Compliancy is always the golden rule in business, whether you’re selling cakes, offering IT support or building houses. If you’re running any business at all, you need to ensure that you are compliant as per the rules and regulations to ensure a fit and proper workplace for your employees and to protect yourself legally if you encounter an issue.
Making sure your business is compliant with its own, and higher bodies’ policies clear muddy waters for your team and will help them sail to higher productivity and satisfaction.
Set the Standard
Just as countries who are growing their business must comply with United Nations international standards, your business should too. This international standard sets the tone for businesses across the world; to help promote compliance within your own business, you too, should set about creating a compliance culture by being a role model.
If you, the leader of your business, are complying to business regulations and following your own rules it will encourage others to do the same. If you flaunt your own standards and are not compliant yourself, you cannot expect others to do differently.
Look After Your Employees
Employee wellbeing and satisfaction should be at the forefront of every business owner’s mind. You should be doing everything in your power to keep employee data safe and protected and to make sure their payments are received as per the law. These actions sound basic, but laziness and a lax attitude to compliance can let mistakes happen and, once they have, you have broken a fundamental and unforgivable promise to your staff.
Your staff should trust you and believe in the business, if basic compliances like payment, annual leave and workplace security are being broken, it won’t be long before they leave, and you face the law.
Seek the Best Advice
It’s always worth talking to experts. Some professional advice you can obtain includes:
- Business partners who have been in the game longer than you
- Legal advice
- Advice on your business’s software, for example, Bytes will advise you on software asset management and licensing of your Microsoft products
- The federal or national government
Have a Policies and Procedures Manual
Even if your business is small and new, and perhaps you only employ one person, it will still help secure business compliance if you have fully drawn up contracts and policies and procedures manual. Having rules in place that you and your staff have agreed on gives you a complete set of records that can be expanded when you move into hiring more people or obtaining licenses or permits.
As your business grows, your manual will do. Having everything in writing will be useful if you come to sell the business or during any disputes.
Keep Documents Centralized
Finally, once you have all your records and manuals drawn up, it can help to keep them centrally. This makes them easier to access, for you and your employees. If your staff know exactly where to find your compliance guidelines, they will be able to adhere to them easier and keep your whole business ticking along inside the law. You must, however, ensure that documents are properly protected with extra layers of security, such as individual passwords.
