Some may actually be HR queries. But by communicating with the whistleblower, keeping them informed of the process, goes a long way! Should your organization find itself suddenly the focus of felonious conduct, having an effective ethics and compliance program in place can greatly reduce any sentencing or fines the organization can incur. By protecting your organization with a comprehensive ethics and compliance program, you lessen your chances of facing major fines and violations.
In some cases, regulators will lessen violations, or cast aside incidents altogether, due to the well functioning compliance program existing in that particular organization. Amanda writes for WhistleBlower Security about ethics, compliance, workplace culture, and whistleblower hotlines. Amanda brings her nearly two decades of risk and compliance experience to the WBS blog where she is dedicated to helping people and companies promote speak-up cultures. Search for:. Request a Demo. Includes expectations for employee actions with internal affairs and other employees, as well as with external affairs and contractors and clients.
The compliance officer, a supervisor, or qualified trainer should explain the standards and answer any questions. Employees should attest in writing upon hire and annually that they have received, read, and understood the standards. Employee compliance with the standards must be enforced through appropriate discipline when necessary.
Whereas a code of conduct provides guidelines for business decision-making and behavior, the compliance and ethics policies and procedures are specific and address identified areas of risk.
Most organizations already have an employee manual that outlines all human resource-related policies and procedures, and they may have other operational policies and procedures specific to certain business practices or operations. Whenever possible, compliance policies and procedures should be integrated into existing policies, and all policies within an organization should be consistent with laws, regulations, industry requirements, and general compliance.
In fact, as part of the implementation of a compliance and ethics program and while in the process of drafting compliance policies and procedures, all other policies within the organization should be reviewed and revised as necessary. While it is imperative that the organization have policies and procedures, it cannot be emphasized enough that the only thing worse than not having a policy is having a policy and not following it.
Develop your policies and procedures carefully. Organizations should have a policy on policies that guides the development of policies. Take care that they are realistic, measurable, and enforceable. Lofty goals and platitudes may seem appealing, but they are too frequently open to interpretation. Involve those that are affected by the policy in the development of the policy. Assure that the policies have a stated timeline for revisions and that someone is identified as accountable for the policy.
Two types of compliance policies and procedures should be developed by every organization: structural and substantive. The substantive policies define the applicable regulations that apply to the organization and how to operate compliantly within those regulations. They also indicate the risk areas applicable to an organization and describe appropriate and inappropriate behaviors about those risk areas.
Both the structural and the substantive policies and procedures are essential to a compliance and ethics program so that the rules to which employees will be held accountable and the method for enforcing the rules are clearly documented. Revision of existing and creation of new policies and procedures including distribution and updating requirements. Policy for method for anonymous reporting and nonretaliation for reporting.
It is important to have a clearly stated policy on nonretaliation and nonretribution. Be prepared in the event the government comes knocking at your door. However unlikely, a government investigation is always possible, and prior planning is critical.
Develop policies so that your staff knows what to do if presented with a search warrant or questioned by a government investigator. Process for preparing financial reports including preparation of worksheets and supporting documents. Policies and procedures, like the code of conduct, must be living documents, not just in a binder on a shelf or online. They must become an integral part of the day-to-day operations of the organization.
That is what regulators will look for. How are the policies and procedures applied every day? Are they incorporated into performance reviews? Our consortium, GP-write , can be understood as a sequel to the Human Genome Project , in which scientists first learned how to "read" the entire genetic sequence of human beings. GP-write aims to take the next step in genetic literacy by enabling the routine "writing" of entire genomes, each with tens of thousands of different variations.
As genome writing and editing becomes more accessible, biosafety is a top priority. We're building safeguards into our system from the start to ensure that the platform isn't used to craft dangerous or pathogenic sequences. Need a quick refresher on genetic engineering?
It starts with DNA , the double-stranded molecule that encodes the instructions for all life on our planet. DNA is composed of four types of nitrogen bases—adenine A , thymine T , guanine G , and cytosine C —and the sequence of those bases determines the biological instructions in the DNA.
