All businesses in Australia are governed by compliance rules and laws. It’s your responsibility as a business owner to be aware of what the regulations are so you can ensure your business practices and all of your employees remain compliant with the law. Along with being expected to follow the rules, what are some valid reasons to care about compliance in the first place?
Let’s take a look at some.
#1 – Avoid Getting Fined
Like any laws in this country, if you don’t obey them, you risk getting a fine. When it comes to compliance laws, some of those fines can be pretty steep, so you will want to avoid any infringements simply from a financial point of view if nothing else.
You just never know when a spot inspection might take place, or that a disgruntled customer has noted something awry and reported the issue without your knowledge.
#2 – Don’t Risk Having Your Business Shut Down
Receiving a fine for non-compliance is the lesser of the penalties you could receive if your operation is found not to be compliant. In a worst case scenario, the authorities could actually close your business down for serious breaches of compliance law.
Avoid fines and avoid risking the future of your business by striving to remain compliant.
#3 – Less Chance Of Workplace Accidents
Compliance laws don’t merely exist to annoy business owners. They have been put in place for specific reasons. One of the main concerns in any place of business is safety. Safety for the workers and safety for customers and the general public.
Many of the compliance rules in place are targeted at safety in the workplace and the more your business is in alignment with those laws, the safer your work environment will be. This leads to far less chance of workplace accidents occurring that could lead to injury or worse.
Compliance laws or not, every business should be a safe place for employees and customers alike.
#4 – You Will Have a Happier Workforce
Aside from a safe workplace, compliance laws also cover things like ethics and fairness in the work environment. Things like laws against harassment, bullying, discrimination and so on lead to a more harmonious place to work and ultimately a far happier group of employees.
When your employees are happy to go to work, they show up every day and there is less absenteeism. You’ll also find that when workers are happy and content, their productivity naturally increases as well.
If you have a stable of good, reliable workers you will want to keep them. Maintaining a happy and fair work environment will improve employee retention rates.
This is a win-win situation for everyone concerned.
#5 – Vastly Reduce Your Business Risks
Every business faces a variety of risks that could end up hampering production and costing the company money. The best way to reduce risk is to manage it.
Risk management involves recognising potential risks and doing something to ensure they never become a reality in the first place. You won’t be able to avoid every single risk but with good risk management, you’ll be able to counteract the majority of them.
Risk management and compliance management tend to overlap in some areas, so when you maintain compliance diligence, you will effectively be reducing your business risk in the process.
Compliance management system software can help you with both your risk management and your compliance management efforts, so it’s worth investing in.
#6 – Increase Business Profits
The more you manage risk and remain compliant, the higher the probability your business profits will increase as a result. Likely, you went into business in the first instance to become as profitable and successful as you possibly can, so rather than seeing compliance management as a hindrance to your business, view it as an opportunity to improve and streamline your operations, leading to increased profitability.
The Takeaway
View compliance management as a positive for your business and make it a point to understand exactly what’s required of you and your workforce. You’ll have peace of mind knowing you’re on the right side of the law and many positive benefits will be the flow on effect from keeping your business compliant.
