Whitepaper Brief: Compliance and The Coronavirus
Over the past month, the phrase of the day has been “unprecedented times.” However, now I feel like it’s shifted to “confusing times” ever since the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”) and the substantive Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) became law. As a Chief Compliance Officer for a small organization, I feel the pressure and challenge of trying to understand and navigate the CARES and FFCRA Acts. I’m dating myself with this reference, but reading everything online about the CARES Act is like reading stereo instructions.
Half the challenge of the CARES and FFCRA Acts are sorting through the noise and getting a solid understanding of:
how they apply to your organization
how to fully take advantage of them
how to maintain compliance with them
One of the most significant barriers to navigating these acts for small businesses is not having key staff members on hand who are trained to navigate these types of unknowns. I haven’t come across many small businesses that have a Chief Compliance Officer, in-house counsel, a CFO, or head of Human Resources. They may have some of these key positions filled, but chances are they won't have all of them. Missing key staff members causes other team members to scramble and educate themselves and their company to understand these new laws and how to comply with them.
Working together to get through these difficult times is the only way we will successfully move forward. In doing our part to help, we’ve made some enhancements to CaseTrac. Clients can now turn on a feature that gives them the ability to track which cases are COVID-19 related, independent of the cases allegation or sub-allegations type. We’ve also put together a great whitepaper that covers what Compliance and HR professionals need to know about all of these new laws and how to comply with them.
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MEET THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Farmer is a seasoned ethics and compliance (E&C) professional. She has earned an MA in both Business and Professional and Applied Ethics and is a graduate of The Ethics & Compliance Initiative Managing Ethics in an Organization Program. Prior to and during her E&C career, Stephanie served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves and the North Carolina Air National Guard.
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