Maintaining Compliance: Navigating Regulatory Requirements
The safety, effectiveness, and quality of facilities and services are all ensured by compliance, which is a critical part of facility management. As facility managers must deal with many laws, codes, regulations, and standards that may differ by industry, location, and scope, compliance can also be a complicated task.
There are many reasons why compliance is important in facility management. Some of the key benefits of compliance include:
- Protecting employees and visitors from harm
- Avoiding costly fines and penalties
- Maintaining a positive public image
- Reducing the risk of lawsuits
- Complying with government regulations
Failures in compliance at financial institutions around the world in 2008 resulted in penalties and losses totaling $300 billion over the following years.
Continue reading this post to find out how facility managers can effectively keep compliance while navigating regulatory requirements.
Identify Applicable Regulations and Standards
Discovering the relevant laws and guidelines that apply to your facility and the provision of your services is the first step in achieving compliance. This may entail learning about and comprehending local, state, national, and international laws, codes, and regulations, as well as the standards and best practices that are particular to the industry. Some of the key sources of regulations and standards include:
- Federal, state, and local laws
- Industry codes and standards
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations
All these standards and regulations form the part of facilities management best practices that businesses have to follow to ensure their facility’s seamless operation.
The regulatory frameworks that may have an impact on the operations of your facility should also be kept up to date. You can accomplish this by joining professional networks or associations that provide information and advice on compliance issues or by subscribing to newsletters, alerts, or publications from pertinent authorities or organizations.
Establish Compliance Management Systems
Once you have located the relevant laws and guidelines, you should put them into practice to ensure compliance across all of your facility operations. This might entail creating manuals, guidelines, checklists, or policies outlining the obligations and responsibilities of your employees, subcontractors, vendors, and clients concerning compliance. Additionally, you should keep a record of your compliance efforts and supporting documentation, such as permits, licenses, certificates, inspections, audits, or reports.
To assess your compliance performance and identify any gaps or risks, you should also carry out routine compliance audits and inspections. To evaluate your level of compliance and provide feedback or suggestions for improvement, you can use internal or external auditors or inspectors. A system for reporting and resolving any potential compliance problems or incidents should also be established. A facilities maintenance app could be used for these purposes.
Train Employees on Regulatory Requirements
Giving your employees thorough training on the pertinent laws and standards is another essential tactic for maintaining compliance. You should make sure that your staff members are aware of their obligations to follow established processes and procedures as well as legal and regulatory requirements. Additionally, you must give them the equipment, materials, or assistance they need to complete their tasks in a compliant manner.
To reflect any modifications to the rules or standards that may have an impact on your employees' work, you should also routinely update your training materials and programs. Additionally, you should assess the success of your training initiatives and gauge how it affects the behavior, knowledge, and skills of your staff members.
Implement Documentation and Record-Keeping Practices
For you to be able to demonstrate your efforts and results in compliance, documentation and record-keeping are crucial. Keep thorough records of all compliance-related activities and supporting documentation, such as permits, licenses, certificates, inspections, audits, reports, guidelines, checklists, and evidence. Additionally, you should arrange your records so that they are logically accessible and simple to find when needed.
Additionally, you should regularly check your records and documentation and make any necessary updates to ensure their accuracy, validity, or applicability. By legal requirements or industry standards, you should also adhere to your documentation and records retention and disposal policies.
Engage External Compliance Experts if Needed
To effectively navigate the regulatory requirements and maintain compliance, you may occasionally need outside assistance from legal or compliance professionals. To get an unbiased assessment of your compliance level and performance, you can hire outside consultants for compliance audits or assessments. On particular compliance problems or questions, you can also consult legal or compliance experts.
By participating in professional networks or associations that provide information, direction, training, or resources on compliance issues, you should also stay up to date on market trends and best practices in compliance management. Integrated facilities management (IFM) becomes a guiding force in this regard. Reducing the total cost of ownership, IFM enables better negotiation and compliance with SLAs. IFM paves way for the improvement by bringin trusted independent service providers (ISPs), stakeholders, and technological workflows under one umbrella; this is how the integrated facilities management definition goes.
Additionally, you can gain knowledge from the successes or best practices of other facility managers or groups that have excelled at compliance.
Stay Proactive and Monitor Changes
Lastly, you need to be proactive and keep an eye out for regulatory environment changes that could have an impact on the way your facility operates and its compliance status. You should regularly review any modifications to the laws or standards that are relevant to your facility or method of service delivery and evaluate how they will affect your compliance strategy and practices. To ensure that your compliance strategy and practices are in line with the most recent legal requirements or industry standards, you should also make the necessary updates.
In the future, the regulatory environment may change as a result of developments in technology, societal shifts, environmental concerns, or other factors. To adapt your facility operations and compliance strategy to these changes, you should create contingency plans or scenarios.
Conclusion
Maintaining compliance is a vital but challenging task for facility managers. The consequences of non-compliance can be severe. Some of the potential consequences of non-compliance include:
- Fines and penalties
- Loss of government contracts
- Damage to reputation
- Lawsuits
- Injury or death
By following the abovementioned strategies, you can navigate the regulatory requirements and maintain compliance effectively and efficiently. Compliance can also benefit your facility operations, such as enhancing your reputation, reducing your costs, improving your quality, or increasing your customer satisfaction.
