What is compliance management?

Compliance management is not generally a topic that sets hearts alight or sparks much interest – until things go wrong. That’s why it’s in the best interest of business leaders to always prioritise their compliance obligations.

While these obligations will vary by geographic location and industry, compliance management encompasses adherence to the laws, regulations, standards, policies and codes of conduct that apply to an organisation. Countless industry-specific regulations will underpin the core functions in healthcare, aged care, childcare & early learning, manufacturing, finance and many other industries.

Whether it’s data management protocols or policy management software that helps employers manage content throughout its lifecycle, or the fundamentals of tracking compliance training and completion rates, there will be a software solution that meets your needs.

This article will focus specifically on the workforce management and HR-related compliance obligations that employers face – especially those with large frontline (or ‘deskless’) workforces – and how compliance management software can help ensure compliance.

What is compliance management software?

Like all aspects of people management, compliance management software and the features available in HR and workforce management software aim to make life easier for HR professionals. From employee record keeping and ensuring employee compliance training is done, to regulatory audits and keeping track of expiry dates for training and visas, the administration burden can be overwhelming. Compliance automation with sophisticated software can help.

Such software will help organisations to oversee, uphold and administer their internal controls by adhering to relevant policies or regulations. It can help to meet regulatory requirements, automate tasks, and maintain commitments to governance, risk and compliance (GRC) while reinforcing ethical work practices.

Key features and functionality

Given the scope of compliance, the features and functions available in compliance management systems will vary widely. However, in Humanforce’s human capital management (HCM) suite, there are specific solutions that target compliance specifically. For example:

Qualifications management: Tracking important data points relating to employee certifications, qualifications, work rights (visas), vaccinations, and more – including expiration dates for all these items.

Awards interpretation and management: Whether it’s Australia’s modern awards or the employment or enterprise agreements used in countries like New Zealand and the UK, these industrial instruments cover the minimum entitlements for employees. Rules relating to rates of pay, overtime rates, penalty rates, allowances, rosters, breaks and leave entitlements are found within these industrial instruments – and all must be strictly adhered to.

Data security and privacy: Strict protocols are in place regarding the security of employee-related data and how it is used.

The data explosion has unfortunately also resulted in a dramatic increase in cybersecurity threats. A study by the World Economic Forum in 2023 found:

• 91% of surveyed organisational leaders believe that a far-reaching, catastrophic cyber event is at least somewhat likely in the next two years

• 43% of leaders think it is likely that in the next two years, a cyberattack will materially affect their own organisation

Humanforce prioritises data security and compliance for its entire suite. In summary:

Compliance: In every aspect of Australian, New Zealand and global employment regulations Humanforce has endeavoured to be, and to remain, fully compliant. Humanforce is also compliant with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules on how and where to store personal data. See our Privacy Policy here.

Security: Humanforce’s commitment to the highest standard of data protection and risk management has been recognised by ISO 27001 Certification. This applies to our entire HCM suite, including workforce management, intelliHR, Payroll and Thrive Wellbeing. The certification process involved a rigorous evaluation of Humanforce's security practices, including its advanced technical controls and security-first approach to system design. Key elements such as robust access control frameworks, meticulous risk management, and unified encryption practices were assessed to ensure the highest level of security for customer data. 

Onboarding and training: The onboarding stage is not just the start of an employee’s journey with an organisation; it’s also a critical time to ensure important employee information is gathered – such as qualifications – and that new hires undertake and understand the compliance-related obligations they also hold – for example, understanding health and safety processes and procedures. As these regulations and the internal processes relating to these regulations will change from time to time, ongoing, regular training updates may be required.

Reporting: Most software suites, including Humanforce, can provide detailed reports that relate specifically to compliance. These reports can aid in the event of an audit from a regulatory body and may in fact be necessary as part of an organisation’s government-mandated reporting – for example, aged care providers have mandated requirements around staff to resident ratios.

Why is compliance management important?

Compliance is an umbrella term which encompasses the rules, standards, awards, regulations, and ethical practices that apply to an industry and business by law or any governing body. Such compliance applies to employees, treatment of consumers, and general business management.

In terms of employment, it might mean paying employees correctly, filing taxes on time, administering the required benefits, following laws around hiring practices and health and safety, and keeping accurate records.

