The Benefit of a Collaborative Approach to Compliance

Collaboration has long been a cornerstone of industry. Colleagues working, even if not directly together, ensure the smooth running, operation and deployment of their duties and this can be seen in many instances. From the cleaner in a hospital who ensures the beds are safe for patients to the doctor who takes them to be operated on, each role is essential and in some way is symbiotically linked: the cleaner would have no role without the surgeon, the surgeon’s role would be a horrific gamble without the cleaner. This, of course, feeds into any industry: payroll would have no role without sales, sales would find meeting the compliance threshold difficult without compliance: each job feeds into another and must all find balance.

It is with this in mind, that a collaborative approach to compliance should always be at the forefront of a broad-thinking compliance team.

Importance of Compliance 

Compliance is the foundation of best practice in any industry in which it features, and as such whilst compliance is the responsibility of its hired members (compliance team and manager and administrators), it should be borne in mind that compliance is also a responsibility that every team member is under obligation to observe: compliance is only as strong as the team which adheres to it, and if one team member works outside of compliance then it will be difficult for other members to circumvent this.

Compliance does not simply have to relate to document retention: thinking in terms of the cleaner who ensures the operating theatre is compliant to cleaning and safety requirements, this is as vital as the surgeon themselves: one absent minded missed step can derail everyone’s jobs and outcomes.

Collaborative Compliance

To this end, it is worthwhile fostering a positive relationship between compliance and any other parts of your business. Ensuring that, for example, sales teams work with, rather than around compliance will allow you to breathe easier around audits and will make both teams’ jobs easier. Compliance should be seen as a collective, maintained by key stakeholders in the teams hired on to maintain and improve it, but bought into by anyone involved in the processes in which it affects. This way, compliance teams can be seen as the useful resource they are: for example, should a stubborn candidate be unwilling to provide their documentation it would be of use for the sales person who oversees their placements to also request compliance, highlighting that bookings will be problematic without these key requirements at the direction of their assigned compliance person.

The Increasing Role of Compliance 

As the role of compliance has increased, we have seen duties which would normally fall to upper management pared away and into the purview of compliance- from making cost effective decisions on training based on reputation to turning down lucrative contracts based on supply and compliance risk, pitching for tenders- compliance continues to burgeon and spread roots through every industry, and though it may not always be called compliance, this practice runs deep: complying with hygiene guidance in a hospital is compliance as surely as adhering to fiduciary legal guidelines which can cost millions if circumvented is.

Delineating Compliance Roles

When making compliance part of your business hygiene practices, it is always best to discuss who shares the main responsibilities outside of compliance, and come up with established processes which delineate who, outside of direct compliance, shares responsibility for maintenance: for example, a sales person who books a noncompliant doctor or a hiring agent who completes a hiring process without taking stock of the full compliance process is responsible for this mistake over their compliance agent.

Ensuring these delineations are clear, and a reliable process for straying away from guidelines and recommendations, allows both compliance and the other teams to ensure processes are always followed to prevent issue.

Collaborative Approach to Compliance – In Summary 

Ultimately, a collaborative approach to compliance that allows for experts to lead but also allows dialogue for creative approaches to maintenance usually gives businesses the best scope for how to proceed on compliance: a flat no to a question does not engender trust in a compliance person’s ability (for example, booking a candidate on the promise training will be done), so a reciprocal approach and deep respect between both sides is the healthiest way in which compliance can work together with sales or other teams to ensure that a business runs successfully, whilst also engendering good compliance.

Teamwork is vital, and this should always be considered when in industry where collaboration can ease the burden on everyone’s jobs collectively.