply data is not the answer and how to avoid being overwhelmed. In Part 3, I am joined by Jaycee Dempsey to discuss operationalizing your compliance program through employee engagement and participation.  Highlights from this episode include:·      Compliance is a team sport. ·      The DOJ pronouncements on clawbacks puts the pressure on senior management. ·      Middle managers is where the rubber meets the road. ·      Document Document DocumentFor more information go to TheBroadcat.com

Tom’s guest on this week’s episode of Innovation in Compliance, Richard Blundell, discusses the risks and opportunities associated with growth in the insurance industry. They talk about how to finance a company's growth by understanding its risks. Business financing is trending towards sustainability, and Tom and Richard explore how companies can access capital by implementing sustainable practices and strategies.A global environmental services and technology consultant with over 35 years of experience, Richard Blundell has extensive experience in senior executive management and consulting. Mergers and acquisitions, corporate and market development, and operations management are among his areas of expertise. His experience includes launching new businesses and managing growth-stage businesses around the world. He is also an advisor to the Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability charity.Here are some key points Tom and Richard talk about:  Richard talks about his professional background and current role as an advisor on sustainability. Richard believes that sustainability in business leads to lower costs, less waste, more resource efficiency, better quality jobs, better employee engagement, and more access to capital. In addition to improving access to capital, sustainability can also improve performance in public markets, lower capital costs, and lower debt costs. Richard highlights that materiality is a way for companies to determine priorities and goals for sustainability, decarbonization, and ESG by considering what is important for both the corporation and its stakeholders Quoting Paul Wellman, Richard tells Tom that working toward social, environmental, and economic outcomes can invigorate and energize an organization. Sustainability can be a life insurance policy for the planet. Companies without decarbonization plans may not have access to financing from banks and other financial institutions as they do not understand the risks associated with growth and may not be seen as providing a benefit to society, Richard tells Tom. Richard believes that the circular economy aims to eliminate waste by keeping inputs and outputs at their highest utility throughout their life cycle. Companies like Interface and Nike are committed to sustainability and continue to innovate and stretch their targets as they learn more about driving efficiency and process in the decarbonization journey. KEY QUOTE:"If I am going to finance a company's growth, I want to finance a company that's in the insurance industry as well. I want to finance the company's growth by understanding the risks associated with that growth.” - Richard BlundellResources Richard Blundell | LinkedIn

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series on Operationalizing Your Compliance Program, sponsored by Broadcat LLC. Over this series, we consider a variety of ways to more fully operationalize your compliance regime, including the design and effectiveness of your communications, why the operationalization of compliance is a team sport, why simply data is not the answer and how to avoid being overwhelmed. In Part 2, I am joined by Jennifer May and Xinia Pirkey to consider your compliance program design.  Highlights from this episode include:·      Your communications should resonate with your employees. ·      Aesthetic draws an employee in but content grabs their attention. ·      Clarity and relevance are key elements. ·      Document Document DocumentFor more information go to TheBroadcat.com

Welcome to a special five-part podcast series on Operationalizing Your Compliance Program, sponsored by Broadcat LLC. We consider a variety of ways to more fully operationalize your compliance regime, including the design and effectiveness of your communications, why the operationalization of compliance is a team sport, why simply data is not the answer and how to avoid being overwhelmed. In Part 1, I am joined by Jennifer May to consider what is compliance program effectiveness.  Highlights from this episode include:·      What is and is not effectiveness?·      Identify silos and work through them. ·      Compliance is not a closed book test. ·      Document Document DocumentFor more information go to TheBroadcat.com

On this week’s episode, Tom’s guest Avi Singer talks about how to make it easier for employees to understand and complete compliance training. Compliance training refers to the process of educating employees on laws, regulations, and company policies that apply to their day-to-day job responsibilities. The goal is for everyone in an organization to have compliance training, and for it to be frictionless for employees to access and complete. Avi Singer is the founder and CEO of Showd.me, a company that is helping organizations provide remote and on-demand compliance training solutions, specifically in the healthcare space. He is extremely passionate about highlighting the importance of compliance training, noting that it is often required in order for organizations to comply with regulations. He is described by his colleagues as a “bright professional who can understand complex business solutions and offer creative solutions to problems.” Here are some key points Tom and Avi talk about: Avi explains how he persuades clients to utilize resources from his company Showd.me to have their employees take its compliance training.  Avi believes compliance training should be easy to understand and pass a quiz on.  The government expects targeted compliance training to address issues like racial sensitivity or harassment, Avi explains to Tom.  Avi highlights the importance of bystander intervention and mandated reporting in potentially harmful situations and the best way to execute it in a clear and nuanced fashion.  If additional training or intervention is required, Avi says, companies should have an HR person who can help address investigations and create policies around compliance. AVI discusses pronoun training, how it should be conducted in order to get the message to the right person, and how to ensure employees are addressed in an appropriate manner. The goal is for everyone in an organization to have compliance training, and for it to be frictionless for employees to access and complete, Avi says. Cost savings can be achieved by reducing liability and risk, as well as by making compliance part of the normal training process. KEY QUOTE:“You don't have to be perfect. I think that our training is not like, ‘Hey, you need to know the nuances of harassment or the nuances of what constitutes the mandatory reporter situation or what constitutes abuse’. It's more like, ‘The law says if you see this going on you have to do something’.” - Avi SingerResourcesAvi Singer | LinkedIn | Twitter showd.me