There is a core element of risk mitigation in compliance management. When handled effectively, compliance management can limit exposure to risk. For example, it can help prevent underpayment of employees and reduce the likelihood of either ripping off customers or failing to pay the correct tax.

Risks and consequences of non-compliance

The risks associated with non-compliance can be dangerous – and expensive. In the case of failure to meet safety standards in the workplace, for example, it can even be deadly.

The spate of underpayment cases is a good example of the impact of non-compliance. Not only are employers risking having to pay vast sums to underpaid employees, but they may face fines. If these underpayment cases hit the headlines, it can also result in irreversible reputation and employer brand damage.

Workforce regulators in different countries will monitor and ensure employers are meeting their obligations. For example, the Fair Work Ombudsman can issue notifications for breaches. In 2022–23, the Ombudsman initiated 977 targeted compliance activities and recovered almost $77 million in unpaid wages for 20,974 underpaid employees. 

New Zealand’s nearest equivalent is the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Labour Inspectorate. In the UK, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) is the place to start. The Health and Safety Executive focuses on health and safety breaches or incidents in the workplace.

In the case of non-compliance with data security laws, the risk of data breaches escalates, with the potential to expose employees and customers to scammers. There are also steep financial repercussions for failing to comply with global privacy regulations.

For example, the maximum fine that can be granted under the GDPR depends on the type of violation. It can be €20 million or 4% of the organisation’s global annual turnover (whichever is higher), or €10 million or 2% of global annual turnover (whichever is higher). 

Non-compliance can also be a legal minefield for employers. For example, if an employee is injured in the course of work as a result of an incorrect or non-existent safety procedure, a lawsuit could follow.

Benefits of effective compliance management

The benefits of effective compliance management are multi-faceted. Indeed, Forbes states that these benefits are not limited to guaranteeing the fulfillment of a company’s internal regulations and policies, but can also impact a business in deeper ways. The article states:

“Having a strong compliance program can help prevent corporate crimes that impact a company’s revenue, avoid scandals that could damage its reputation and scare away current clients, and inspire trust in order to attract new clients. In short, emphasising compliance has become a tool to protect and improve a company’s bottom line.”

Other benefits of effective compliance management might include:

• A safer work environment for employees, meaning fewer accidents and compensation claims

• Less time and resources spent on legal cases or paying fees and penalties

• Better preparation for potential audits by regulators or authorities

• Better preparation for and prevention of potential cyberattacks, malicious hacking and ransomware, which can paralyse an organisation

• Greater operational efficiencies due to the opportunity to standardise processes and procedures across the business

• Improved employee retention. Stronger compliance and governance can be correlated with integrity and trust, both of which resonate well with employees. A positive, trust-worthy work environment can can also result in employees who are more willing to follow compliance protocols to protect the company from the losses associated with non-compliance

How compliance management software works

Organisations should already have a compliance risk strategy in place – and if they don’t, they should prioritise this. Compliance software will be used to put that strategy into practice by providing continuous tracking, monitoring, and tools for reviewing and reporting so that internal policies can meet and exceed external regulatory obligations.

At the simplest level, compliance management software works by streamlining workflows and processes, automating routine tasks, and providing real-time regulatory updates.

Key compliance management components of HR software might include:

Employee record keeping: Humanforce’s Compliance Management solution enables employers to keep all employee records in one secure place, so they can be updated by employees themselves with self-service functionality (e.g. for qualifications and certifications, CPD requirements, immunisation records, work visa details, etc.). Managers can track training completion rates and receive reminders for licence or qualification expiry dates.

Through real-time monitoring and alerts, managers and HR can identify and address potential compliance issues before they escalate. Features include:

·       Work rights expiry reminders

·       Qualifications tracking for job roles

·       Team compliance dashboard for managers

·       Audit-ready data export functionality

Just as critically, this is linked to Humanforce’s Rostering & Scheduling solution, which will only allow employees with up-to-date qualifications to be rostered.

Customisable workflows: This applies to the Humanforce intelliHR suite and enables HR to tailor workflows to match job role, experience, location, etc. This extends to onboarding via our Onboarding & Offboarding solution. This means important compliance-related training can be added to onboarding workflows as a task to be completed in the first days on the job for new hires.

