What the DOJ Wants: An Interview with Traliant’s Chief Executive Officer 

John Arendes, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Traliant, spoke with Tom Fox on the Compliance Podcast Network about what the Department of Justice (DOJ) has communicated to the compliance community about training and communications. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Government Expectations for a Culture of Compliance 

Tom: In October 2021, the DOJ publicly spoke about how a company’s corporate culture would be a consideration in enforcement actions. How do you demonstrate a culture of compliance? 

John: We’ve historically seen organizations roll out training that talks about laws and then move on and say, “We did our compliance training.”  The DOJ now wants to know, “What are you doing beyond just checking the box. It wants to know how you are actively creating a compliance culture.” The DOJ expects training to be ongoing and include practical advice, case studies and address real-life scenarios.  

Customers come to us explaining what their culture is today and the compliance culture they want to achieve and ask us how we can help. Our approach is to create a program of engaging, interlocking courses that promote positive behaviors to help a company evolve its culture. It incorporates video scenarios based on real-life experience, and we create new episodes each year to keep training fresh and relevant.  

Tom: If the DOJ comes knocking at a company’s door, and its employees have taken Traliant’s training courses, how is that documented to show the government what has been done? 

John: A couple of ways. Our training courses work on a multitude of learning management systems (LMS) which provide reporting. If you’re using Traliant’s LMS, we provide you with reporting capabilities at a granular level, including department, individual, state and even question level analysis. For example, our detailed question level analysis can reveal that some employees are incorrectly answering a particular question about what is considered a bribe. This helps customers evaluate their employees’ understanding of the topic to provide additional guidance or clarification when needed. 

Tom: The DOJ says that training needs to be effective and targeted. How does Traliant create effective and targeted training for employees and managers?  

John: Traliant’s training is geared towards vertical industries. Training to prevent discrimination and harassment within the healthcare community is different from a restaurant, office or warehouse environment. By incorporating real-world scenarios and content based on a specific industry, it is more relatable to employees and managers. That’s one of the things our customers love about our training, including Chief Compliance Officers. 

Our training also gets more granular in terms of the job roles by creating scenarios for different positions. For example, a course may incorporate a nurse working with a doctor versus a receptionist working with the doctor to illustrate the different dilemmas in work relationships and best practices for addressing them. 

Lastly, we offer many different courses addressing various HR, legal and compliance topics, and our customers like the fact that we make it easy for them to customize courses. We make it simple and affordable for customers to tailor course content to what is most important and effective for learners. This includes customizing videos, images and other content, and even making changes to the course script. 

Tom: The DOJ advocates shorter, more frequent training measures in addition to comprehensive training. Does Traliant provide shorter training options to customers? 

John: 

We have something called Sparks, which are 2–3-minute videos designed to spark conversations about workplace culture. Organizations can use our library of 40 Sparks videos as supplemental training throughout the year to reinforce their values, mission and culture. The Sparks make it easy for customers to provide employees with short, refresher training on office etiquette, anti-harassment or other workplace issues to foster a culture of inclusion, respect and ethics.  

Click here to listen to the entire Compliance Podcast Network interview with John Arendes.  

John Arendes, CEO of Traliant, has over 25 years’ experience growing successful organizations and leading teams (remote and in-person) in the software and compliance training industries.