As the Financial Conduct Authority announces its investigation into the affairs of Tesco, questions about how and why the Company overstated its profits earlier this year are rife. Until the outcomes of the investigation are known, the answers are speculative. Regardless of whether or not that understatement was intentional and if so, the extent to which senior executives were complicit, the damage has and continues to be done to the Company. Its value has fallen by £150bn since this issue came to light. News that the Financial Conduct Authority is to investigate Tesco over this incident wiped another 5.5p off the share value as soon as trading opened. In the fiercely competitive world of food retailing, its competitors must be rubbing their hands as a major competitor struggles. Or are they? Perhaps this will focus their own minds on the accounting practices that exist within their own companies having seen the damage that can be caused if it goes array. If it doesn’t – then they could suffer the same fate, as this is a real risk and any company that fails to learn, learns to fail.
In the first instance this is a failure of risk management – hindsight is a wonderful thing possessed by all of us. Foresight is the gift of good executives and managers who use every tool at their disposal to consider what the threats are to the organisation and put plans in place to mitigate against them. Didn’t see this coming might be the plea. Well look around. There have been numerous episodes in the recent past when the actions or inactions of people in organisations have had serious consequences. In a sector where public confidence and loyalty are vital, arrogance and ignorance must be avoided in equal measure.
Has someone set out to deceive in this case? Deliberately misleading shareholders, auditors, regulators and customers is a ‘lie’ in any language. If deception is proven in this case, committing that deception to print is a commissioned lie and indefensible. At what point in the Tesco risk and financial management systems should this have been identified? It is hard to imagine that a company the size of Tesco doesn’t have comprehensive systems in place - but still this issue occurred.
Sex, drugs, corruption, and illegal/inappropriate sexual behaviour by senior executives have all been played out in the media in recent years. Do they appear in the risk management matrices of major corporations? Who knows? If they don’t then they should and so too should the control measures to reduce their likelihood and impact. Knowing who works for you and what their relevant characteristics and behavioural traits are is therefore essential, along with any previous indiscretions that may have slipped under the normal screening radar.
Maybe this could help?
Showing posts with label Regulation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Regulation. Show all posts
Monday, 6 October 2014
Wednesday, 6 August 2014
Effective Screening
How can an organisation manage the hazards associated with personnel selection and appointment? Recognising that a problem exists is perhaps the starting point, followed by a good, robust business continuity, risk management and HR policies and procedures in place to address it. Whilst much attention has been focused in recent times on preventing and detecting financial impropriety at the highest level in major corporations, risk exposure occurs at every level and in each and every section of an organisation; a factor which is still apparent due to the high number of cases that have come to light retrospectively having been detected rather than prevented, suggesting many existing HR and risk management processes and finding it a challenge to effectively prevent the risk occurring in the first place. Risk is not exclusively linked to the money or the power base.
Government clearly has an interest in the risk associated with the financial world and the corporations that control it, especially when an occurrence can impact the British economy and thereby influence the outcome of an election! The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats made much of the apparent link between the financial crisis in 2007 and Labour's mis-management of the economy and lack of control over the financial institutions in the last election. It was lucky or unlucky depending on your political perspective that a Labour Government was in power at the time - would a Conservative Government have faired any better? Would it have had the necessary systems in place to prevent, detect or deter it? Hindsight is, as always, a wonderful thing!
The gift of hindsight is not exclusive to Government, every organisation has it. The trick is, having the means by which its use and subsequent 'hindsight is a wonderful thing', can be avoided. Foresight and foreseeability are by far the better means to manage risk. In relation to the financial corporations and institutions, conduct (or perhaps more appropriately misconduct) is a core and current issue, with the vast wealth having the power to sway even the strongest of minds. How does one ensure compliance with the rules, procedures, codes, and something less prescriptive but nonetheless important, societal expectations associated with good governance and transparency? After all, it is society that elects, and deselects, a government.
The first question therefore for those with responsibility for such matters is to what extent and by what means does the organisation assess risk? Employee-related risk exposure in particular (the human element of an organisation) is an area that needs to be assessed? The supplementary question is, what processes, procedures and tools are available to help manage and control it in order to reach the highest level of prevention. When it comes to fraud prevention, detection and deterrence are key expectations for those who regulate; audit and process controls can address the mechanics but what about the 'soft' hazard - those involved in the misconduct, the element open to human interoperation, interaction and often error?
