What is Compliance?

Posted 4 years ago

A lot of iHasco courses, whether HR, Business Compliance or Health and Safety focused, touch upon compliance. But what exactly is it?

the act of obeying an order, rule, or request:

Cambridge Dictionary

Most people will come across compliance in their day-to-day roles at work. Compliance essentially means the following of rules/regulations/orders at work and they usually vary depending on the industry you work in. It is applicable to all levels of staff e.g. employers, managers, supervisors, employees.

Regardless of your industry or the size of your business, it is highly likely that you will have some sort of regulations that you need to adhere to. It might be Health and Safety regulations or standards that are specific to your industry or field of work.

Compliance can be interpreted in different ways. One way is following regulations/legislation that authorities have set, like local councils, the government, regulatory bodies or industry-specific organisations. The other way is that the organisation itself may well set their own workplace rules, regulations or policies that they want employees to ‘comply’ with.

So, compliance could be split into two elements; ‘internal compliance’, which could be the rules and regulations an employer sets for employees, and ‘external compliance’, the compliance of externally set rules and regulations, which we refer to as ‘business compliance’ across our website.

What happens if I don’t follow external compliance rules/guidance?

Essentially, the regulations that compliance refers to are generally about employee Health and Safety and stopping things like fraud, bribery, data breaches, and so on.

It all depends on the legislation and how serious the implications are if an organisation fails to meet the requirements but for example, if you don’t comply with legislation such as the Health and Safety at Work Act and an employee seriously injured themselves as a result of your non-compliance, you could receive a large fine or even criminal prosecution; not to mention the damage to reputation. Another example would be the GDPR, where you could receive large (multi-million pound) fines for things like data breaches.

Common considerations in the workplace

Most organisations will work towards compliance in one way or another. Here are some of the most common areas that you might have thought about already;

Fire Safety – Fire signage, or fire escapes or fire fighting equipment around the workplace.

Health and Safety – This is something that most employers will consider, this will include following various regulations and guidance (depending on your workplace) e.g. first aiders, first aid kits, fire wardens.

Data Protection – This could include working towards compliance with the GDPR as we said above but may also include cybersecurity, fraud awareness, anti-bribery and anti-money laundering.

What is the difference between HR Compliance and Business Compliance Training?

HR Compliance refers to legislative compliance surrounding topics relating to anything else that falls under the HR spectrum. For example, employment law and wellbeing.

Business Compliance differs slightly. It refers to key pieces of legislation surrounding corporate topics. For example, bribery, environmental awareness, and data protection.

Find out more about the difference between HR Compliance and Business Compliance Training.

Business Compliance Training

We offer a range of training courses that can help your organisation with Business Compliance. These courses work in conjunction with many of our Health and Safety and HR Courses that also help employers and employees work towards compliance.

Our range of Business Compliance Training courses are designed to equip your staff with the knowledge and necessary skills to carry out everyday tasks confidently and in line with current legislation.

Additionally, we offer a Business Compliance Essentials Training course that covers the key parts of business compliance and relevant legislation in a condensed period of time. The 45-minute course looks at areas like Data Protection, Cyber Security, Fraud Prevention, Modern Slavery, and much more.

Why not get started with a free trial today?