Astute eLearning Platform v3.1.0 Release Notes

Astute eLearning Platform v3.1.0 Release Notes

1) Risk Assessment Version 3

We are delighted to announce the general release of our new and improved Risk Assessment Version 3 tool to the Astute Platform.

This feature is designed to allow customers to develop risk assessments which enable users to manage low-level issues and escalate high-level concerns directly to administrators for further investigation.

Available to all subscription-based customers, there are two guides available with further information on building risk assessments and management of concerns:

Risk Assessment Building Assessment

Risk Assessment Review and Manage

2) Additional Filters on Compliance Reports

New filters have been added to compliance reports, which will now default to exclude expired, archived and future events. Filters have been added to the report to include these events, along with filters by ‘job title’ and ‘additional field (s)’:

3) KPI Reporting

A new report in reporting and analytics is now live: KPI reporting. The KPI report is designed to give a simple, high-level overview of critical training and risk assessment data:


4) Additional Filters on Enrolment Activities

Additional filters have been added to enrolment activities, making it easier to search and filter activities when assigning to enrolment events:

5) Auto Enrol All Users in Enrolment Event Rules

Auto-enrolment has been updated such that all active users will be automatically enrolled on an event immediately upon selecting this option:

6) Archiving Enrolment Events – Workflow Update

The workflow associated with archiving enrolment events has been updated. Upon achieving an enrolment event, no further enrolments and / or re-enrolment will occur (whether manual or rules-based). Current incomplete enrolments will remain in place with learners until such time as these are completed, or the learner is removed from the enrolment event:

7) Additional Recipients to Trigger Emails

Additional recipients can now be added as a cc to trigger email notifications:

From compliance to cultural normality – the case for getting diversity and inclusion right

If employers were hoping that the issues of diversity and inclusion were just a passing storm to be weathered, they would be very wrong. Societal and legal pressures are coming together as employees demand change.

Research into Google’s online search habits shows consistency in growth across diversity and inclusion issues in the workplace over the last three years.

Searches online for ‘gender pronouns in the workplace’ has risen by 500% over the past three years (April 2020 – April 2022). It remains unclear if this is employers finding out what they need to do to be supportive in the workplace or employees trying to find out their rights.

Further data showed a significant increase in searches for ‘unconscious bias at work’ of 58% in the same period. Interestingly, it also revealed a noticeable spike in March 2022, coinciding with International Women’s Day, where this year’s theme surrounded ‘breaking the bias’. March continues to be a prominent month for diversity and inclusion related searches as organisations endeavoured to compile their mandatory Gender Pay Gap reports in line with Government reporting deadlines.

Most alarmingly, the findings revealed that several types of discrimination continued to fuel search results in the same period. It found that ‘bullying, harassment and discrimination at work’ searches grew dramatically by three-fifths (62.5%), ‘disability discrimination at work’ searches increased by half (51.25%), ‘racial discrimination at work’ searches rose by 40.3%, and ‘age discrimination at work’ searches grew by almost a third (30.6%). Definitely not a passing storm.

Interestingly, this same pattern is also reflected when looking at Employee Tribunal Data. WorkNest, an employment law and HR advisory firm, revealed that nearly half of the Employment Tribunal Claims they received during Jan 2019 – Dec 2021 included some form of discrimination. Disability was the protected characteristic most relied upon by Claimants during this period.

This same period saw an almost one-fifth growth (17.9%) in disability-related discrimination claims, a 52% surge in sex-related discrimination claims, and over a quarter (27.3%) rise in discrimination claims related to race. Racial discrimination claims also saw a considerable spike during 2020, 42.9% more than in 2019.

Whilst the prevalence of Covid during this reporting period could account for a proportion of claims due to shielding requirements for many employees and their dependants requiring adjustments to their roles – it certainly does not account for it all.

Against this backdrop of growing interest and updates to equality legislation, DeltaNet International, a global compliance and performance eLearning provider, decided to launch a new diversity and inclusion collection of online training solutions. The 15 new courses released aim to help organisations improve their diversity and inclusion awareness among their employees and managers to reduce discrimination in the workplace, both in the UK and globally.

“The data reveals that discriminatory issues continue to rise in the workplace; business leaders and HR teams are responsible for tackling these issues to provide a safe and welcoming working environment for all employees to thrive in,” said Darren Hockley, Managing Director at DeltaNet International. “We believe that diversity and inclusion must be at the core of an organisation; we want to help employees and employers evolve from a compliance-based model to embracing true cultural change.”

With management and HR teams increasingly facing scrutiny for diversity and inclusion issues in the workplace, DeltaNet International’s courses allow employees and managers to understand the UK equality legislative requirements. This includes gender equality, disability inclusion in the workplace and addressing sexual harassment.

