The Network in the News

Calling in Corruption

October 01 2010

Gail Mills, director of human resources at Home Depot, is a big fan of hotlines. The $66 billion home improvement chain has had a hotline in place for employees and vendors for at least 15 years, she says. “In all that time, the hotline has always paid for itself, because as long as an associate is calling us instead of filing a lawsuit, going to the media, or going to OSHA, it allows us to fix the problem, and that’s a huge benefit,” Mills says. “It’s worth whatever it costs us.”

Hotlines may be old hat, but the growing ubiquity of all sorts of media to spread the word, enhanced enforcement against corruption by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the recent Dodd-Frank Act’s promise…

Keep Cutting Back Fraud

May 27 2010

Fraud cases have slightly declined after they jumped during the recession, according to a recent survey. If that trend is to continue, companies could take these steps to build a culture of honesty.

• Learn. Fraud reports as a share of all compliance hotline activity dipped to 20.2% in the first quarter from 21% at the beginning of last year. That’s according to a quarterly corporate fraud index from the Network, a Norcross, Ga.-based corporate governance, risk and compliance firm. Still, that’s nearly double the 10.9% of early 2006.

Fraud levels rode up and down with the economy. Helping bring it down is education. “Companies are spending more time helping employees understand the importance of this,” said Luis Ramos, the Network’s chief executive. “Companies are…

Corporate Fraud Cases Decreasing?

March 26 2010

Today’s most recent reports of corporate fraud may pale in comparison to the Enron/WorldComonslaught of the early 2000s, but they’re still here—reminders that executive-wealth-inflating wrongdoings are not yet completely eradicated.

The most recent reminder? The stock-options backdating criminal trial of Bruce Karatz, who resigned as CEO of Los Angeles-based KB Home in 2006, taking place now in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Times offers a disturbing portrait of Karatz, 64, who faces 20 felony charges of fraud and making false statements about the company’s options practices between 1999 and 2006. In his opening statement to the jury, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander A. Bustamante described Karatz as a greedy man who made more than $6 million in “secret pay” by manipulating stock-option…

Building a Strategic Social Media Policy That Supports an Ethics-Driven Culture

March 18 2010

The majority of employees fully embrace the Web 2.0 world, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. In fact, YouTube receives more than 1 billion views per day, and Facebook and Twitter both experienced triple-digit growth in 2009. If your Human Resources department doesn’t have a strong sense of employee’s social media activities, then you need to start the discussion on appropriate engagement as social media continues to grow explosively.

There are many departments that need to be involved in developing a social media policy including Human Resources, Legal, Compliance and Marketing. Yes, Marketing. Your brand is how your company is perceived throughout the marketplace be it an industry, consumer group or customer base. Postings on social sites may significantly impact brand image; an image…

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IN THE NEWS

Strengthening Security Through Compliance

Security measures are essential for protecting people, assets and information, and compliance makes sure those measures are effective. A healthy compliance program will bolster your security measures and find weaknesses before they become problems.