When thinking about business processes, it’s easy to think mostly in terms of internal operations and workflow. However, when you delve deeper, you will find that business processes are the heart of any organization, no matter its size or industry. Therefore, it is essential for compliance officers and anyone else involved in creating or improving processes to understand their principles. The business process in compliance measures the efficiency with which an organization can perform specific tasks related to meeting compliance standards.
5 Principles of Business Process in Compliance
When thinking about business processes, it’s easy to think mostly in terms of internal operations and workflow. However, when you delve deeper, you will find that business processes are the heart of any organization, no matter its size or industry. Therefore, it is essential for compliance officers and anyone else involved in creating or improving processes to understand their principles. The business process in compliance measures the efficiency with which an organization can perform specific tasks related to meeting compliance standards.
In this article, we explore the five principles of business process in compliance so you can understand how they can make your company more efficient and reduce manual workarounds.
Principle 1: The process must be defined.
This is the first principle of business process in compliance, so it’s essential to get it right! It’s also one of the most overlooked aspects of compliance processes. That is why we see so many non-conformities and other issues arise when a new program or initiative begins operation. The idea here is simple: you want to define your processes as activities performed by people that result in outcomes that meet compliance standards and requirements. This means defining what activities will be performed, not how they will be performed; who needs to participate in each activity; how those activities fit together into a larger picture; how information flows between those activities; and when all this should happen within your organization’s cycle time for producing goods or services.
Principle 2: All employees should understand the context of the processes they’re following.
Principle 2 is all about context. If a process makes sense to you, it’s likely to make sense to your employees as well. If a process fails for your employees, it probably won’t work for you either. When it comes to compliance, context is the difference between a secure process and one that opens up your organization to risk. An excellent example of this would be an employee who scans documents into their company’s file share system on their personal device but doesn’t know how they are stored securely or who has access to them, their own administrative group? Or maybe only certain people within the same department?
Principle 3: Processes need to be easy to follow and consistently applied throughout an organization.
A third principle is that processes need to be easy to follow and consistently applied throughout an organization. Processes should be easy to follow, which means they are simple and straightforward. They should also be consistent so that people in different departments or locations can use them without learning new procedures. Processes should be easy to understand because every employee needs to understand their role within the business process framework and how it connects with other processes. If employees misunderstand their roles or responsibilities, this can lead to errors and incorrect decisions being made by the organization.
The last two principles of the process are related: The processes must also be easy for employees to use when carrying out their functions daily; otherwise, they may have difficulty completing their work accurately. And finally, another essential element of effective process design is ensuring that your processes are easy for others outside your organization, like customers, to utilize as well.
Principle 4: Every process that could affect compliance needs to be described and mapped.
The principle of mapping out processes is a simple one. If you want to improve compliance, you need to know your company’s processes and how they affect compliance. You can’t fix the problem if you don’t know where it is. This principle applies to business process management software and any form of project management or workflow system that helps track steps in a process. The point here is that every action taken by a person at work creates an opportunity for compliance issues, including intentional and unintentional activities.
So how do we map out our current processes? The answer depends on your organizational structure and culture; not every organization will have the same way of doing things. However, some commonalities apply across businesses regardless of size or industry: Mapping out all possible scenarios within each step of a particular process and identifying gaps between stages where information could be lost—taking note of who has access to what data during each stage—documenting who should be responsible for making decisions throughout each step and why.
Principle 5: In order for a process to be effective, it must be executed.
Execution is the biggest challenge regarding compliance and business processes. The more complex a company’s operational structure becomes, the more difficult it is to execute consistently across all levels of an organization. Business process management software can help companies with execution and compliance by sharing visibility into their processes and information about how well they are being executed across the enterprise.
The process must be updated in response to changing situations and circumstances.
Keeping processes updated is an essential part of ensuring they’re effective. You can either update your process by monitoring the environment and adjusting accordingly or by conducting a full audit of your business to assess how it’s working in real-time.
As you monitor the environment, keep an eye out for any changes that could affect your business. If you notice something new, consider how this might affect your process and whether or not it needs to be updated. For example, if one of the inputs into your process has changed, maybe there’s now a different payment method available. You may need to make some adjustments to ensure everything works smoothly together.
If you don’t have time to watch out for these changes yourself but would like help keeping up with them, ask an employee who’s familiar with what goes on around the office each day, such as someone from HR or IT, to provide insight into what’s happening within their respective departments so that you can keep abreast of potential issues before they become problems.
Conclusion
As we have seen, the process can be your best friend or your worst enemy at work. It’s not just about choosing the right process for your business objectives but also about implementing and executing it correctly, making sure all stakeholders understand their role in the process. Following these five principles will ensure that you’re on track to stay compliant with regulations and win more customers!