These latest training courses allow organisations to create a compliant culture and educate employees on common diversity and inclusion issues, from using the correct gender pronouns to treating disabled workers with respect. Available in various formats, including: immersive learning, detailed studies and microlearning, the eLearning courses have been developed with subject matter expertise, reinforced through the diverse range of characters and accents used by voiceover actors.

“Creating a diverse and inclusive culture starts with education to change behaviours and reduce discrimination.”

For more information on DeltaNet’s diversity and inclusion training collection, please visit: https://www.delta-net.com/equality-and-diversity/.

International Fraud Awareness Week

International Fraud Awareness Week

During International Fraud Awareness Week, we consider the typical profile of a fraudster – as well as what you can do to reduce the risk of being a victim of fraud.

In KPMG’s new study, Global Profiles of the Fraudster, they analyse the findings of investigations into 750 fraudsters operating in 81 countries. So what can we learn from KPMG’s findings?

The true face of fraud is shockingly familiar

Many of us imagine that crime is something that stalks us from a distance, and that crimes against us will be perpetrated by strangers. The facts suggest we should shift our fear closer to home; 65% of the victims in 750 incidents of crime were employing the perpetrator. Another 21% were former employees, perhaps enabled by their knowledge and experience of security controls and weaknesses.

We might imagine that fraudsters are new joiners, or people who are less loyal to the company. Not so: 38% had more than 6 years’ service.

Familiarity breeds contempt?

And think that the typical fraudster is a low-earning staff member? In fact, 58% were managers and directors – the senior personnel most trusted with authority. And this authority is frequently used to undermine or circumvent controls and security systems: 44% of the perpetrators had unlimited authority.

While 66% of the fraudsters caught were motivated by greed, the report highlights an interesting subset of criminals: those motivated by a desire to conceal poor performance, or create the appearance that targets had been met, amounted to 35%.

Most fraudsters are male. Just 17% were female. And 68% were between the ages of 36 and 55.

This tells us that the average fraudster might not be a desperate, down-on-their-luck chancer with nothing to lose. The greatest risk to your organisation might come from your senior management team – or even your chief executive. As KPMG state in their report: “Outwardly, fraudsters in general are three times as likely to be regarded as friendly as not and are rarely perceived as loners. They tend to be highly respected and don’t necessarily have a showy lifestyle. In short, they may not conform to the stereotypical view of how people expect a fraudster to behave.”

Weak controls enable fraud

The report from KPMG states that fraud is often facilitated by technology, but it’s the weak internal controls that leave organisations vulnerable to fraud from within. KPMG quote Lem Chin Hok, Head of KPMG Forensic, KPMG in Singapore: “Internal controls are weak when they are poorly designed and are not followed by employees. A thorough fraud risk assessment is likely to show where the gaps are.”

During International Fraud Awareness Week, it’s vital that organisations don’t just look beyond their walls when implementing fraud prevention controls. KPMG’s study adds to the evidence that points to internal agents as likely perpetrators of corporate crime, and this potential risk must be considered when developing fraud prevention plans and procedures.

Reflections on the state of compliance

Reflections on the state of compliance

Compliance Week Europe 7th and 8th November 2016

More than 150 compliance professionals from over 120 organisations came together for 2 days in Brussels to discuss the challenges facing the sector. With the dust barely settled on the conference Darren Hockley, VinciWorks Internationals Managing Director offers his reflections on the conference.

Keeping pace with the changing regulatory landscape

The primary challenge for most compliance teams remains keeping pace with the changing regulatory landscape. Compliance teams are still juggling with recent legislation such as the UK Modern Slavery Act and the EU Solvency II regulations, whilst planning ahead for major changes in data privacy with GDPR looming on the horizon.

Many of the delegates felt they were keeping abreast of this challenge, particularly around the development of policies and employee awareness training. However more work needed to be done in terms of monitoring and identifying issues. Most attendees acknowledged a gap between policies and what is actually happening on the front line, particularly in areas of the world where is it still culturally accepted/expected that illegal bribery payments will be made. Pressure on middle managers who are striving to meet targets/incentives and to stand out from the crowd can also lead to a compromised position.

Bridging the culture gap

Although awareness of compliance issues is more common in employees and the vast majority have no intention of crossing the line, one worrying trend is the reluctance of people to blow the whistle it they do spot wrong-doing. This is despite an increase in legal protection and implementation of anti-retaliation policies by most organisations.

In some cases employees don’t want to harm the organisation they work for whereas in other cases they keep quiet to protect themselves. They simply don’t believe they will be protected and their careers will be unaffected and many are simply worried about taking this to their line managers. Most organisations cite zero tolerance to compliance issues; but there is more work to do to create a culture that reflects this.

Extending the reach

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing compliance teams is extending the reach of their compliance programme through complex supply chains. In some cases there are regulatory requirements to do so (such as anti-bribery and data privacy), in other cases it is about reputation and brand management (preventing modern slavery). The challenge is to understand the complexity of the supply chain and to have sufficient resources available to complete adequate due diligence and monitor performance across all compliance areas.