Regulatory compliance risk management is an area many businesses struggle to deal with as regulatory, legislative requirements and oversight are ever increasing.
This becomes more challenging during periods of economic downturn with a slump in revenue.
It is further compounded by higher customer expectations in terms of quality and contractual integrity, which if not met, could throw your business into the murky waters of litigation.
Regulatory compliance risk management is a necessary cost of “doing business”.
The regulatory and compliance climate for many businesses is generally a land mine of risks which need to be effectively managed and navigated for successful and continued operation.
BCINC will help your business, even within the current global economic downturn, track and remain compliant with all necessary regulations.
This will allow you to remain efficient, productive, organized for audits, avoid litigation, avoid payment of unnecessary penalties, or face reputational risk.
First, let us look at the differences between regulatory compliance and risk management – two distinct activity streams that will guide your understanding of how BCINC can assist your business.
“If you think compliance is expensive – Try non-compliance” – Former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty
Regulatory Compliance vs Risk Management
Regulatory compliance and risk management are inter-related.
Compliance with established rules and regulations help protect businesses from a variety of unique risks. Compliance processes are generally created for specific regulatory requirements or a specific event.
The latter could be in response to a new regulation / standard, criminal investigation, or a ruling from a litigation.
Sometimes these are quickly created to meet the need without adequate thought on execution.
Compliance requires that a business adhere to corporate or industry regulations.
It also includes compliance with other external stakeholder commitments, socially accepted norms, and best management practices.
Risk management activities are a fore-runner of compliance.
They help businesses properly understand, identify, and take preventive measures to protect them from risks impacting the business that could lead to non-compliance.
BCINC can partner with you to
- Track customer complaints,
- Identify non-conformance and manage root cause analysis
- Conduct and manage operational audits and findings,
- Implement and close appropriate corrective and preventive actions,
Using an integrated risk assessment framework will improve product / service quality while ensuring regulatory compliance and meeting SMART goals.
Implications of Non-Compliance
Non-compliance with a critical clause in regulatory and industry standards or internal policies result in costly fines for a business.
They also cause hazardous situations which compromise the health and safety of employees, the environment, and can even culminate in loss of life.
Other risks include the loss of future business opportunities, contracts, and possibly company reputation.
“It takes less time to do things right than to explain why you did it wrong” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Challenges To Expect – No One Size Cookie Cutter Solution
There are usually 5 major challenges encountered – use of different tracking tools, tracking management, workload shifts, submission deadlines, and costs.
Tools – Regulatory Compliance Risk Management
It is not uncommon to find that different departments in the same business will use different tools to track compliance requirements because of the “siloed” effect.
Perhaps you are faced with a similar situation in your business. This can affect the efficiency of decision-making senior executives who now need to investigate conflicting data.
Unwanted use of man-hours will eat away at profit.
Tracking Challenges
Regulatory requirements require several compliance management activities which would be challenging to track without a holistic overview.
Processes mapping is a great tool for acquiring this information.
Workload Restructure
Managing compliance may require re-structuring of workloads. This could be in the introduction of additional procedures to employees which can later be enforced.
New procedures may create a major challenge as some employees may be resistant to the new changes.
Meeting Submission Deadlines
Tracking of business processes and ensuring that compliance related activities occur within the correct time frame can be a significant challenge for many businesses without a tracking system.
Senior executives must also decide on whether to use a manual versus automated tracking solution.
Cost Implication
Compliance typically comes at a cost. You either pay for it in the required training for employees tasked with compliance activities OR potentially pay for it as regulatory fines issued to the business.
Regulatory Compliance Risk Management – The Solution
As always, process mapping is the necessary first step to identify compliance pressure points – government regulations, industry standards, internal procedures, and any others.
Once a holistic overview is developed the necessary compliance activities can be incorporated into the process map.
Some businesses prefer to use a technology solution to monitor, enforce and report on compliance activities.
This may come with its own challenges such as lack of overall company “buy in” especially between departments and the presence of inadequate company technology capabilities.
Internal audits should be periodically conducted to continuously improve the compliance program through monitoring, root cause analysis and ensure that corrective actions for noncompliance are executed.
In Conclusion – Regulatory Compliance Risk Management
Regulatory Compliance Risk Management is an area that no business can afford to ignore because of the high risks to the business.
An integrated compliance risk management program allows for greater coordination and collaboration between compliance and the rest of the business, ultimately leading to a more consistent approach to risk management.
To discuss more about compliance activities and risk management specific to your business, book a NO OBLIGATION 30-minute Strategy Call