Compliance can be defined as a “conformation” to a rule, regulatory requirement, or standard. Staying compliant with the laws of the land is a requirement to which every business must adhere. Companies rely on various controls to meet the required compliance goals.
Lack of statutory compliance in business operations can lead to punitive action against your business. In some cases, it may result in costly litigation, penalties, reputational harm, and even the closure of a business.
A business needs to operate within the confines of the law. Any informed business owner is well-versed in the list of applicable regulatory compliance requirements. But as a business grows and more people join, clients and the scope of projects become more diverse, thereby increasing the complexity of compliance processes.
Moreover, labour laws are amended frequently, and this makes compliance management even more difficult. Even with all the challenges that compliance brings, a business cannot feign ignorance. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to stay up-to-date with the regulatory compliance landscape.
How can you improve project compliance?
With the help of a compliance program, business leaders can adhere to the regulations, policies, and contracts governing their organisation. To meet all the external and internal regulatory requirements, companies must:
- Document business processes
- Monitor processes and operations
- Ensure that stakeholders have easy access to information
- Deploy an effective communications policy
- Use automation/software to observe regulatory compliance
Whether to use manual methods or compliance management software, the decision rests on your organisation’s requirements. Manual methods like spreadsheets, word docs, pdfs, and emails require a small investment. Moreover, they can be customised faster when compared to enterprise-level software.
The disadvantage of using spreadsheets is that they are not scalable. As your company grows, more employees join; the manual processes become unmanageable. You will need to maintain payroll, benefits, vacation, and more compliance frameworks. This will eventually drain more resources.
Compliance management software can be customised to work for small, medium, and large companies.
Project-level compliance can be achieved by allocating roles that determine an individual’s system rights and access. Once you define the roles with the help of compliance management software, your team members can complete tasks, and produce the desired outcome. The software’s dashboard will provide you with details at both levels: granular level and overall process overview. In this manner, you can monitor every result against a breach of established rules.
Elements of a Compliance Management Plan
- Risk Assessment: The regulatory standards are defined according to respective industries. With your prior understanding of the business processes and analysis of potential failure points, you can make a plan to address any potential compliance-related setbacks.
- Company Policies: Once you know what the possible risks are, you should come up with policies and procedures that reduce the risks.
- Providing Training: Employees should be in a position to understand the risk landscape. Proper training helps them understand any mitigating action that they need to perform.
- Compliance Audits: Audit officers and concerned teams can conduct internal audits to examine loopholes in your compliance processes. In this manner, you can avoid costly mistakes.
Final Thoughts
Compliance management is changing rapidly. There are a few things that require you to be a little more cautious than usual. When you have team members working onsite and from home, it becomes difficult to assess the risk from a holistic perspective. The changing threat landscape due to advances in technology requires a proactive approach to address any bugs or loopholes in your compliance processes. Working with third-party vendors requires a thorough understanding of their product life cycle and processes.
Compliance management becomes more manageable with the help of compliance automation. Mynd Solutions offers compliance services in India. With their in-house developed Compliance Automation Platform, expert front-end team, and shared service center; Mynd helps businesses manage organisational compliance efficiently and cost-effectively.
Mynd brings 10+ years of experience in labour laws and compliance-related activities. We provide customised compliance outsourcing services to cover our client’s obligations under various federal or state-specific labour laws.
Read also: Labour Law Compliance in India: A Guide for Business Owners
