Innovations in Compliance Podcast: What's Your Spark Score? With Compliance Evangelist Tom Fox!

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I recently had the chance to speak with Tom Fox - otherwise known as the Compliance Evangelist. We talked about the Spark Score report, a free tool we’ve developed to help you find the gap between how good your compliance program is internally and how it’s seen by outsiders.

This is information the public is searching for. Do you know how well your company is doing?

Some of the key ideas we talked about were:

  • What the Spark Score report is, and what insights it can give about your company and how the public sees your commitment to compliance.

  • How your Spark Score is measured: what factors are we looking at? How do we analyze them?

  • What to do with this information to move your business — and the industry — forward.

Curious to get your free Spark Score Report? Just fill in this four-line form. Enjoy the show below, or listen to it here. And if you like it, subscribe to Tom’s show, Innovation in Compliance, to stay up to date on what’s happening in the industry.

Think you’re alone in this? Think again.

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Think you’re alone in this? Think again.

“If we knew each other’s secrets, what comforts we should find.”  Nineteenth-century English literary critic John Churton Collins had it right when he wrote this truth about the human condition.  We think we’re alone in our worries and shame, but actually, we’re all in this together.  Here are three common secret thoughts harbored by compliance officers.

1.      I don’t know what I’m doing

Welcome to the club.  Compliance is still in a nascent stage.  And while we have various pieces of guidance from the world’s prosecutors, as well as regulations like the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines, there isn’t a single roadmap showing how a compliance program should look. 

From new technology to new deferred prosecution agreements, we’re asked constantly to advance our skills and adapt our programs.  It’s easy to feel like you don’t know what you’re doing, because, well, you probably don’t know what you’re doing all the time.  But you’re in the same boat as everyone else.  Which leads to secret feeling number two. 

2.      Everyone else knows how to do this

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How does the Outside World see your Compliance Program? Find out for Free with this Brand New Report

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How does the Outside World see your Compliance Program? Find out for Free with this Brand New Report

Have you ever Googled your name to see what comes up?  Most of us have.  What about your company’s name?  Have you ever thought about the impression your company makes from a compliance and ethics perspective?  Most people haven’t thought about this critical element of their program, and yet, it’s the first thing regulators, customers, potential investors, shareholders and employees see.

Why is your company’s compliance-related appearance so important?  The contents of your company’s website give the impression to the world of just how important compliance and ethics is at the company.  It allows potential employees, potential customers, and even potential buyers of the company to evaluate whether corporate culture is important at the firm, and whether the management is truly committed to creating a compliant and ethical company. 

Does this mean that your external impression tells the whole story about your program?  Of course not!  Your program may be fantastic on the inside, but if it’s not obvious on the outside, that’s a major problem. 

How can you tell if your outside appearance is good?  More importantly, how can you benchmark how your program looks against others in your industry?  Wouldn’t it be great to have a concrete, specific report reviewing how your company looks to the outside world?  Wouldn’t it be great if that report could be used to show your management or board how your program looks to the outside world?  And wouldn’t it be especially great if that report were free with no strings attached whatsoever? 

I’ve been thinking long and hard about how to quantify the external reputation of a company.  I’ve created 25 proprietary inputs that we put into an algorithm to score the external appearance of the program.  For the past few months, my company has been aggregating information on the appearance of critical areas of compliance, including:

·       Code of Conduct

·       Corporate Governance

·       Whistle-blower Provisions

·       Anti-Bribery Commitments

·       Data Privacy

·       Supply Chain / Modern Slavery / Sustainability

I’m so excited to introduce Spark Score – the free report you that shows exactly how your program looks to the external world.  If you’d like to get your Spark Score Report, simply reply to this email with your name, company name and company website.  We’ll get you your free report within 10 working days.   

What do you have to lose?  The insights you gain will be invaluable, both for yourself and for talking to management about the criticality of showing how important the compliance and ethics program is to the external stakeholders that make your business profitable. 

Don’t delay – fill out the form at www.sparkcompliance.com/spark-score 

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Risky Women Radio - Listen to the Fun!

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Risky Women Radio - Listen to the Fun!

The fabulous Kimberley Cole interviewed me for Risky Women Radio! Listen in for a fun interview about:

  • The biggest trends in compliance and ethics

  • How to rock your career

  • What to focus on in 2019

  • The different trends in Asia versus Europe and the US

It’s a great conversation that I’m sure you’ll enjoy! Find it here:

iTunes: https://tmsnrt.rs/2I5Koox

Spotify: https://tmsnrt.rs/2I4dtky

Google: https://tmsnrt.rs/2I2O4aX

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Four Steps to Get the Most Out of Your Compliance Program Assessment

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Four Steps to Get the Most Out of Your Compliance Program Assessment

The following is a guest post by Ramsey Kazem

“These recommendations are great, but what should I do with them?”  We all know that a best practice for any company in any industry is to periodically evaluate and assess the current state of its compliance program.  Such an assessment, whether performed internally or by an outside consultant, should be completely objective with a clearly defined purpose.  For example, some assessments may be designed to measure an organization’s preparedness for complying with a new law or regulation.  Others may be broader in scope and seek to measure the effectiveness of a program (or aspects thereof) in mitigating an organization’s compliance risk.  Irrespective of its scope, a good assessment can provide invaluable insights into a compliance program with important recommendations for improving its overall structure and effectiveness. 

While feedback on your program is important, there’s a risk that the company will view the assessor’s recommendations as a check-box exercise.  At worst, the company may race to complete the recommendations as quickly as possible, sacrificing quality and thoughtfulness in the process.   Because each task completed is another checkmark on the “to-do” list and, thus, a measure of progress and performance, the recommendations are often prioritized based on ease-of-completion starting with the low-hanging fruit, first.  This approach, while effective in quickly checking items off a “to-do” list, is often counterproductive and can result in a disjointed and inconsistent program.     

Four Steps to Getting the Most Out of Assessment Recommendations

A better approach is to take a more holistic view of the assessment and…

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