Those bases pair up to create what look like the rungs of a long and twisted ladder. The human genome meaning the entire DNA sequence in each human cell is composed of approximately 3 billion base-pairs. Within the genome are sections of DNA called genes, many of which code for the production of proteins; there are more than 20, genes in the human genome.
The ease of genome sequencing has transformed both basic biological research and nearly all areas of medicine. For example, doctors have been able to precisely identify genomic variants that are correlated with certain types of cancer, helping them to establish screening regimens for early detection.
However, the process of identifying and understanding variants that cause disease and developing targeted therapeutics is still in its infancy and remains a defining challenge. Until now, genetic editing has been a matter of changing one or two genes within a massive genome; sophisticated techniques like CRISPR can create targeted edits, but at a small scale.
And although many software packages exist to help with gene editing and synthesis, the scope of those software algorithms is limited to single or few gene edits. Our CAD program will be the first to enable editing and design at genome-scale, allowing users to change thousands of genes, and it will operate with a degree of abstraction and automation that allows designers to think about the big picture.
As users create new genome variants and study the results in cells, each variant's traits and characteristics called its phenotype can be noted and added to the platform's libraries. Such a shared database could vastly speed up research on complex diseases.
What's more, current genomic design software requires human experts to predict the effect of edits. In a future version, GP-write's software will include predictions of phenotype to help scientists understand if their edits will have the desired effect. All the experimental data generated by users can feed into a machine-learning program, improving its predictions in a virtuous cycle.
As more researchers leverage the CAD platform and share data the open-source platform will be freely available to academia , its predictive power will be enhanced and refined. Our first version of the CAD software will feature a user-friendly graphical interface enabling researchers to upload a species' genome, make thousands of edits throughout the genome, and output a file that can go directly to a DNA synthesis company for manufacture.
The platform will also enable design sharing, an important feature in the collaborative efforts required for large-scale genome-writing initiatives.
There are clear parallels between CAD programs for electronic and genome design. To make a gadget with four transistors, you wouldn't need the help of a computer. But today's systems may have billions of transistors and other components, and designing them would be impossible without design-automation software.
Likewise, designing just a snippet of DNA can be a manual process. But sophisticated genomic design—with thousands to tens of thousands of edits across a genome—is simply not feasible without something like the CAD program we're developing.
Users must be able to input high-level directives that are executed across the genome in a matter of seconds. Our CAD program will be the first to enable editing at genome-scale, with a degree of abstraction and automation that allows designers to think about the big picture. A good CAD program for electronics includes certain design rules to prevent a user from spending a lot of time on a design, only to discover that it can't be built.
For example, a good program won't let the user put down transistors in patterns that can't be manufactured or put in a logic that doesn't make sense. We want the same sort of design-for-manufacture rules for our genomic CAD program. Ultimately, our system will alert users if they're creating sequences that can't be manufactured by synthesis companies, which currently have limitations such as trouble with certain repetitive DNA sequences.
It will also inform users if their biological logic is faulty; for example, if the gene sequence they added to code for the production of a protein won't work, because they've mistakenly included a "stop production" signal halfway through. But other aspects of our enterprise seem unique. With over 1, customizable tools and 1, articles by industry experts, we offer the most comprehensive service on the market.
KnowledgeLeader Blog. If you need guidance on creating a good ethics program, we can help there as well. Here are a few sample points: Identify and Renew Company Values Companies without a clear set of values may find themselves at a disadvantage when developing ethics programs. Secure Visible Commitment From Senior Managers Most ethics professionals agree that it is crucial to enlist senior management support for an ethics program to be successful. Engage the Board of Directors Engage directors in the ethics process by instituting a board ethics committee or by placing ethics on the board agenda as a regular item for discussion.
Develop an Ethics Code or Code of Business Conduct Comprehensive codes are aligned with company values and all applicable laws. Integrate Ethics Into all Aspects of Company Communications Leverage existing company infrastructure to demonstrate to employees that ethics is an integral part of all operations and decision making.
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