Easier Compliance Management in a Change-Resistant Company

You’ve probably heard the popular definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. You may even be living it out on a daily basis as a compliance manager.

I’ve seen my share of insane organizations in my career. They try to streamline the efficiency of their compliance management process, hoping to make life easier for themselves. But they keep failing, because they don’t address the core issues that created the problems in the first place. 

I’ve spent my career developing efficient systems, and I’m convinced that you can’t fix systemic issues unless you’re willing to make significant changes to the way you do things. That might mean changing your processes, it might mean finding better tools. Usually it’s both. But it always means embracing uncomfortable changes.

TCT Portal Is a Game-Changer for Compliance Management

TCT Portal is the compliance management tool that truly changes things for your organization. The system automates the most painful, toilsome, and inefficient tasks, so that you can concentrate your efforts on the most meaningful aspects of your compliance engagement. 

Compliance teams can’t believe the difference that TCT Portal makes in their work lives. TCT customer Joseph Kurfehs said, “It’s so much less stressful now. TCT Portal has been a

game-changer for us.” “TCT Portal is gold,” said customer Steve Parlee. Nicole Braun agreed: “Without TCT Portal, it would have easily doubled our reporting time.”

TCT Portal consistently produces results as impressive as a 65% reduction in man-hours — eliminating frustration, overtime, anxiety, and a constant sense of chaos. 

But that doesn’t mean the change is easy for organizations — at least, it isn’t at first.

Even the right changes are uncomfortable, until you start seeing the tremendous benefits that those changes yield. That’s when your team begins to get excited about wasting less time, getting more done, and being more effective. At that point, your momentum starts snowballing and the resistance you felt at first is a thing of the past. 

Compliance Management Won’t Get Easier on Its Own

Many companies follow the rules of insanity, hoping there’s a magic wand they can wave and make compliance management easy.

Compliance management is never going to just magically start working better. Especially if the messaging you hear from executive leadership is that you need to be spending less time on compliance management. 

When I was a compliance manager, I was often pressured to get the compliance engagement done any way it took, just so long as it was done fast. The organization didn’t seem to care how it was done faster (inferring that they were fine with half-assing it), provided we reduced the resource drain on the company. (Never mind the fact that a half-ass job would prompt an Assessor to get hyper vigilant — increasing the workload on the engagement!)

If you’re looking for a way to do compliance management that doesn’t suck, your organization will need to be willing to make some changes. It won’t always feel comfortable, and it will likely create anxiety among some personnel. But if you’re going to have any hope of achieving compliance sanity, then embrace the change and stop the insanity.

Understanding Resistance to Change

Resistance to change comes from all kinds of underlying reasons — many of which you may never be aware of:

• Fear of the unknown: Introducing new processes or technologies can be daunting. Employees might fear increased workload or the need to acquire new skills.
• Organizational politics: Departments might resist changes that they perceive as diminishing their influence or altering power dynamics.
• Fear of failure: There’s a concern that new systems may not deliver the promised benefits, leading to skepticism about change initiatives.
• Turf protection: Changes in compliance processes can make individuals feel that they are losing control over their domain of expertise.
• Past failed implementations: Previous unsuccessful attempts at change can cast a long shadow, making stakeholders wary of new initiatives.

Ultimately, you won’t be able to successfully implement a new compliance management system unless you get executive buy-in. If your company’s leadership team isn’t driving change, you’ll have a heck of a time implementing your compliance solution.

Make the Business Case to Executive Leadership

To convert resistance into acceptance, you need to make the business case to your company’s leadership team. Show how the compliance management system aligns with your organization’s broader objectives. Provide a cost-benefit analysis that shows how the initial investment in compliance changes will result in long-term savings.

Yes, there are certain out of pocket costs to putting a compliance management system like TCT Portal in place. But the biggest cost element on compliance engagements is the negative impact of the amount of time that personnel have to spend on these engagements. That’s the greatest financial cost, which you’re already paying every month. 

In order to realize the benefits to your organization, you’re faced with an unenviable task. Your job is to make a case that it will save your organization money by spending money. That’s at the root of your challenge. 

What is the approach? It’s simple: you have to put this in a way that will make sense for those you need to convince. And that starts with doing some analytics on the various realms where you’re wasting time. How much time are you currently spending? What is the monetary value of that time? How much of that time — and money — can you recover?

What if a $6,000 solution could save you $20,000 or more? Depending on your organization, TCT Portal can save your company enough money in wasted man-hours to pay for an additional full-time employee. That’s the kind of data that will give you a shot at having at least some of the lightbulbs twinkling upstairs.

It’s Time to Make a Change for Easier Compliance Management

Implementing compliance management changes in a resistant organization is an unenviable task. It requires strategic planning, clear communication, and unwavering commitment. By making a business case to executive leadership, you can get the buy-in you need to begin driving real change that brings sanity to your next compliance engagement and those in the years to come.

Change is hard — especially if your organization is a large company. But when your team begins to see the enormous payoffs that TCT Portal provides, you won’t be able to get them to go back to the way things were before.

Need some helpful resources to make your business case to your executive leadership? Download our ebook, The Rock Solid Business Case for Compliance Management Software.