Complying with regulations imposed on your business can be expensive and
time-consuming, often threatening future growth and profitability. The
law may require you to gather and track data, compile reports, or even
change your business structure and practices entirely.
Compliance is an industry in itself, with consultants and lawyers
providing advice and counsel for business too overwhelmed to concentrate
on both their day-to-day work and making sure they stay on the right
side of the law. In industries such as healthcare and finance,
compliance can take up a significant proportion of operational activity,
with whole company departments set up just for this purpose.
For small and medium-sized businesses, without the resources available
to keep up effectively, regulation can be a critical threat. But there
are ways to ensure you stay compliant without incurring excessive costs.
It’s worth remembering that every company in your industry is facing the
same regulation, and dealing with it in an efficient manner could give
you an edge over your competitors.
Stay current
Keeping up to date with your regulatory obligations can feel
overwhelming, but the internet provides a wealth of relevant, up-to-date
information and advice. The UK government publishes guides on dedicated
websites for every industry affected by regulation. Forums and blogs
contain advice from the perspective of business people themselves. RSS
feeds and Google Alerts automatically bring you information from
hand-picked sources.
Training
Training can make the all the difference when attempting to meet
regulatory obligations on time. Make sure your employees are aware of
their responsibilities, the wider picture, and why compliance is so
important. Compliance doesn’t have to be a top-down process, if needs
be, allocate staff obligations based on role and expertise.
Reporting
Many regulatory schemes will expect you to gather data on your
activities in order to provide evidence of compliance. This can be a
long-winded and confusing process, with spreadsheets, documents and
databases having to be manually updated to keep up with core work tasks.
Gathering data in real time and keeping a log of all relevant business
activity makes compliance reporting much more accurate, as well as
saving time and effort which can be better spent on more productive
work.
Automation
By adopting business process software, you can break your tasks down
into their component parts, and integrate regulatory compliance into
your day-to-day activities. Having a set workflow for each job gives you
a clear overview of what regulations apply, and at which stage.
By setting automatic and reminders and alerts at the appropriate stages,
you can ensure you avoid breaching regulations and have fair warning of
any potential problems. Via a user interface, you can get a
comprehensive view of how your company is fulfilling its obligations to
the law.
SwiftCase is a cloud-based business process management platform that
helps you stay compliant with your industry’s legal regulation, as well
as internal benchmarks and service level agreements.
- Plan out and obtain a clear overview of all business processes, and
where compliance fits into the picture - Set reminders and alerts to keep up with any regulatory checks and
responsibilities - Automatically collect business data in real time, in one centralised
system, to keep recording accurate - Keep a comprehensive, easily searchable log of all business activity
Get in touch with us today, for a free, no-obligation demonstration.