Your HR teams have important responsibilities in your organization. Not only are they in charge of managing your payroll and benefits administration processes, but they’re also spearheading recruitment efforts and cultural building efforts.
However, another critical task these teams take on is ensuring the business continues to operate within legal and ethical boundaries. Ensuring this level of compliance, whether it’s ensuring employee data privacy is maintained at all times or following strict guidelines associated with staff management practices, is critical for all organizations.
But understanding all of these regulations takes time and resources, and often means businesses need to have the right tools and systems in place to manage it all. Below, we’ll address some effective strategies you can implement to support this effort.
Establish a Culture of Compliance
While compliance in many areas may feel like something that only one department takes ownership of, the reality is that it’s something that should concern everyone in the business. Compliance adherence impacts everyone in the company and should be a core component of the business culture.
But this attitude typically needs to originate from the top. From the company’s CEO right down to the newest hire, following strict guidelines governed by the industry the business is in should be a natural inclination.
When company leadership prioritizes ethical standards in their decisions or validates new investments based on how they meet security best practices, it sends a powerful signal to the rest of the business on how vital these considerations should be on a daily basis.
Conduct Regular Compliance Audits
It’s hard for an HR team to know if they’re moving in the right direction if they don’t stop to evaluate how the business is performing from time to time. Compliance audits are a great way to achieve this.
These audits are essentially a health check that the business can get throughout the year, which benchmarks its performance against certain goals. The main purpose of this initiative is to help spot potential non-compliance issues in the organization that may be smaller now, but could snowball into a larger issue down the road.
Typically, these audits leverage various compliance frameworks that could be structured around data security standards, regulatory requirements, policy adherence, or staff management best practices. These and other important governance elements could be evaluated quarterly or annually by HR teams, and then a list of priority adjustments can be created based on their findings.
Invest in Continuous Training and Development
Employment laws and industry regulations change all the time. But if your HR teams are still working with outdated information, it could be a recipe for disaster if the company is ever subject to an audit based on these newer compliance expectations.
The best approach for avoiding this from happening is to invest in continuous training and development for HR leadership teams. An effective strategy in support of this direction is to bring in HR or legal experts who can host compliance workshops and courses designed to keep businesses informed about operational and reporting requirements they need to meet each year.
Leverage Technology for Automation
It takes a lot of time and energy for HR teams to handle compliance management processes. This might include tracking employee training, benefits administration, or maintaining up-to-date policy documentation.
But instead of relying strictly on manual efforts, with the right technology solutions in place, HR teams can leverage automation tools to their advantage while giving them more time to focus on other important areas.
For example, best-of-breed BenAdmin platforms help to take the heavy lifting of open enrollment and employee benefits education off the shoulders of HR teams. These platforms help to streamline HR workflows by providing employees with self-service capabilities and enabling a number of helpful automations. This includes automated open enrollment reminders, seamless connections between payroll and insurance providers, and creating on-demand HR reports.
Develop Clear and Accessible Policies
While HR teams may have taken the time to clearly understand certain compliance expectations the business needs to meet, if employees don’t have an easy way to access this knowledge, the business really can’t rely on them to follow the necessary procedures.
Oftentimes, businesses may inadvertently neglect to document certain workflows or company policies regularly. And if they do, this information can sometimes get buried within the network and be out of sight and out of mind for employees.
It’s important to have a clearly outlined process for keeping important compliance documentation up-to-date and accessible to all team members. This might mean creating a company intranet where all Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are organized and can be referenced by all departments.
Create a Cross-Functional Compliance Committee
Your HR teams shouldn’t necessarily be labeled as the business’s compliance champions. Although they might help to orchestrate new initiatives, the efforts they make in these areas should be adequately supported by all departments and their leadership groups.
One effective strategy you can use to support this is by creating a compliance committee. These groups are made up of key stakeholders from departments like HR, legal, finance, and operations. They are designed to create more cohesiveness when planning and executing specific company objectives.
The nice thing about forming this type of committee is that it helps to ensure that decisions being made for the business aren’t based on certain biases that favor efficiency for just one or two departments. It allows all departments to offer their thoughts and ideas, and helps everyone to remain on the same page as new procedures and their requirements are passed down the line.
Encourage Open Communication and Feedback
Some of your best ideas for the business often come directly from your employees. However, if they don’t feel like they’re able to express themselves freely, especially when it comes to more sensitive company issues, you’ll never be able to leverage their varying perspectives.
It’s really important to create the right format to allow employees to share their thoughts and ideas on all topics, whether it’s compliance mandates, annual benefits coverage decisions, or business technology investments. Depending on the size of your business, this could be as simple as creating a group email chain or designing a formalized survey schedule that’s regularly reviewed and acted on throughout the year.
Stay Informed Through Reliable Sources
A big part of keeping compliance management in the business is to stay up-to-date on any changes in the industry that might impact the company’s direction. Encourage your HR teams to subscribe to newsletters from government agencies or reputable labor law firms to ensure they’re always informed about new changes to requirements they already follow.
Another option is to regularly attend different industry conferences and link up with professional HR organizations. These can be a great way to grow business networks and give teams more access to expertise and guidance in all things human resources and compliance.
Manage Your Organization’s Compliance Needs Successfully
Effectively managing compliance is a critical element of your organization’s long-term health. By building a culture around communication and accountability while following the strategies discussed, your HR teams can help ensure they’re helping the business position itself for success long-term.
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