Category Archives: International

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RIMS ERM Conference 2021: IRS Receives Global Enterprise Risk Management Award of Distinction

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On Friday, RIMS President Ellen Dunkin presented the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with the 2021 Global Enterprise Risk Management Award of Distinction at the Society’s ERM Conference in New York City. The honor recognized the IRS’s outstanding achievements that allow it to anticipate emerging risks and establish the appropriate culture, processes and structures to strengthen strategic decision-making. 

Navigating the impacts of an extended government shutdown, sweeping tax reforms, operational disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic and providing essential financial relief to thousands of businesses and individuals across the United States, the IRS ERM program helped the agency to remain resilient and effectively manage a multitude of dynamic challenges.

“Through the ERM program’s focus on embedding risk management capabilities into the existing structures and operations, the agency has become more risk aware,” said Jeffrey Tribiano, the IRS’s deputy commissioner for operations support. “There is also greater collaboration across the enterprise to address significant risks that require efforts from multiple business units. By effectively highlighting the enterprise-wide effects of risks, and by capturing risks on the enterprise risk profile, ERM has helped garner agency-wide attention and support for measures to help address the risks. Since IRS established its ERM program in 2014, it has played a critical role in helping the agency to better understand and respond to risk, thus making the organization more resilient and better able to serve the American people.” 

This year, RIMS honored three other organizations for their exceptional accomplishments developing, implementing and maturing ERM within their organizations. Honorees included:

  • 2021 RIMS Global ERM Award of Distinction Honorable Mention: Dallas Fort Worth International Airport
  • 2021 RIMS ERM Award of Distinction–U.S. Honoree: Eversource Energy
  • 2021 RIMS ERM Award of Distinction–International Honoree: EuroChem

“Enterprise risk management continues to deliver exceptional value to organizations, allowing them to successfully address emerging risks while also identifying and leveraging opportunities that might not have otherwise been apparent,” Dunkin said. “Risk professionals get better—and deliver better results—by learning from each other. We are so grateful to the IRS and all of honorees for sharing their ERM journeys with the RIMS community and doing their part to advance this rewarding profession.” 

Judging criteria for the Global ERM Award of Distinction include measurable, tangible and sustainable results; unique program strengths; ERM innovation that links risk with strategy or performance; and the program’s ability to build sustaining risk management capabilities. The panel comprises members of RIMS Strategic and Enterprise Risk Management Council.

RIMS ERM Conference 2021 was held November 11-12 in New York City and virtually. The program themed “ERM in an ESG World” focused on the growing risks stemming from environmental, social and governance challenges.

RIMS ERM Conference 2021: Integrating Net Zero Commitments into ERM Plans

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In a session titled “Integrating Net Zero Commitments into ERM Plans” at the RIMS ERM Conference 2021, Michelle Tuveson, executive director of the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies, led an interactive session focused on how risk managers were handling their companies’ emission reduction pledges and efforts. Tuveson told the audience that while one-third of companies in G20 countries had signed onto “net zero” commitments—promises to eventually eliminate their companies’ carbon emissions completely—it is unclear how much analysis went into these pledges. As countries around the world start to require emission reporting, this lack of analysis (plus a lack of data to assess progress) is a major concern for these companies’ risk managers.

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The audience seemed to back up this assertion.

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Tuveson conducted a live poll, which revealed that most attendees felt that their industries were on the less prepared side for net zero developments and that their ERM and net zero plans were not very integrated. When asked which group was most driving their companies’ climate action, most answered that it was investors/rating agencies (31%), followed by the board and executive management (20%), consumers (17%), and peer companies (11%).

Tuveson was joined by Joerg Osterloh, director of enterprise risk management at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, who outlined the company’s net zero activities.

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With a commitment to be net zero by 2040, it had already reduced emissions across the company by 30% by 2019. The company was prioritizing this effort partially because it saw climate change risks “front and center,” impacting all aspects of its supply chain.

Osterloh credited a strategy that included analyzing how much emissions each sector of the company’s business produced, then strategically addressing each. For Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, the most emissions came from drink packaging, which was not as easy to reduce as other categories like operations and supply cooling. Overall, Osterloh noted the importance of being fully transparent in the company’s net zero activities and its advocacy to influence public policy on transitioning to a low carbon future. He also stressed investing now in new technologies, rather than waiting for those technologies to mature.