Better communication: The Humanforce Work App provides employees with everything they need to do their jobs effectively. From checking their roster and their payslip, to applying for leave, the end-to-end employee experience is covered. Critically, this includes the ability for managers and the organisation to send important health and safety alerts, and for employees to keep in touch with peers and managers with the messaging functionality.

Compliance reporting obligations: Humanforce software can produce bespoke reports or users can access reporting dashboards, which contain a range of common HR and workforce management metrics. Humanforce can also help employers in specific industries meet reporting needs. For example, for Australian aged care providers, our Workforce Analytics solution contains the AN-ACC Real-Time Dashboard, which helps providers meet care minute reporting obligations. Read our blog for further information.

Pay and entitlement obligations: With so many details to track in Modern Awards and employment agreements, having an automated award interpretation engine in place can save time and ensure all employee pay and entitlement obligations are being met – potentially saving employers from the cost and brand damage associated with under-paying staff. Humanforce’s Awards & Compliance solution spans award interpretation, award support, and compliant rostering.

Payroll: When Humanforce Awards & Compliance is used in conjunction with Humanforce Payroll, or your own integrated payroll software, employers gain access to enterprise-level payroll capabilities like advanced and retrospective pay, awards and classification with date-driven pay elements, annualised salaries, global data, and more. In addition, Humanforce Payroll is compliant with Single Touch Payroll (STP), STP2 and SuperStream (Australia) and KiwiSaver (New Zealand).

Additional features to look out for

It’s important to understand your business and its risk and compliance management profile. What are the aspects of your workflows, compliance and security risk management that technology can automate and help manage? Also consider these elements:

Scalability: Compliance complexity typically escalates the larger an organisation gets. A technology solution that works well for a small to mid-sized organisation may not work effectively for enterprise size. Look for a technology provider that can partner with your business as it grows, or your priorities change.

Automated alerts: Anyone who has tried to manage compliance obligations via spreadsheet understands how challenging it is to stay on top of expiry dates. A human capital management (HCM) suite like Humanforce will produce automated reminders and alerts so that nothing lapses.

User-friendly interface: Whether it’s drag and drop functionality or streamlined access control with SSO, the user experience is prioritised across the Humanforce HCM suite. And with compliance being such a data-reliant aspect of business, it’s important to be able to sort and export that data, and produce reports with visual elements like graphs and charts. Again, the Humanforce suite can provide these tools.

Integration capabilities: You’ll likely be exchanging data across multiple systems or solutions. For HR purposes, if there’s an integrated HCM suite with a centralised repository of employee data, it makes it easier to stay on top of compliance obligations as data tends to only need to be entered once and can be shared across multiple modules.

The Humanforce suite presents robust integration capabilities, bringing together payroll, workforce management, HR and other business intelligence systems based on event data, as well as occupancy, foot traffic or point of sale (POS) data, to help create an interconnected ecosystem. This ecosystem allows businesses to seamlessly link different sources of data to help create more efficient rosters.

Conclusion

Compliance management forms one of the foundations of business operations, but employers shouldn’t wait until something goes wrong to prioritise this key area. Employers should aim to be proactive when it comes to compliance, so that it never gets to the point of ‘going wrong’. This is especially the case when it comes to management of your human resources.

When people’s livelihoods and their safety are at stake, you can’t afford to make mistakes or overlook the finer details of record keeping, reporting requirements, legislation or regulatory requirements.

With the aid of compliance management technology, compliance can be prioritised, elements of it can be automated, risk management processes can be standardised across the business, and the administrative aspects of it can be minimised – reducing the risk of human error along the way.

Enquire now to find out how Humanforce’s HCM suite can help with the compliance management aspects of HR, or to request a demo.

About Humanforce

Humanforce is the best-in-one platform for frontline and flexible workforces, offering a truly employee centred, intelligent and compliant human capital management (HCM) suite – without compromise. Founded in 2002, Humanforce has a 2300+ customer base and over half a million users worldwide. Today, we have offices across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

Our vision is to make work easier and life better by focusing on the needs and fulfilment of frontline workers, and the efficiency and optimisation of businesses.

To learn more about how Humanforce can automate and streamline all aspects of people management, please contact us.