Compliance has expanded greatly, and encompasses so many important facets of ethical business practices that it should not become a dreaded, “check the box” training that is pushed until the very last day of the year.
But, seeing the same content or reading the same documents over and over again, it is likely that the audience will start to gloss over the true, underlying and important message.
How can you be sure that you retain your audience’s attention?
First, let’s turn to the UK Bribery Act guidance that speaks directly to training and communication, as well as that of the DOJ’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs. The DOJ’s guidance notes that “some companies…give employees practical advice or case studies to address real-life scenarios, and/or guidance on how to obtain ethics advice on a case-by-case basis as needs arise.”
The biggest takeaway is that you must communicate to your organization about compliance as it affects them. Give them scenarios that relate to their day-to-day practices and help them take practical steps to avoid unethical business and corrupt dealings that will land the whole organization in trouble.
You can create simple slogans that help your audience to remember where to go to raise concerns, such as a simple acrostic that you can post on your company intranet, or around your office space. Such as:
C - Caring
O - Open
M - Mindful
P - Pleasant
L - Listen
I - Interested
A - Available
N - Nearby! Room 200!
C - Call our helpline! +123 456 7890
E - Email us! compliance@abc.com
Take the time to be a little creative and think outside of the typical training sphere. Look at other ways to communicate. Virtual “face-to-face” training that you conduct via your conference calling system is a great way to “see” and “meet” more people.
An evite to a conference call discussing compliance with a theme like “Cookies and Compliance” could be a way to show that compliance is important, and can allow people to bring a treat to the event, making it feel special.
Short but interesting and exciting elements keep your audience engaged. Send colleagues short videos from your phone with “compliance quick tips” getting your message across quickly and easily!
There are many ways to upgrade your compliance communication, and so many technologies at your fingertips to do so. Use your other departments, like marketing and sales, they might know of creative ways to develop a short and effective message, too.
The same can be said of other regions. Tap into colleagues at local offices who can take your message and share it with their teams, to ensure that your compliance theme is being seen and heard. Use them as “ambassadors” of your compliance efforts.
A small team can still do a lot to ensure that compliance reaches everyone. Communicate through any means you have available: email, newsletters, conference calls, webinars, your team does not have to travel to make sure compliance has a far reach!
Associate Director, Compliance Training, TRACE
This post is part of our “Ask an Expert” series where we take questions submitted by readers and ask an expert in the compliance field to provide insight. If you have a question you would like answered, please submit here. |
For decades, John O’Halloran was the man to see if you wanted something done in Trinidad and Tobago. He had many nicknames—“Johnny O”, “Cockfighting Johnny” and, most notoriously, “Mr. Ten Percent”—and a comfortable home on Flamboyant Avenue in the hills outside Port of Spain. Whatever his official role—from minister of petroleum to chairman of the country’s racing authority—O’Halloran had the ear of Dr. Eric Williams, founder of the People’s National Movement party and Prime Minister from independence in 1962 until his death in 1981.
Among O’Halloran’s many schemes, perhaps the most baleful was the sweetheart deal he arranged for Tesoro Petroleum, a then-small Texas oil company that in 1968 acquired a 49.9% share in the country’s petroleum production with an initial investment of $50,000, the full $10 million to be paid from future profits. When the price of oil soared in the 1970s, the company’s revenues ballooned. O’Halloran got his $2 million—ten percent of the deal’s initial value—and payments continued to be made over the years to a range of “finders” and “consultants” with a hand in the concession’s administration.
The country lived well during the boom years, but the party ended with the oil glut of the 1980s. Recession led to significant cutbacks in salaries and cost-of-living adjustments, and in 1986 the PNM lost its previously unchallenged grip on parliament to the newly formed National Alliance for Reconstruction. Tesoro had left the market by then, selling its share of the operation back to the government in exchange for 3.23 million barrels worth about $200 million. O’Halloran was also out of the picture, having fled to Canada in 1982 after the death of his protector, where he himself passed away in 1985.
The new government, through the efforts of Attorney General Selwyn Richardson, started digging around. They were able to recover a few million from O’Halloran’s son in Canada, and began piecing together the full story behind the Tesoro arrangement. (The SEC’s 1980 consent agreement with Tesoro had addressed the matter only in passing, as one of a number of “finder/consultant” infractions in various countries.) The company eventually agreed to settle the matter for about $3.3 million. The merits of the settlement were under discussion in parliament on July 27, 1990 when the chamber was suddenly overtaken by armed insurgents mounting an attempted coup. The trauma lingers to this day.
