Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Over the years, there have been conversations about HR compliance being bad, wrong, or that part of the job that holds us back as a profession. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that following the law is bad or wrong. But sometimes people equate compliance with being very basic. And they figure if we spend most of our time doing basic things, then we don’t get to work on strategy (i.e., that ‘seat at the table’ stuff).
The reality is that compliance is strategic. The laws that organizations must follow are complex. And there are a lot of them. HR departments should develop compliance strategies so they can follow the law and guide the organization.
When companies have a compliance strategy, HR can do exactly what we were talking about at the beginning of this article – work with the organization on other strategies like recruiting, employee development, and total rewards. Here are a few articles to get the compliance strategy conversation going.
HR Compliance: Get Back to Basics During the Great Reset
When everyone is resetting expectations, now is the time for HR to get back to basics and reset how they’re going to do compliance. Case management software can help HR departments spend their time on activities that have a stronger alignment to the business and the bottom-line.
State Laws Can Impact Your Hybrid and Remote Work Strategies
The legal world is constantly changing. An increasing number of states are enacting legislation that impacts employment law. With employees being able to work from anywhere, this means organizations must understand the laws of the places where their employees are working.
Labor Law Posting Requirements for Hybrid and Remote Work
Today’s technology makes it easy to provide remote workers with their mandated postings. They also guarantee their work against government posting fines. When employees – regardless of where they work – know that organizations are transparent about their rights, it creates trust and engagement.
Strategic Compliance: Wage Garnishment Risk Avoidance
Right now, organizations are looking for HR and payroll to focus on employee recruitment, engagement, and retention. Employers must think about how they’re going to maintain compliance, including processing wage garnishments. But HR and payroll departments do not want to spend their time memorizing wage garnishment legislation in every state.
4 Compliance Strategies that Create Labor Efficiencies
Sadly, many HR processes are still manual and labor-intensive, burdening staff with tedious, inefficient tasks that can potentially introduce avoidable errors and compliance risk into the process. Creating a compliance strategy can lower costs, reduce unnecessary overhead, diminish risk, and position companies for both compliance and growth. As a result, the organization can concentrate on more strategic work – which may go beyond cost savings to positively impact employee hiring, engagement, and retention.
Making the Case for Strategic Compliance Change
When HR teams can look beyond day-to-day operational activities and compliance responsibilities, they can focus on identifying and capitalizing on opportunities to contribute to executive-level strategic business goals and to having a greater impact on employee recruitment, engagement, and retention. That’s where the organization wants them to be.
At the start of this article, I mentioned how having a compliance strategy is good for HR teams. Don’t forget that compliance strategies are good for recruitment, engagement, and retention. Employees can see that the organization makes compliance a priority. This helps with building trust and creating a safe work environment.
Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby at the SHRM Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA
31
Brandon Hammond says
It is clear that compliance is more important for HR teams than just the boring and basic things that people normally associate it with. When I thought of Human Resources I always thought about those kind of basic tasks such as making sure people follow rules and making sure the company follows laws and legislation. However, as the article mentions, compliance is important to allow HR to get a ‘seat at the table’ and play a part in the strategies of the company. The way a company treats their employees can be a big part of their strategy as it can give them a competitive advantage as it allows them to retain and hire the best employees. If a company has good compliance, for example if they have excellent knowledge of employment rules in the different places that their employees work (exaggerated due to the more flexible work schedules people have since COVID) they can utilize these rules to give their employees extra benefits that they may be allowed in those areas.
Sharlyn Lauby says
Thanks for sharing Brandon!
Weixi Tan says
Thanks for sharing, those are really great insights! Looking forward to your other HR related posts.
Sharlyn Lauby says
Thanks for the comment!