At least some risk managers and their companies may already be following this advice. In a final poll, most audience members said that the focus of their companies’ net zero strategy was substituting renewable power (26%), followed by greening supply chains (19%), adopting new technologies (18%), altering products and services (15%), and purchasing carbon offsets (9%).

If you missed this session, it and many of the other sessions at RIMS ERM Conference 2021 can be viewed on-demand online.

Travel Risk Management for LGBTQ+ Employees

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LGBTQ+ travelers can face unique challenges when traveling abroad—many countries do not legally recognize same-sex marriage and more than 70 countries consider consensual LGBTQ+ relationships a crime. If an employee travels on business to a country where their sexual orientation or expression of gender identity is criminalized, an extra layer of complexity is added to duty of care responsibilities. Corporate risk managers need to consider how to best protect employees in a way that doesn’t make them feel singled out, working with them to stay safe and respect local laws without compromising their own values. 

This process begins by providing up-to-date guidance on laws and cultural variations as part of an organization’s duty of care. Attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community vary considerably around the world, and employers therefore need to shape their duty of care policies around a wide range of considerations, both legal and cultural.

Understand the Law

Risk managers need to ensure they have relevant and up-to-date information at hand to fully understand the traveler’s destination. There are nuances within each country’s legislation, and acceptance can vary dramatically even within different regions of the same country, also evolving over time. Employees need to be informed of the laws to which they will be subject at their destination before they travel. Duty of care procedures should incorporate pre-travel advice and awareness, educating employees on what to expect when on business travel as well as how to respond and whom to contact in an emergency.

Legislation may impact an employee’s behavior in a given destination and travel managers can provide advice on best practices. In the United Arab Emirates for example, transgender, gay and gender nonconforming people have been arrested for violating a law against men “disguised” as women. To the extent possible, it is best for travelers in these countries to remain in resort areas and for same-sex couples to refrain from holding hands, hugging or kissing in public.

Understand the Culture

In addition to local laws, social norms are another factor to consider for deciding whether a destination is safe. While many countries officially recognize homosexuality and allow gender confirmation measures, some communities within these “safe” countries still harbor prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community. In such environments, LGBTQ+ travelers who engage in open displays of affection with each other or appear gender nonconforming may be at risk of harassment and assault, and may also feel intimidated when reporting the incident to local police. There may be few or no local venues that provide a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community and the risk of hate crimes and police raids at such establishments cannot be ruled out. Travelers are advised to maintain a low profile in countries that lack full protection for the LGBTQ+ community and exercise caution about where and with whom to discuss related topics in public spaces.

Social media can also put travelers at risk. For example, while dating apps can help people connect with local members of the LGBTQ+ community when traveling or relocating for work, employees should be advised to exercise caution if they plan to use these in communities that are not LGBTQ-friendly. In Russia, where prejudice is widespread and a law against “gay propaganda” has been in effect since 2013, far-right activists and gang members have used dating apps to lure gay men to assault and extort them. Prior to travel, risk managers should advise employees to review privacy settings on social media platforms and reconsider the use of dating applications while abroad.

With some countries still refusing to accept—let alone recognize—the LGBTQ+ community, LGBTQ+ employees often feel compelled to take additional precautions that others would not have to even consider. However, corporate risk managers can help employees to stay safe while on business travel by being aware of the local laws and social norms of the destination before departure.

For other guidance on how to support LGBTQ+ employees and advance diversity, equity and inclusion programs, check out these additional pieces from Risk Management Magazine and the Risk Management Monitor:
Beyond Pride: Building Strong Diversity and Inclusion Programs
The LGBT Travel Risk Dilemma
The Benefits of Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives
Engaging Employees in Their Own Duty of Care
Developing a Strategy for Transgender Workers
The Case for Effective DE&I Training

Preparing for the Next Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic at RIMS Content Roundtable

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In last week’s “RIMS Content Roundtable: COVID-19 Vaccines and Distribution,” a group of RIMS members gathered for an exclusive Q&A with Dr. Adrian Hyzler, chief medical officer at Healix International, who focused on progress with COVID-19 vaccination efforts and moving toward a “next phase” of the pandemic.

“Where we’re headed is: this pandemic will end—all pandemics end—but it doesn’t end all of a sudden, it goes out with a whimper…it sort of just seeps away at different rates around the world,” Hyzler said, noting the rates of vaccination and controls implemented country by country will curb the coronavirus at different paces. “But it’s now going to be an endemic disease, meaning it’s something we live with. We’re not going to get rid of this disease.”