Tom’s guest in this episode of Innovation In Compliance is Dale Waterman, who popularized the phrase “data sovereignty” in the compliance space. The sovereignty of data, or data sovereignty, is the idea that the laws of the country where the organization is based still apply to the data regardless of where it moves across borders. He explains that both cloud computing and the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies like AI and IoT drove the data sovereignty movement. Dale Waterman is a Managing Director of Breakwater Solutions, a consulting firm with a focus on global data privacy, cybersecurity, information governance, and investigations. He is passionate about helping organizations implement digital transformation objectives by assessing and managing legal, regulatory, and compliance challenges. He helps organizations collect, use, manage and protect personal data in a pragmatic and compliant manner that enables data-driven business strategies. Here are some key points Tom and Dale talk about:  Dale talks about his professional background and his role at Breakwater Solutions.  Dale defines data sovereignty, localization, and the impact on global data privacy and cybersecurity. Dale and Tom discuss and compare how data sovereignty issues and privacy laws are viewed in MENA (Middle East, North Africa) as opposed to Europe and the United States.  Most of the problems with data sovereignty stem from mistrust of big tech and concerns about government access to data, specifically with the US government, Dale tells Tom. To help organizations comply with ever-changing data sovereignty laws, Dale suggests that companies get to know data and laws, classification, data minimization, and management of third parties. Dale highlights some key challenges your clients may face in the Middle East and North Africa in 2023. Dale describes how Breakwater Solutions helps clients tackle issues like data sovereignty, cross-border data transfers, and evolving data protection laws. KEY QUOTE:“The sovereignty of data refers to the fact that no matter where the data moves across borders, ... you still apply the laws of the country where the organization is based.” - Dale WatermanResourcesDale Waterman | LinkedIn | Breakwater Solutions

Tom Fox's guest on this week’s show is DeeJae Durante. DeeJae is a livestream strategist and coach, helping individuals with disabilities get their messages out through marketing tools like podcasts and livestreams. She joins Tom to talk about creating accessibility for disabled individuals in the corporate world, and the true meaning of inclusion.  DeeJae's MissionTom asks DeeJae what started her on the path of disability advocacy. DeeJae gives an anecdote about watching her father navigate life after a traumatic brain injury. It sparked the advocacy within her. She is very passionate about helping businesses realize the importance of providing diversity options for people with disabilities, as well as being open and considerate of everyone. The True Meaning of Inclusion There is no inclusion without accessibility. It is impossible to be inclusive or diverse in an organization if there is no consideration for disabled people. DeeJae talks about helping businesses create systems that accommodate disabled people and building different types of accessibility. "That's why I really focus on accessibility and understanding what that concept is, because that will lead to inclusion," she tells Tom. Creating different options for individuals within the organization to access information is another key component of accessibility. "Communication is so fundamental, and accessibility to information is communication."Accessibility Builds Loyalty "By having a policy of accessibility and inclusion for disabled employees, you not only create a very loyal workforce, but you can actually make your business better," Tom remarks. This holds true for every aspect of business. Accessibility builds up social worth in your employees. Taking the initiative to be observant about the processes in your businesses and making sure that they are accessible to everyone is going to enhance your business. There is no excuse anymore, and there is no other option than to be accessible. "It's something that we really need to implement into our businesses and our processes as soon as possible. The sooner that we do that, the better off we're going to be and the more beneficial it will be to our business," DeeJae stresses. ResourcesDeeJae Durante | LinkedIn | Twitter

