What does your attitude towards compliance say?

As a company and manager, you have the amazing opportunity to set the tone and culture, often in subtle ways. It’s important that your attitude and actions towards compliance convey its significance.

We know that routine workplace inspections can be tedious, time consuming and some may even say ‘boring’. The reasons for completing workplace inspections are clear though so it's time to adopt a new mindset about compliance.

Believe it or not, your attitude about compliance sends key messages and insights about your company to employees and externally. For example, the way you talk about routine inspections, the priority they are given, reward and discipline for inspection performance, and how quickly action is taken when deficiencies are found, sends signals to your employees and others about whether you really care about compliance. And this is not just noticeable internally, but also externally to clients and the broader industry.

Employees

Employees want to do work that is valued. If the work is not prioritized or they know they will not be recognized for their performance, employees will not associate importance with this work; meaning they may miss inspections, leave them to the last minute, rush their inspections, or choose to not document deficiencies. If employees feel that action is not being taken on the deficiencies they find, they may become disengaged. Disengagement leads to a loss in productivity and employees may begin to look for other employment opportunities, leaving your company with high turnover, losing your best employees and institutional knowledge.

Clients

Clients want to work with and spend their money on companies that align with their values. In the case of commercial and residential real estate, clients do not want to lease a space in a building that’s riddled with deficiencies. Such incidents lead to poor client satisfaction and may make them seek out another space once their lease is up, which has obvious financial implications.

Brand

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, has been quoted as saying “your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room”.

Your company’s reputation can be tarnished by health & safety incidents, lawsuits, poor media coverage, poor client satisfaction and negative reviews by current and former employees. All of these brand detractors have financial implications. Maintaining a positive and proactive approach to compliance will help reduce any risk to brand reputation.

Here are a few ways you can project a positive attitude towards compliance:

1.) Set the tone

• As a company and manager, you get to set the tone and create the culture. This is often done in subtle, unspoken ways.
• View compliance as a proactive way to identify and fix any gaps because it’s the right thing to do.
• Make compliance, routine inspections, and safety a priority. Employees should know that inspections are important to you and that they will be recognized and disciplined in relation to their performance.
• Talk about compliance frequently – not just when something goes wrong.
• Celebrate and recognize your wins and successes.

2.) Adequately train employees

• Ensure employees are properly trained on how to perform inspections, the locations of equipment, and how to document any deficiencies.
• If you notice an employee is having difficulty, pair them up with a partner or provide refresher training.
• Frequently circulate and communicate inspection tips n tricks and best practices.

3.) Have dialogue

Talk about inspection performance frequently, including:

• areas that are well-inspected;
• areas that are frequently missed;
• areas with deficiencies, frequent deficiencies, their resolution, and the time it took to fix them;
• trends that you notice;
• inspectors that are doing a great job;
• inspectors who need improvement.

Celebrate wins and successes often and loudly. Reward and recognize employees that:

• complete their inspections early or on time;
• complete 100% of their inspections without missing any locations;
• accurately report and identify deficiencies;
• have improved their inspection performance.

Especially for repeat offenders, reprimand employees that:

• do not complete their inspections on time;
• miss inspections;
• improperly perform inspections, or do not perform thorough inspections;
• do not document deficiencies, or do not document deficiencies sufficiently.

4.) Take action

• When deficiencies are found, take action immediately to demonstrate your care and value of the work; this will help ward off feelings of disengagement.
• If action cannot be taken right away, i.e., in cases of budgetary restrictions, capital planning cycle, supply chain delays, etc., advise your employees so they understand when action will be taken and why it’s delayed. This will show employees that reasonable steps have been taken to address the issue.

As a company and manager, you have the amazing opportunity to set the tone and culture, often in subtle ways. It’s important that your attitude and actions towards compliance convey its significance.

Your attitude should be positive and proactive if you want to get the most out of your inspections.

Moreover, your attitude toward compliance can be leveraged as a competitive advantage – with your employees, your clients, and brand.

It’s time we shift our mindset about compliance.

About Tap Report

Tap Report is a Canadian software company that provides a digital solution for managing workplace inspections, safety compliance, and operational reporting. It replaces manual processes, such as paper checklists and spreadsheets, with a mobile and web-based system that allows teams to complete inspections, capture data, and generate compliant reports.

Through an easy-to-use interface and automated workflows, Tap Report helps ensure that inspections are completed, deficiencies are categorized and tracked, and issues are escalated efficiently to the right people. It also offers analytics, customizable reporting, and integrations that helps organizations improve safety, compliance, and operational performance.

For more information, visit www.tapreport.io or contact us at customerservice@tapreport.io.