Compliance has been a vital aspect of recruitment, retention and good, secure business for many years: from the initial obtaining of documents and ensuring staff competence to the ongoing maintenance of the files of workers, compliance has become ever more complex as its importance has grown, and as it has become ever more rooted in positive practice for HR departments and independent business.

Compliance run well is a cornerstone of success: having your processes streamlined and legal, having well trained and well looked after staff and ensuring you are able to supply all requirements instantly provides excellent business practice.

The cost of compliance is immeasurable: when properly done, compliance simply allows for the day to day running of your business without disruption and in the knowledge that you are secure- but when done improperly this vital set of processes can have several costs: monetary, reputational and legal which can wreak unexpected and unwanted cost on your business.

To understand this, let us look at each cost separately to understand.

Monetary

Compliance is, itself, a costly business but it is necessary in a way some other costs may not be: whilst you can avoid certain additional costs, without full recruitment portfolios for your workers many clients will not hire them and so compliance both costs, and allows you to be paid because you are streamlining the necessary documents that clients require or your own internal processes, should you be the client yourself.

But misusing or failing to complete compliance checks can be extremely costly on a monetary level. Audit failure is met with a statutory charge and in some extreme cases, regulatory bodies like frameworks or the CQC can stop trade until any serious compliance breaches are ameliorated- and losing trade in a fast moving industry like healthcare can cost businesses dearly.

The most problematic aspect of monetary loss from compliance is that it accrues inevitable costs: which is why experts in this ever growing sub industry should be a priority hire for companies looking to move forward in their various medical specialties.

Additionally, simply not training your staff to have an element of compliance knowledge that suits their role will always be costly: from employees who breach regulations to unmotivated staff who don’t fulfil their potential or complete sales quickly: spending money on compliance allows your staff to confidently undertake important process that smooths out your practices.

Reputational

The reputation of a business is vital: to work with a business who is known to have scurrilous practices spreads reputational damage and puts off clients, investors and is anathema to good business practice- and this is why being open and loud about your good work with compliance is key. To wear your record of strong audit outcomes on your sleeve allows for those who may otherwise not trust your business to be sure they can work with you confidently, knowing that you adhere to the processes required.

Additionally, a positive reputation draws in a number of bonuses- talented staff members are drawn to businesses who are known to do well and have strong records of compliance, other investment opportunities present to businesses who prove themselves adept at compliance and workers & service users are happiest when they both know what to expect and receive what they expect to from a business.

When forming a compliance solution, it is always important to remember that this is your outward display of following legislation & recommendations, and being able to prove that you do so is attractive to anyone who would wish to work with you.

Legal

Compliance is not just in place for peace of mind: it also feeds deeply into adherence to the laws of the land. Perfect examples of this are visa compliance- in 2016, a spate of Doctors registering for entrepreneurial visas to undertake locum work seemed to hit the locum industry.
Many compliance managers either were unprepared for this, with a lack of understanding of visa terms and conditions or simply thought they could circumvent this: they were wrong.

Entrepreneurial visas come with important caveats, such as employing two people, a certain amount of turnover and having formed business practices: locums, in their traditional role, could not fulfil the requirements and so were working against the terms of their visa.

When these doctors were found to be in breach of their visa terms they were forced to step away from work and agencies who had allowed them to undertake these jobs were also forced to pay massive fines of £15,000 for breaching the terms of the UKVI. These fines have now doubled- visa misuse is a fine of £30,000 for the offending agency.

But this extends even further: if you are found to breach visa requirements regularly it is possible that the UKVI will monitor your dealings to enforce compliance, leading to costly interference in your business practices: not only does this impact on the other two aspects, but you also have extra guidelines enforced on top of those already in place: this negatively affects your practices even further.

In Summary

Ultimately, compliance and adherence to it is not negotiable: to form a robust solution for your compliance needs is one of the foundations of good business, but the question is how to simplify compliance to work for your business, and working with others who specialise in its various divisions is one of the best way to alleviate stress: from a reputable DBS body to someone with provable expertise in health clearance, working with the experts is one of the best ways to minimise the difficulties you will face and move your company forward with ease.