Every industry falls within its own complex web of federal, state, and local laws and regulations, especially when it comes to hiring and maintaining an employed workforce. Consequently, CHROs, health and safety executives, and their teams all spend a great deal of time focused on the demands of workforce compliance and monitoring.
These demands can eat time. They demand access to large amounts of data and the ability to analyze that data quickly and efficiently. Organizations that focus on improving their compliance monitoring methods often see results in the form of better information about their workforce.
Compliance Management: Where We’ve Been
Currently, many large enterprise organizations are still using outdated systems to track workforce compliance. Often, these systems involve the use of spreadsheets into which data must be entered and analyzed manually. A few use modules inside their human resources management systems, but these modules themselves may be limited. The rapid growth of technology in recent years means that many systems are outdated as well.
Outdated systems weren’t always outdated. Often, they were the pinnacle of technological advancement when they were installed. Yet in their time, these systems still required a great deal of manual data input and human interaction in order to function correctly. Compared to today’s advancements in the automation of routine tasks, these systems are clunky, cumbersome, and prone to amplifying human errors.
Despite the difficulty in applying yesterday’s compliance management systems to today’s workforce challenges, however, many companies have been slow to change their approach. Trading in an expensive computer system or platform for a newer model may be seen as disruptive or as an onerous added expense. Some leaders decide instead to squeeze as much use out of their old systems as they can, even when it means dealing with diminishing returns from a compliance and monitoring system that takes more and more effort to provide sub-optimal information.
Compliance Monitoring Today
Today, state-of-the-art workforce monitoring and compliance systems are more flexible than in earlier generations. These tools can be fine-tuned to the needs of a particular workforce, and they can also be used to focus on the specific information your managers and leadership need at any given moment.
Tracking employee credentials in the past was often a time-intensive process. Employees may have been expected to report on the status of their credentials or to take total responsibility for keeping those credentials current. Knowing when a worker needed to update a credential might mean remembering to check a spreadsheet or database for that information – which may or may not appear in its most recently updated form.
Today, however, automated compliance monitoring tools make it easier for organizations to track employee credentialing. Some cloud-based tools automatically gather information from professional and government databases about key credentials, including expiration dates. Many incorporate automated reminders about upcoming deadlines.
In some cases, these tools have become even more focused. For example, some not only provide information about upcoming deadlines but also provide information about testing requirements, continuing education, or other essentials that must be completed for a particular certification to be renewed. Rather than being forced to look up this information, HR teams and managers can see it immediately and help workers plan ahead, ensuring no one ever misses their opportunity to update a license, certification, physical evaluation, drug test, or other necessary credentials.
Improved Data Means Improved Insights
Access to granular, real-time data means that human resources teams can understand at a glance what the organization’s workforce needs in terms of support to remain compliant. Whether it’s submitting renewal paperwork for a certification or attending a required physical fitness examination, workers find it easier to attend to their core tasks with the help of a human resources team that can help them determine exactly what they need to do and when.
The benefits of high-quality compliance monitoring data, however, don’t end with workers or their managers. This data also helps executives attend to the big picture and ensure their organization remains on track toward its goals. The data can also be used in other valuable ways, like creating annual budget requirements, developing timelines for deploying key resources, and more.
Improved data means better insights and easier compliance at all levels of an organization. Fully automated end-to-end solutions streamline routine tasks, such as the paperwork involved with certification or credential renewals. They also provide the ability to organize and analyze large data sets, allowing for better planning and recommendations from CHROs and health and safety executives.
Compliance is an increasingly complex challenge in today’s world. As work and its oversight become more complex and a host of educational, legal, and other requirements crop up within the work world, human resources leadership and staff can find themselves overwhelmed by compliance management demands.
By automating repetitive tasks, streamlining compliance scheduling, and providing deep insight into compliance-related data, modern compliance tools reduce the time and attention required to fully understand and address compliance management within an organization. CHROs and their teams are freed to focus on complex issues, such as planning budgets and timelines and setting goals for the workforce and the organization as a whole.
Technology has changed the way we work in just a few short decades. While yesterday’s tools allowed companies to leap forward, they can be a hindrance today. A fully automated end-to-end solution like ChaneCheck can provide the impetus for another forward leap.
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