He believes recognition among public health experts that COVID-19 will become endemic rather than be eradicated prompts new conversations about expectations and preparations around the world.

“The new dialogue is: what is the acceptable level of COVID and what is the acceptable level of deaths from COVID? Because COVID is a respiratory disease and people die of respiratory diseases every year, especially in winter. That’s something we live with,” Hyzler said. “We’re going to have to get to a point where there are going to be people who die from COVID every year, but they’re not going to overrun hospitals, and they’re not going to affect care of other diseases.”

Getting to the stage of “a disease we live with” requires mass vaccination, and he stressed the importance of the widespread effort to encourage people to get COVID vaccines as soon as possible. Scientists are not yet sure what percentage of the population will need to be fully vaccinated to control the pandemic sufficiently and, he said, “that’s vaccinated across the whole population evenly, and that’s not the case—we know there are communities where they are vaccine-hesitant, we know there are religious groups that are not as confident about the vaccine, and they tend to cluster, so those are always ready for outbreaks.”

Rather than discuss the sometimes controversial or scientifically debatable concept of “herd immunity,” Hyzler encouraged thinking about “community immunity.”

“‘Community immunity’ is good because it’s more about what we can do for each other,” he explained. “Getting vaccinated, for a 28-year-old, is not necessarily about that person, it’s about what it can do for the community—the older people, the people who have preexisting conditions that make them vulnerable.”

This kind of community orientation and widespread adherence to best practices will be critical in getting to any next phase of the pandemic, and to staying there. Reflecting on his experience of the acute lockdowns implemented in the U.K., for example, Hyzler stressed the lessons learned about the impact of mass adherence to mitigation and prevention measures. “Even with the variant that’s come out here that is very transmissible and has become common in the States, we’ve shown that non-pharmaceutical interventions—which are masks, distancing, isolation, hygiene—they work,” he said.

Many of these non-pharmaceutical interventions will not be going away any time soon—indeed, they may be just as critical moving forward. Hyzler predicted, “I think, into next year, we may still be wearing masks in many situations and there may be a great move to more things outdoors, since we know how much safer that is, and I think we’ll have learned a lot of things from this… Hopefully we’ll also be more ready for something that will happen again.”

As the world moves toward mass vaccination to help curb COVID-19, companies should be preparing for the next stage of the pandemic and creating detailed plans for safely returning to work. To that end, Hyzler noted some large private companies have publicly offered resources to help other enterprises protect employees and operations amid the pandemic and prepare for a return to workplaces.

For example, Ford has published two versions of a “Return to Work Playbook,” one for manufacturing and another for non-manufacturing companies. According to Ford, in addition to providing these documents to employees, “the company is also providing a copy to its suppliers, business partners and relevant third parties to ensure they are all aware of its health and safety practices when they are on site at Ford facilities or are interacting with Ford personnel.” Companies outside of Ford’s supply chain can also benefit, however.

“Add in some CDC advice, and look at what people [around you] are doing, because there are little things you can do that are very specific to your area or your workforce,” Hyzler recommended. “Then, take the information [from the playbook] that’s useful and mold it into a mini version of a playbook, if you’re a smaller company.”

In addition to the Ford playbooks Hyzler mentioned, check out these publicly available resources from the private and public sectors that may offer help in managing COVID-19 risks and creating a return-to-work plan for your enterprise:

Ford’s Return to Work Manufacturing Playbook [PDF]
Ford’s Return to Work Non-Manufacturing Playbook [PDF]
IBM’s Return to Workplace Playbook [PDF]
Kaiser Permanente’s COVID-19 Return to Work Playbook
CDC’s Guidance for Businesses and Employers Responding to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
CDC’s “Daily Activities” Guide for Returning to Work
OSHA’s Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace

Participants in the roundtable event were able to debrief with fellow risk professionals in breakout rooms, sharing impressions from the session and experience addressing related risks within their own organizations. For more opportunities to discuss return-to-work plans, vaccine considerations and other COVID-related risks with other risk professionals, all RIMS members can continue the conversation on Opis, the society’s community engagement and networking platform. Among almost 200 education sessions, the upcoming RIMS Live 2021 virtual conference will also offer dozens of COVID-related education and networking events from April 19 to 30, and registration is now open. To hear more insights directly from Dr. Hyzler, you can check out his appearances on the RIMScast podcast.