Maintaining compliance standards is a key component of success and security for companies across multiple industries. Meeting changing standards and keeping on top of your compliance management isn’t an easy task, and without the help of a compliance management system it can be almost impossible.
But what is a compliance management system? What does it do, and why does it matter? This article will answer these questions and help you understand the best ways to utilize your compliance management system.
What is Compliance Management?
Compliance management is the ongoing process of monitoring and evaluating systems to ensure that a company is complying with required security and industry standards.
As an essential part of business management, compliance management needs to assess, organize, remediate, and report any potential breaches in the required standards or security protocols.
The risk of not meeting compliance management standards is high—companies can suffer fines, security breaches, loss of important industry certifications, damage to the brand’s reputation, decreases in revenue, and other losses.
Compliance Management Systems
A compliance management system is a program that helps companies gain visibility and control over compliance efforts. A well-rounded system will be integrated into every function of your organization and be able to address any of the potential risks of compliance management.
A compliance management system will:
- Manage your compliance program
- Monitor and report all activities
- Learn compliance responsibilities
- Ensure that requirements are properly incorporated into business practices
- Keep employees up to date on compliance regulations
- Review operations
- Communicate responsibilities among the work forces and company departments
- Take corrective action as needed
Components of a Compliance Management System
A compliance management system is an integrated array of tools that function together as a single program or process in your business practices. Your compliance management system will have many different structures, including:
- Documents
- Written processes
- Tools
- Controls
- Functions
- Software
These parts are organized into three main components: Board of director and management oversight, the compliance program, and a compliance audit.
Board of Directors and Management Oversight
The board is ultimately the party responsible for ensuring that a compliance management system meets with federal consumer protection laws and regulations, along with any other industry compliance requirements.
The board is responsible for demonstrating clear expectations to everyone involved in the business, including outside partners or third-party vendors. They also need to adopt clear policies regarding compliance and effectively communicate those across the organization.
Management is responsible for allocating the right resources to ensure that compliance standards are met, conducting audits periodically, and providing reports as requested by the board.
Compliance Program
Your company’s actual compliance program is the central source for compliance management controls and countermeasures and the place where policies will be designed and put into effect. As compliance management is an ongoing process, your program needs to be built to adapt and evolve as policies change and countermeasures are evaluated. The compliance program is made up of the following components:
Official Policies and Procedures
- Create the goals and the necessary procedures needed for meeting those goals
- Include and compile all the information needed for personnel to meet compliance standards
- Create review and evaluation procedures for business and regulatory changes
Employee and Management Training
- Create training for board members, management, employees, and staff to maintain compliance
- Create procedures for updating training programs to be current, complete, and accurate information
Compliance Monitoring and Audits
- Build proactive approaches to identify weaknesses in the compliance program to stay on top of any potential violations
- Audit and review compliance standards to ensure that the entire organization is running smoothly..
Consumer Complaint Responses
- Develop procedures to address complaints from customers, individuals, or departments.
- Ensure that all members of staff know their role in handling customer complaints
- Evaluate complaint trends to identify compliance issues
Compliance Audit
The compliance audit is an independent review of the current policies and procedures in place at your company. The audit will help management ensure the future will meet compliance standards and identify risk conditions.
While audits are going to need to be a continual part of your compliance management system, this first audit will give you a benchmark of where your organization currently stands and where improvements need to be made.
The audit will allow an impartial third-party to judge your systems and processes without insider bias. The audit isn’t meant to be a criticism of your business practices, but rather provide you with concrete steps to improve and get a fresh set of eyes on your materials to ensure compliance standards are met.
Why Does Compliance Management Matter?
Compliance management helps your funding by providing capital partners with clear evidence of your compliance. When financial institutions can receive records of your rules and regulations and your processes for addressing customer complaints, you are more likely to receive favorable rates.
In addition to financial institutions, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is also going to be an interested party in your compliance management system. When you have clear records and document processes, you can avoid the negative impacts of compliance failure.
Conclusion
A good business is going to recognize the need to have a properly implemented compliance management system. Having one in place will ensure your success in the future by providing clear expectations and regulations around compliance standards in your industry.
At Energy Worldnet, we offer compliance management systems to help ensure everyone has access to written safety programs and can be prequalified before starting a job. Set up a demo with us today and get access to our compliance management solutions.