How do HR professionals assess risk prior to people selection and managers during appointments when in role? Understanding the psychology and behavioural characteristics of employees is key to establishing how likely it is that an individual will break the rules, and whether or not they have an undisclosed history. The history that is not highlighted in standard screening procedures which those individuals (particularly in the finance sector) who have exposed a company to risk, have been through already?
probitasltd.co.uk
Government clearly has an interest in the risk associated with the financial world and the corporations that control it, especially when an occurrence can impact the British economy and thereby influence the outcome of an election! The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats made much of the apparent link between the financial crisis in 2007 and Labour's mis-management of the economy and lack of control over the financial institutions in the last election. It was lucky or unlucky depending on your political perspective that a Labour Government was in power at the time - would a Conservative Government have faired any better? Would it have had the necessary systems in place to prevent, detect or deter it? Hindsight is, as always, a wonderful thing!
The gift of hindsight is not exclusive to Government, every organisation has it. The trick is, having the means by which its use and subsequent 'hindsight is a wonderful thing', can be avoided. Foresight and foreseeability are by far the better means to manage risk. In relation to the financial corporations and institutions, conduct (or perhaps more appropriately misconduct) is a core and current issue, with the vast wealth having the power to sway even the strongest of minds. How does one ensure compliance with the rules, procedures, codes, and something less prescriptive but nonetheless important, societal expectations associated with good governance and transparency? After all, it is society that elects, and deselects, a government.
The first question therefore for those with responsibility for such matters is to what extent and by what means does the organisation assess risk? Employee-related risk exposure in particular (the human element of an organisation) is an area that needs to be assessed? The supplementary question is, what processes, procedures and tools are available to help manage and control it in order to reach the highest level of prevention. When it comes to fraud prevention, detection and deterrence are key expectations for those who regulate; audit and process controls can address the mechanics but what about the 'soft' hazard - those involved in the misconduct, the element open to human interoperation, interaction and often error?
How do HR professionals assess risk prior to people selection and managers during appointments when in role? Understanding the psychology and behavioural characteristics of employees is key to establishing how likely it is that an individual will break the rules, and whether or not they have an undisclosed history. The history that is not highlighted in standard screening procedures which those individuals (particularly in the finance sector) who have exposed a company to risk, have been through already?
Friday, 4 July 2014
Consequences of Wrong Employee Selection
Does society accept lying as a part of everyday life? Is it true, as suggested (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reinvent-yourself/201406/lies-truth-and-compromises-are-we-hardwired-lie) that we are all 'hard-wired' for it and that society could not function without it? If that is the case why is there 'shock' and a public outcry associated with a revelation about an MP's wrongdoing, if the accepted belief is that politicians can't be trusted in the first place (a survey done by YouGov for RatedPeople.com http://www.ratedpeople.com/blog/what-profession-do-you-trust/ suggests that to be the case)? Why should we expect CEOs and Chairs of major corporations to be more trustworthy than the remainder of society? Why are we so upset and disappointed when loved ones lie to us?
One reason might be that the moment we give people responsibility for our well being (and our money!) we expect a different set of behaviours: we have as voters elected or as shareholders bought into a contract that has an implicit 'trust' clause in it. Take the historic position in France for example in which the public would be surprised if their political class were not cheating on their wives or partners. Is the cultural acceptance of lying a reason why organisations take a relatively soft approach to its detection in the workplace or during pre-employment processes? According to Experian, 71% of applicants lie on their CVs and 50% have to reverse job offers made. Why then is there so little relative investment in appointment processes, given the risk associated with making the wrong decision? Cost, time, awareness or lack of process or tools to sort it out before problems arise or mistakes made? Interestingly, the issue isn't just about organisational risk, making the wrong selection can put the individual's health, safety and well-being at risk too.
Looking at the direct financial cost associated with the process itself; according to the CIPD, the cost of a director-level appointment is about £8000, the current maximum payout for unfair dismissal £74,500. The indirect cost of making the wrong decision is far more and perhaps unquantifiable in relation to reputational damage and disruption. These are factors to take into account in any Appointment Process, Risk Assessment or HR Policy Development.
If in doubt, seek professional advice and support for any appointment process and consider the tools available to address the risk, including psychometric and polygraph testing where appropriate alongside the more widely used processes already in place. Prevention is always better than cure or, considered alternatively, shutting the stable door before the proverbial horse has bolted.
