In the UK, all businesses need to remain compliant with the rules and regulations that govern particular industries. A failure to comply can result in hefty fines, lawsuits, or even having your business shut down by the authorities. No one wants that. Compliance also goes a long way towards ensuring your workplace is a safe environment for employees and visitors.
Let’s take a look at some key ways you can remain compliant, so you can move forward with confidence and peace of mind.
#1 – Be Aware of the Compliance Laws
It will be impossible to become and remain compliant if you’re not even aware of the laws that govern your industry in the first place. Therefore, you’ll need to study up on the compliance laws so you know what’s required of you and your business.
In fact, everyone involved in your operation needs to be aware of compliance requirements, as essentially every employee is responsible for abiding by the law and stipulations of governing bodies.
The task of learning about compliance could be dedicated to one individual, who then compiles a compliance report to be distributed to everyone who works at the company.
#2 – Hire a Compliance Manager
If you’re running a larger operation, it might be worth your while hiring a dedicated, full-time compliance manager or risk manager. This person will be tasked with being fully conversant with compliance law and ensuring that everyone in the workplace follows guidelines and industry regulations.
If you have a full-time compliance manager on your team, it’ll give you more peace of mind knowing that someone is dedicated to overseeing business operations from a legal standpoint, as well as handling the operation’s risk management.
#3 – Use Dedicated Software To Help You With Compliance
There are a number of options for compliance management software on the market and it’s well worth the investment.
Often, legal software programs can be tailor-made to suit your individual business requirements, providing law firms and legal professionals with customized solutions that enhance efficiency, case management, and client service.
This adaptability ensures that every aspect of legal operations can be optimized to meet the unique challenges and demands of the legal field. Some programs are dedicated to compliance management alone, while others offer a combination of compliance management and general risk management.
Whether your company employs a risk manager or compliance manager, or someone on the management team handles compliance management on a part-time basis, the software will go a long way towards making the task of compliance smooth and easy.
It’s all about keeping things organised and being able to access information, analytics and reports at the click of a button. The software enables this and can really save a lot of time, and potentially money. Your compliance manager will be able to spot problems at a glance and take immediate action to rectify the problem and ensure your business stays within the law.
There will even be registers built into the software where you can easily register your business obligations. You’ll often discover that the software also has smartphone apps, so you can continue to monitor the business on the go.
#4 – Stay Abreast of the Latest Policies
Things are always changing in the business world and this can include compliance laws. Whoever you place in charge of compliance, they’ll want to stay abreast of any updates and changes and implement them immediately. It’s also important to make every employee aware of changes to industry regulations so they understand their responsibilities and won’t accidentally breach any laws, simply because they didn’t know about policy changes.
This could be implemented in the form of regular staff meetings or training sessions, as well as updating written compliance reports.
#5 – Compliance Enforcement
Making everyone aware of what’s required when it comes to compliance with the law is only the first step. The second involves making certain everyone follows the rules and regulations.
In order to achieve this, it may be necessary to implement some form of penalty system (say a deduction in wages) for anyone who deliberately fails to comply with requirements. You’ll likely need to do this in order to safeguard your business.
It’s far better to implement deterrents than to face the possibility of a fine or worse.
The Wrap
Once everyone understands the requirements for your business to remain compliant, so long as you have software and systems in place to assist, there’s no reason why your business won’t remain on the right side of the law.
