Just as athletes need to refine their techniques in order to perform better, businesses won’t get better at dealing with governance, risk and compliance by doing the same things as last year. You need to improve your processes and systems to be able to make more informed decisions and be more efficient.
In part what you will be doing in 2013 will be the result of events that occurred in 2012: changes to prudential requirements and laws such as the Corporations Act (FOFA), unclaimed money, the National Credit Act and the Privacy Act will require you to implement those changes.
And you will have to file the usual annual reports and compliance certificates.
So what will be different?
Assuming you are already attending to the “corporate hygiene” essentials, then by improving the way you explain these issues to your staff and by improving your processes you will perform better.
Compliance checklists can be helpful for repetitive tasks. The problem with checklists is making sure they do not become a mere “tick the box” exercise. Staff need to understand why they are being checked on. And some compliance obligations require “professional scepticism” to interpret the checklist answers.
Here’s a quick checklist to see if you have room for improvement.
- When was the last time you met with staff to try and solve repetitive problems?
- How do you share awareness of regulatory developments with staff?
- Do your staff have a clear understanding of their responsibilities?
- Have you budgeted both time and money for staff to meet their responsibilities?
- When was the last time you reviewed induction procedures?
- Do you have adequate reporting procedures?
- Do you review your procedures following a complaint?
- Do staff understand which obligations have the highest risks?
When was the last time you reviewed your:
- privacy policy
- commission arrangements
- conflicts of interest policy
- D&O Insurance
- marketing clearance procedures
- outsourcing arrangements
- IT contracts
- crisis management policy
If you don’t know the answers or it’s been a while since you checked, then despite the pressures for short-term performance, addressing these issues will improve your long term success.
