Interview with: Jean-Paul Durand, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, Tech Data Corporation

“Chief Litigation Officers (CLOs) need to safeguard their organization from the risk of retaliation claims,” says Jean-Paul Durand, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, Tech Data Corporation. Organizations must ensure that the ethics and compliance program and reporting mechanisms are not improperly leveraged by employees with serious performance issues. “Treating people fairly and consistently will actually help minimize the number of employee claims,” according to Durand.

What is challenging CLOs today?

Organizations are trying to convince employees that it is safe to report misconduct and violations of the law, when the reality is there is always a very real risk of retaliation. Whistleblowers could be involved in the underlying misconduct in some way and may also be individuals with serious performance issues. The challenge is in making sure the ethics and compliance program and the reporting mechanisms are not improperly leveraged by employees with serious performance issues, or are otherwise acting in bad faith.

What practices could minimize the risk of retaliation claims?

When there are concerns of retaliation, we may require all disciplinary matters to be run by the legal department and the ethics and compliance organization for a period of time after the event, to ensure actions are not retaliatory in nature and done in good faith, rather than done to identify and retaliate against the individual who reported the matter.

Companies want misconduct to be reported internally, and not to a governmental authority before they have the opportunity to address the issue.

What is key to a successful compliance and reporting program?

Management must reassure employees that when a concern is reported in good faith they will be treated with respect and integrity, and most importantly, taken seriously. What deters employees the most is when they think nothing will be done when it took a lot of courage to raise the issue. There must be various outlets for reporting concerns in a confidential and if needed, in an anonymous manner.

How should managers inform employees what tools are available? Is there a risk of this backfiring on them?

Managers must constantly communicate to employees the availability of reporting tools, so they know they are not coming strictly from the legal or compliance teams. They need to send the message out that they are comfortable with employees reporting concerns.

Managers have to engage with employees to better understand what keeps them up at night. For a holistic perspective of litigation and compliance risks, CLOs need feedback from the front line and middle management. Then they should leverage that information to improve practices, policies and people, otherwise they would be making a pretty big mistake in overlooking a key company resource.

To avoid ambiguities and misunderstandings, there must be clear lines of communication. One of the main reasons why employees file retaliation claims is because they feel they are not being heard. There should be an open door policy to the extent that it is not employees reaching out to the CLO, but the CLO reaching out to them and inviting them in.

Contact: Sarin Kouyoumdjian-Gurunlian
Press Manager, marcus evans

Email: press@marcusevanscy.com

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marcus evans

The marcus evans group has over 20 years experience in the production of premium business events. Known globally for our unwavering dedication to quality and excellence, we aid our clients in achieving their strategic goals by providing market leading business intelligence otherwise inaccessible to them.