How to keep employee satisfaction high while adapting to regulatory changes

Changes to Canada’s Labour Code announced on Sept. 1 are poised to impact more than 18,000 federally regulated companies. That’s a total of 900,000 federally regulated employees, or approximately six percent of Canada’s total workforce.

These changes are designed to make it easier for workers to request more flexible working conditions and puts the pressure on decision makers and compliance officers to help ensure a seamless transition to comply

The impact of non-compliance on your business and employer brand

While updating policies and practices can be a costly and resource-consuming process, the cost of not complying can be much higher. Non-compliance and poor scheduling practices can create a stressful work environment, leading to lower employee productivity and engagement, increased absenteeism, and a competitive disadvantage to attracting top talent. All of these have the potential to negatively impact your employer brand and reputation.

Leveraging technology to more easily adapt to change

Technology can be a powerful enabler to make compliance management more efficient and effective. In a rapidly changing landscape, leading organizations are looking to technology to modernize their people strategies, including adding more value to the compliance function.

Here are three considerations for employers to better position themselves for success while on the path to adapting to regulatory change.

Address regulatory compliance as a strategic HR initiative

According to the Harvard Business Review, “the value of compliance should be made clearer to leaders and employees." This requires that HR teams and organizational leaders treat compliance as less tactical, and more as an on-going strategic responsibility.  This forces an organization to identify solutions which are more effective and efficient, such as embracing new technologies or outsourced solutions specifically designed to be agile in a constantly changing regulatory environment.

Make compliance less complex for your people

Compliance and legislative changes can be confusing and time-consuming for employees. Key to a successful compliance function is to be efficient and effective, particularly in a rapidly changing environment. A single system designed to manage information, provide training, make procedures and policies more accessible, and help employees better understand their role within an organization, can support more effective compliance practices.

Implement a cloud-based tool for payroll processing and accuracy

In a quickly changing regulatory environment, cloud-based solutions may offer improvements in efficiencies and accuracy for tax reporting, payroll deductions and legislative and regulatory updates, while reducing back-office burden and paper-based processes.  The ability to quickly update cloud-based technology tools allows organizations to better manage compliance in real-time, and ultimately protect their brands.