Compliance issues
Running a business involves compliance with a number of rules, created both by the company itself and by external regulators. What is more, employees must understand why it is necessary to comply with these rules, and what consequences non-compliance with them will entail for the company. If employees don’t understand this, the company and its customers are at risk.
According to a Gartner survey, more than half of the employees working in different industries knowingly violate the policies and requirements of the companies they work for. Mainly, violations are associated with the following aspects:
- Cybersecurity.
- Use of the company’s resources.
- Workplace behavior.
Employees were also asked why they were violating the rules. The most popular answers were as follows:
- There are too many regulatory requirements, so it’s impossible to comply with all of them (38%).
- The rules are too complicated (16%).
- Complying with all the rules takes too much time (14%).
Thus, even if employees follow all the rules and regulations, their productivity reduces. Complying with complicated standards is time-consuming and tiring.
In this situation, compliance software becomes an excellent solution. But before starting to discuss such software, let’s figure out what compliance is in general.
What compliance means for business
In business, compliance is part of the GRC concept. GRC is a set of measures that a company takes to comply with internal policies, external regulatory requirements, and government laws.
GRC is mainly associated with banks, as they not only control clients’ money but are also engaged in margin trading. However, compliance is the responsibility of not only financial companies. Running any type of business involves many risks.
For any company, there are a huge number of rules to be followed. Even business owners and decision-makers, although interested in the compliance approach, find it difficult to comply with all requirements. The situation with employees is even more difficult – as studies show, many of them don’t even have the motivation to do everything right.
Having faced such problems, entrepreneurs start paying attention to compliance software.
How compliance software can help a company
There are several types of compliance software:
- A technology that limits risks by automating some routine and time-consuming functions.
- A program that aggregates information in one place to simplify reporting.
- A training app that helps employees get acquainted with new regulations and notifies them about policy changes.
According to a Software Advice survey, software for process automation and risk management is the most popular – it is chosen by 73% of respondents. Such software not only ensures compliance but also simplifies the work of employees, relieving them of routine duties. This, in turn, improves work efficiency.
Software Advice surveys also confirm the benefits of compliance training software. In companies where such software is not used, about half of the employees are not aware of the current requirements and don’t understand the company’s policy. With regular training using special software, the number of employees not complying with the requirements is reduced by half.
As a rule, each company needs individual compliance software as per its policy. Although regulatory requirements are usually universal within one country and one area of business, it is reasonable to start the development of compliance software taking into account internal requirements.
Developing your own software can be a demanding task, especially if your company is not engaged in the technology field and doesn’t have a fully formed IT department. For such cases, there are two convenient options:
- Ordering software development from third-party contractors.
- Entrusting the coordination of the project to the company’s IT specialists and involving additional employees from outsourcing.
Anyway, even large companies tap into the services of outsourced developers, because this helps to quickly solve the problem of lack of labor resources. Andersen’s experience shows that, when a project employs 20 people, and it becomes clear that 5 more specialists are required to successfully complete it on time, companies turn to outsource for help.
Compliance software helps companies grow and avoid most errors and violations caused by the human factor. Like any innovation, compliance software requires financial investment and time, so every company decides for itself when to develop such software and how comprehensively. However, the answer to the question of whether it is necessary to implement compliance software is unequivocal – it is!
