Organizations use the services of a compliance consulting firm to ensure that they are meeting their regulatory, ethical and legal requirements in conduct their business and that they are doing so in the most efficient and effective manner possible and to check that there are no failures in their compliance regime. A compliance consulting firm will undertake an overall assessment of how an organization is meeting its compliance obligations, examining the procedures and processes that are used to do so and provide an assessment of how well the compliance function is being performed while identifying any areas that require remediation or improvement.
Consultants provided by compliance firms must have a wide and current knowledge of the compliance requirements for the area in which the organization is operating. As well as having relevant degrees in the area, consultants usually also have long previous working experience with similar organizations and their regulatory structures so that they can provide insights based on real-world experience. They need to be analytical, have good investigative skills and be effective communicators and decision makers so that their recommendations for improvements are implemented successfully. They should be comfortable dealing with the executive suite of an organization since any real changes must be implemented from the top of an organization’s hierarchy.
As well as understanding the legal and regulatory requirements to which all organizations are subject in one form or another, compliance also has an ethical aspect and social responsibility concerns with respect to the wider community in which the organization operates. This means that a good compliance consultant will go out of his or her way to understand the mission and values of an organization so that these can be reflected in the processes and procedures that are used to ensure compliance in the widest sense of the term.
In the end, however, the most important reason to hire a compliance consulting firm is to save money and improve an organization’s profits. Lack of compliance can lead to product recalls, fines by regulatory bodies, lawsuits and damage to their reputation (which can be the most expensive loss of all). In fact, compliance needs to be seen less as a cost in today’s business environment and more as a value-add proposition for firms hoping to do the best by both their employees and customers. It is also important that a consultant customizes the solution to the type of organization that they are dealing with and provide the right level of service at the right price.
