One sign of a mature compliance and ethics program is the extent to which a company’s HR Department is involved...

[The following Q&A with Tom Fox on the role of human resources in compliance programs comes on the heels of publication of his new book, The Complete Compliance Handbook, which can be purchased online here.]

Q: Why is Human Resources so critical to a best practices compliance program?

Tom Fox: One sign of a mature compliance and ethics program is the extent to which a company’s HR Department is involved in implementing a compliance solution.

While many practitioners do not immediately consider HR as a key component of a compliance solution, it can be one of the lynch pins in spreading a company’s commitment to compliance throughout the employee base. HR can also be used to ‘connect the dots’ in many divergent elements of a compliance and ethics program.

Q: Why are HR touchpoints so critical to compliance? 

Tom Fox: HR has as many touchpoints as any other corporation function with employees. From interviews to onboarding, through evaluations and performance appraisals, even to the separation process; HR leads many of the corporate touchpoints. Each one of these touchpoints can be used to teach, educate and reinforce the message of doing business ethically and in compliance with laws such as the FCPA. This is only magnified in the #MeToo era. 

Q: A robust compliance program requires both incentives and discipline. How does HR fit into this requirement? 

Tom Fox: Both incentives and employee discipline are the bread and butter of HR. HR not only has expertise in designing compensation systems but can also help to evaluate a compliance component for any year end, discretionary bonus. HR can also help in the identification of personnel who should be promoted for doing business ethically and in compliance. Equally, HR can help to identify those employees who fail to meet company standards on this key indicia.

Q: What is the role of HR in compliance training?

Tom Fox: Training is also a key competency of HR. You can have HR add a compliance component to its training or ask HR to ‘train-the-trainers’ by training middle management to in turn train their direct reports. HR can also work to increase middle managers’ tookkits around compliance.

Q: You mentioned discipline as well as incentives. What is the role of HR in discipline in a compliance program?

Tom Fox: HR has a key role to make sure that discipline is consistent and enforced uniformly across the organization. This means that if employees are fired in Brazil for cheating on their expense accounts and the top salesperson in the US does the same thing, they must be treated the same as the Brazilian employees. HR has a key role in maintaining the credibility of a compliance function through its uniformity in discipline and fair treatment of employees.

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Read more in Chapter 2 of The Complete Compliance Handbook, which can be purchased on Amazon.com click here.

To purchase an autographed copy of The Complete Compliance Handbook from the author click here.