The biggest compliance mistakes to avoid
Using ready-made compliance procedure templates
These are fine to use if you need a quick fix, but they are certainly not ideal as a long-term solution! They are all standardised, which means they won't address the individual hurdles that only your business will come across. By using these you are leaving yourself open to compliance issues which will fall through the net and go unnoticed. As your business grows and develops you will also come across, even more, hurdles that you never had before. It is essential to continually update and change your compliance procedure documents to ensure they cover all aspects of compliance within your business.
A great way to keep your procedures relevant and useful is to ask your staff on the shop floor what problems they notice or face in their routines. An easy way to do this is to ask them, every time they carry out a compliance report, to add any comments or suggestions which you could include in the next procedure update.
Using old technologies
A lot of companies have compliance programmes on old technologies which are never updated or upgraded. These tend to be systems which are fragmented, meaning data can't be streamlined to give the best insights. When compliance data is coming from lots of different places it makes it incredibly hard to create reports and get real value out of your data.
To avoid this, it is best to opt for a cloud-based compliance solution such as Oplift Review which hosts and maintains the product. This ensures it is always kept up to date and that all of your data is streamlined, making it easier for anyone anywhere at any time to access and analyse your data.
Not checking the compliance of your third-party vendors
While your company may be fully compliant, your third-party vendors may not be! If you don't stay on top of your third-party vendors then you could be liable if there is a compliance violation. To ensure you properly vet them you should:
Thoroughly screen each third party that you work with, carrying out full background checks which should include, history, policies, regulations, any convictions, and government dealings.
Carry out audits and inspections so you can evaluate their codes of conduct, processes and regulations.
Put controls in place for your third-party vendors. This will ensure that you prevent and detect any breaches of compliance.
Carry out risk assessments on your third party vendors.
Not monitoring your processes
You should never wait for an external auditor to point out your compliance issues, you should be monitoring your processes and finding them yourself. By doing this, you'll be able to stop problems before they arise, and you'll be able to create smoother processes within your business. You should be carrying out internal compliance audits every month. You can do these easily with digital checklists or reports.
Oplift Review allows your staff to capture insights quickly and easily, add photos or comments, and create a report all from a mobile app. Simply tap and send your report afterwards.
Not connecting issues
In order to prevent health and safety breaches, you often have to do a bit of detective work and connect the dots between small occurrences which at first you may not think would be that serious. These small incidents could represent a bigger problem which your business is facing. If you don't look into them fully you will end up in an awkward position if an external officer brings them up.
To avoid making this mistake you should treat every small incident as a large issue and investigate them fully. Dig deep into the information you have and ask the relevant people as many questions as you need. Digital reporting platforms such as Oplift Review can connect the dots for you! They provide you with analytics so you can see insights and problems in different areas. This allows you to put measures in place to stop you having problems before they are problems.