This post is part of "The FCPA Files" series, examining key enforcement cases under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the lessons they offer for modern compliance. |
Consider for a moment the value of good advice. Those nuggets of wisdom you collect as you move through your life and career are precious. Advice derives from the Latin vedere (to see). Indeed, good advice can help you to see what you couldn’t before, revealing a best course of action, or maybe inaction.
Surf the digital waves about good advice and it will reveal what you already know intuitively: Good advice – if you act on it – helps you to (i) solve problems, (ii) find new ideas and perspectives, (iii) make better and smarter decisions, (iv) feel empowered and take confident actions, and (v) improve your life and do better personally or professionally.
For good advice on how to be an effective in-house compliance officer or counsel, please read on. The nuggets below, collected by your author from several seasoned professionals, include tactical advice on how to accomplish compliance goals as well as strategic advice on where to focus and how to maintain perspective.
Keeping in mind that the best advice in life is free, here goes:
Many of us strive for perfection, which can lead to over-compensation for a lack of clarity or lingering on familiar ground instead of going to where the risk lies. To those, this piece of advice may be helpful: "Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
In both small and large organizations, teambuilding is key to getting things done. The first team to focus on is your own. June Tan, SVP of Legal & Compliance at NEON in Singapore, finds that “team culture is the foundation” to ensuring an organization receives the best legal and compliance service. She advises to “look inwards before looking out” to create trust and respect within the compliance team.
Compliance officers also need to be part of the larger team. Pedro Medrano, an experienced in-house compliance attorney, emphasizes that “an effective ethics and compliance leader needs to be able to wear multiple hats simultaneously and be embedded in the business.”
Justin Dillon, Compliance Counsel at Red Hat, emphasized a similar point in co-opting John Donne's famous meditation: “No compliance officer is an island, entire of itself." Justin believes that “we best serve our clients when we collaborate across functions in our organization and with others in the compliance community.”
“Be comfortable with ambiguity” summarizes the sage advice offered by a few compliance officers from different industries. Ideally, the challenges presented by the many unknowns and surprises in practicing compliance is balanced by the joys of working in a collegial office. But even if you are comfortable with your office environment, don’t get lulled into a false sense of security and lose sight of core principles. “Always remember who your client is – it's the company, not any individual executive or business unit” advises Michelle Hylton, the SVP of Ethics & Compliance at Warner Bros. Discovery.
From the hall of fame of good advice, here’s a two-carat nugget: Trust but verify! Put another way, follow up on your instincts even if that sometimes feels counterintuitive.
If your follow-up leads to an investigation, you may find this advice from David Kennard, Associate Director of Corporate Investigations at Accenture in London, to be very useful during interviews: “Often the most powerful question to ask is nothing at all. Most people feel uncomfortable with periods of silence and will speak to fill them.” He adds this tip: “make sure your fellow interviewer knows the plan!”
As they say, it takes a village to accomplish challenging tasks. This sentiment is echoed in the advice offered by Pascale Helene Dubois, an international anti-corruption and governance expert and former Integrity Vice President at the World Bank. She recommends that compliance officers “cultivate a broad network of subject matter experts outside their organization. This will enable you to stay informed about industry trends, seek peer support and advice, and benefit from shared experiences with others facing similar challenges.”
Charles ‘Chuck’ Duross, who co-leads Morrison & Foerster’s FCPA and Global Anti-Corruption Practice, spoke of a former client, a CCO who worked at several companies with a history of pre-existing problems, who felt that compliance is like ‘safety’ in that there is little or no margin for error, so it is important to get it right the first time, every time. Whew, no pressure! The advisory footnote here is to know when to get help. Sometimes getting it right may require calling external counsel for a sense-check to ensure that you are within the safety zone.
Alison Taylor, Clinical Professor at NYU Stern School of Business and the author of Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World, advises compliance officers that connecting the dots from different subject matter areas results in better compliance. Her good advice: “Study behavioral science and design compliance with human cognition and social influence in mind.” To understand how those dots connect, be sure to read her remarkable book.
Your author’s humble advice is to be approachable and a good listener so people and issues will find their way to you. Being the trusted one in a room is empowering and makes our intense jobs a whole lot more fun. And it is unlikely that even the smartest software will replace soft skills anytime soon.
General Counsel, Room to Read