What Adds ‘Wow’ to a Compliance Program?

Not long ago, someone leaked to me a short paper that Joe Murphy, compliance consultant extraordinaire, has been writing about “wow factors” in corporate compliance programs. That the leaker was Murphy himself, with a short note attached saying, “Hey Matt, why not put this on your blog?” is purely coincidence.

Wow factors, as corny as that phrase may be, are important. Murphy notes in his paper that corporate compliance officers and government regulators have a symbiotic relationship: regulators want to encourage effective compliance programs, and chief compliance officers want to build those programs—so each looks to the other for signs and cues of what effective programs actually do.

As Murphy puts it: “Those who have done this work in-house depend on the leverage provided by knowledgeable government treatment of these programs. For those in government assessing a compliance & ethics program, it’s essential to sort the real programs from the cosmetic.”

What distinguishes the real from the cosmetic? Wow factors. So let’s discuss them.

Murphy’s paper proposes 34 wow factors acrosss 17 categories, from the Code of Conduct to program infrastructure to discipline, and many more. We both encourage you to read his paper (download it from the link above or at left), and fire off comments—in the comment section below, or by email to me ([email protected]) or Murphy ([email protected]). If we get enough comments, we’ll do a follow-up post recapping the main themes.

Download Joe Murphy’s paper on wow factors.

My own thoughts about which factors deliver the most wow are a bit mixed. Compliance officers hear multiple messages from regulators about what their ethics & compliance programs should do. We have lofty speeches from the leadership of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department, emphasizing culture and CEO involvement and tone at the top reverberating throughout the enterprise. We also have assistant U.S. attorneys and SEC enforcement lawyers, poring over the details of training programs and policies. Your program should try to reflect both messages, with the frank understanding that in almost all instances, those enforcement attorneys are the ones who matter more.

One message where the speeches and enforcement align is the empowered CCO. Murphy touches on a few sample wow factors there, such as “has a strong employment contract… and can only be discharged by the board.” I’m all for a the CCO getting a strong contract, but I would be even more wowwed by how much the compliance officer can actually accomplish in operations, rather than the boardroom. Elsewhere in his paper, Murphy gives the example that a CCO should be able to veto any ethically questionsable business partner or trade association membership—and that is a wow factor. That’s the CCO being able to make a tangible difference in operations.

Another important theme in Murphy’s wow factors is how the company tries to take ethics & compliance seriously. Some of his ideas are superb but perhaps a bit unlikely right now (“the board includes a chief compliance officer from another company as a member”), but others are quite feasible (“when the company’s incentive and bonus systems are being developed, the CCO is involved and has a say over what is done”). Taking compliance seriously is a bit difficult to define—you can do it in multiple ways—but that’s always been the core message from regulatory leaders and enforcement staff alike.

One last question to ask, as you consider compliance wow factors: What would the Justice Department’s compliance counsel think of your ideas? Because we hear increasing anecdotal evidence that the arrival of Hui Chen to that role (she was hired by the department six months ago) really is changing the tenor of conversations the Justice Department has with companies under investigation. Chen held compliance jobs at Standard Chartered, Pfizer, and Microsoft, so she certainly does have experience separating “wow” from “cosmetic.”

To coincide with Chen’s arrival, the Justice Department also outlined seven metrics it will consider when reviewing compliance programs. If you want to match your wow factors to anything, matching them to those metrics would be a good place to start.