One reason might be that the moment we give people responsibility for our well being (and our money!) we expect a different set of behaviours: we have as voters elected or as shareholders bought into a contract that has an implicit 'trust' clause in it. Take the historic position in France for example in which the public would be surprised if their political class were not cheating on their wives or partners. Is the cultural acceptance of lying a reason why organisations take a relatively soft approach to its detection in the workplace or during pre-employment processes? According to Experian, 71% of applicants lie on their CVs and 50% have to reverse job offers made. Why then is there so little relative investment in appointment processes, given the risk associated with making the wrong decision? Cost, time, awareness or lack of process or tools to sort it out before problems arise or mistakes made? Interestingly, the issue isn't just about organisational risk, making the wrong selection can put the individual's health, safety and well-being at risk too.
Looking at the direct financial cost associated with the process itself; according to the CIPD, the cost of a director-level appointment is about £8000, the current maximum payout for unfair dismissal £74,500. The indirect cost of making the wrong decision is far more and perhaps unquantifiable in relation to reputational damage and disruption. These are factors to take into account in any Appointment Process, Risk Assessment or HR Policy Development.
If in doubt, seek professional advice and support for any appointment process and consider the tools available to address the risk, including psychometric and polygraph testing where appropriate alongside the more widely used processes already in place. Prevention is always better than cure or, considered alternatively, shutting the stable door before the proverbial horse has bolted.
Monday, 16 June 2014
Mansion House Speech 2014
George Osborne in his Mansion house speech said that the "integrity of the City matters to the economy of Britain, and following on from the Libor rate fixing scandal, he now plans "to deal with abuses, [and] tackle the unacceptable behaviour" associated with the foreign exchange, commodities and fixed-income markets (Independent 13 June 2014). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mansion-house-speech-chancellor-george-osborne-to-lay-out-plan-to-clean-up-the-markets-9530525.html
Between the Chancellor and the City there is clearly a need to find the happy, though perhaps elusive, medium between risk taking in the form of trading on the one hand, and ethical behaviour, which leads to public confidence, on the other. This begs the question - can wholly ethical risk taking exist in these elements of the financial sector? Traders are, by default, gamblers: playing with other peoples' money for profit and reward. To what extent however are investors complicit in the gamble by not asking questions about 'how' that profit is achieved? If investors and traders do not regulate themselves by adopting a wholly ethical position, how will the Chancellor and the Financial Conduct Authority avoid another scandal of global proportions, and one that in the Chancellor’s own words, seriously "matters"? Ignoring the ethical debate, there is a pragmatic question about regulation and enforcement and how any proposed legal controls introduced by the Chancellor or FCA will be monitored or enforced. If current record levels in Britain's prisons (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27836961) suggest that the threat of a jail sentence fails in many cases to deter other serious crimes being committed why should exchange traders be any different? In the minds of the criminals, do the rewards outweigh any potential risk posed by imprisonment? In relation to national reputation, prosecuting after the fact provides little compensation relative to damage. If the culture in the trading community is one of risk-taking to the point of law breaking, what are appropriate deterrent and detection devices that could be used to safeguard both the institution and the public?
Between the Chancellor and the City there is clearly a need to find the happy, though perhaps elusive, medium between risk taking in the form of trading on the one hand, and ethical behaviour, which leads to public confidence, on the other. This begs the question - can wholly ethical risk taking exist in these elements of the financial sector? Traders are, by default, gamblers: playing with other peoples' money for profit and reward. To what extent however are investors complicit in the gamble by not asking questions about 'how' that profit is achieved? If investors and traders do not regulate themselves by adopting a wholly ethical position, how will the Chancellor and the Financial Conduct Authority avoid another scandal of global proportions, and one that in the Chancellor’s own words, seriously "matters"? Ignoring the ethical debate, there is a pragmatic question about regulation and enforcement and how any proposed legal controls introduced by the Chancellor or FCA will be monitored or enforced. If current record levels in Britain's prisons (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27836961) suggest that the threat of a jail sentence fails in many cases to deter other serious crimes being committed why should exchange traders be any different? In the minds of the criminals, do the rewards outweigh any potential risk posed by imprisonment? In relation to national reputation, prosecuting after the fact provides little compensation relative to damage. If the culture in the trading community is one of risk-taking to the point of law breaking, what are appropriate deterrent and detection devices that could be used to safeguard both the institution and the public?
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