David Simon is a Partner at Foley & Lardner in the firm’s litigation department and a member of their Government Enforcement/Compliance/White Collar Defense Practice Group, Antitrust Practice Group, and Health Industry Team. He specializes in investigations, corporate governance, and government enforcement defense law. He and Tom Fox discuss David's article "The G in ESG" and the role of compliance in ESG, specifically in the governance aspect of compliance.The Meta Contract, Governance & Company CultureAn organization's meta contract represents what the company is truly about to the public. David tells Tom the meta contract is what the company does, who the company is, and what the company isn't. Governance comes into play by keeping the company on the right track and making sure that it operates in the way it said it would. Culture informs the way an organization adheres to its meta contract, and it starts from the corporate level. Who you hire, who you promote, policies, and internal protocols and procedures all play key parts in this. Being Authentic "One of the things that I see that I'm a little skeptical of is every organization trying to fit itself into the same ESG vision or model," David remarks. Every organization is different so there’s no one-size-fits-all ESG model. A company’s meta contract sets the expectations on how they present themselves to the world. True value lies in "being authentic and maintaining integrity over how you're presenting your organization, and what your values are, and who your stakeholders are, and how you rank them in terms of priority," David remarks. ESG and ComplianceOne of the great things about ESG is it allows compliance to broaden its thinking. A lot of times compliance is only focused on regulatory compliance, but David tells Tom that needs to change. "Compliance professionals need to think more broadly than just the laws and the regulatory framework, to more about what their organizational meta contract is, and they need to take steps to protect their organizations from violating it because it can be disastrous when they do," David says. Resources David Simon on LinkedInThe G in ESG

Tom Fox's guest on this week’s show is Roxanne Petraeus. She is the CEO of Ethena, a compliance program for technology companies focusing on engagement and transparency. She and Tom talk about her career journey and what she and Ethena are bringing to the compliance sphere. EthenaThe training Ethena offers covers everything related to compliance as a broad topic. The company seeks to answer ‘Why compliance?’ and goes deep on the concept of design. For example, how would you design your compliance solutions to prevent certain issues?  What models would you look at that is similar? Roxanne tells Tom, "We just asked a fundamentally different design question: how do you iterate on the same model and make small tweaks but don't fundamentally change the way it's delivered or the key components of it?" Employee Engagement and Engaging Training Tom asks Roxanne how Ethena encourages employee engagement and employee training that is engaging. Employee training across any business has to be able to keep an employee's attention. "If someone has tuned out, no matter how good your content, they're not learning," Roxanne remarks. A way Ethena drives engagement is by implementing feedback. Employees are able to rate training, and this feedback tells the leaders what needs to be improved. "The reason we've made really good training is because we're forced to," Roxanne says. The employee rating data is tangible evidence of what Ethena is doing right and what it's doing wrong, so the content team can very quickly respond to that and make training better. Train To Improve Culture Training can't simply be seen as a part of a company's culture but also as something to improve a company's culture. The key to achieving this is to make training a valuable part of the employee experience. Training can help a company create a holistic and healthy workplace environment and show employees that the business is serious about improving. ResourcesRoxanne Petraeus | LinkedIn | Twitter Ethena

Tom Fox's guest on this week’s show is Toby DeRoche, a professional auditor and Senior Manager of Risk Management at Verizon. He and Tom talk about the importance of risk assessment and how it has changed in recent years. Agile AuditAgile Audit is simply auditing the things that matter at the current moment. It's an iterative approach, going through the entire audit lifecycle and compressing it down to the essentials. "We're saying, so here's everything that I could audit, but here's what's most important to the organization today," Toby tells Tom. "It's this continual cycle… giving you the answers to what's the most burning question you have related to risk and control in your organization today.” Focus on The Highest RiskIf an audit plan isn't focused on relevant issues, or the highest risk, no one is going to care how well the auditing plan was executed. Focusing on low-risk issues wastes everyone's time. "We should be focusing on the things that are the highest risk and only those things," Toby says. If internal auditors aren't focused on management support, strategic objectives, and challenges, then they aren't doing their jobs. Communicating Vs ReportingTom asks Toby to differentiate between communicating and reporting results as an internal auditor. Giving reports is not communication, he responds; it’s just regurgitating facts. "A much more effective way of getting the information across is to make it more digestible," Toby remarks, because it’s much more impactful, and people can more easily grasp what you're trying to say. Looking AheadCompanies in the future will have no choice but to use the concepts of risk assessment, continuous improvement, and continuous risk assessment. Auditing must be part of the company's objectives. "Anything that we're doing that's not focused on what matters to management and the highest risk to them achieving their goals right now, then we're completely missing the picture," Toby stresses. ResourcesToby DeRoche | LinkedIn  Only Audit What Matters