What Is Corporate Compliance and Why It’s Important?

Regardless of your organization’s business, corporate compliance is an essential part of operations.

What is compliance with the corporate? Simply put, corporate compliance is the process of ensuring that the rules, legislation, guidelines, and ethical practices that apply to your organization are practiced by the company and its employees.

Good corporate regulation may include domestic policies and rules as well as federal and state legislation.

The regulation of corporate policy compliance should allow the business to prevent and identify breaches of laws. This can save the company from fines and criminal proceedings.

Corporate compliance also sets out employee conduct standards, helps your employees stay focused on the overall objectives of your company, and helps smooth operations.

This process is expected to continue. Many companies are setting up a corporate compliance system to assist policy and enforcement management.

The Top Regulatory Compliance Frameworks

GDPR. PCI-DSS. HIPAA. ISO 27001. These are just some of the acronyms names that organizations need to know today about large regulatory compliance systems. With so many obscure acronyms to deal with, it can be difficult to keep track of what regulatory frameworks apply to what.

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the new and biggest regulatory compliance mechanism to be unveiled.

The GDPR which came into force in May 2018 is a law of the European Union. Nevertheless, since its provisions typically cover any company that does business in the European Union in some way or communicates with citizens of the European Union, the GDPR applies to many businesses outside the European Union.

The GDPR criteria are too lengthy to explain here, but you can check out some of our other GDPR reporting for more information— including What Is General Data Protection Regulation? The Basics Of GDPR

PCI DSS

Credit card information is a category of data that is quite important, for obvious reasons. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI DSS, is a regulatory standard developed by credit card companies to help protect cardholder data. It was released in 2004.

PCI DSS refers to you if you process, store, or transmit credit card data.

To know more about this compliance, you can check out What Is PCI-DSS, The Complete Guide To Online Payments Security.

HIPAA

One of the best-known regulatory compliance structures for customers in the United States is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. Established in 1996, it sets, among other things, different standards and requirements for health data.

HIPAA is relatively high-level and was introduced at a time when platforms of technology looked very different than they do today (although they have been updated a little since then). As such, HIPAA does not include much in the way of specific technical criteria for how health data are protected, and the regulations of HIPAA are subject to a fair amount of interpretation as to how they should be applied from a technological point of view.

Nonetheless, if you manage health data in one way or another on any of the IT infrastructures, it is a good idea to work with HIPAA security experts to ensure that you adhere to best practices for storing and processing data in ways that the authorities will find HIPAA-compliant.

To know more about HIPAA compliance you can check out Requirements for HIPAA

Cyber Essential Plus

Cyber Essentials Plus is the highest level of certification available under the Cyber Essentials scheme, an official UK-wide, government-backed certification that helps companies cope with the most common cyber threats and reduce their risk by at least 80%. Cyber Essentials Plus ensures that you have the five necessary technical checks in place but independently verify your cyber security.

Our success in achieving Cyber Essentials Plus

1. Quote

Our team can build a quote starting at £ 999. The estimate will be based on the scope of your IT and business solutions.

2. Preparation

You will need to make sure you meet the certification requirements. The method is quick and easy with the CyberSmart app, even for those with no professional IT support.

3. Audit

An audit by one of our evaluators will highlight any final issues and we will guide you in achieving the certification standard required.

4. Certify

Once the questionnaire and the technical audit have been completed, our assessor will help you submit your application and your certificate will be issued on the same day.
To know more about this check out Cyber Essentials and its benefits

ISO 27001

Compliance with ISO 27001 is the most standard and most applicable to the implementation of information security management (ISMS) standards. Originally published in 2005, while growing data breaches and safety lapses, the ISO family of standards for managing information security has recently received more attention. These are still not as common as HITRUST or SOC 2 audits.

ISO 27001 is a PCI or HIPAA compliance regulation. Within the ISO family, there are about a dozen standards, but 27001 is the most common and most relevant to the provision of information security management system (ISMS) requirements. First introduced in 2005, the ISO standards were revised in 2013.

What is an ISMS?

An ISMS is essentially how you choose to approach the protection of your sensitive data. These data may include financial records, medical information, internal employee data, or any other information that a third party has entrusted to you. The ISMS is not only the information itself, but the staff, procedures, and software that surrounds it, which requires a system of risk management. The ISMS‘ goal is to help organizations maintain secure information.

Who is involved in achieving ISO 27001 compliance?

Since ISO is a standard of management, this means that everyone is involved in the management team, not just the IT department. This includes your team’s CEO, CFO, and anyone else. Because each organization is actively involved in achieving enforcement, making the entire management team part of the process makes it much easier to enforce security controls and compliance culture across the board.

To know more about HIPAA compliance you can check out ISO 27001 Consultancy Service

How can compliance be implemented in the company?

To introduce and enforce compliance within the organization, a compliance management system (CMS) is required. This system ensures compliance with all regulations and enables quick identification of breaches of laws. This CMS aims to enforce and sustain a compliance culture that is straightforward, unambiguous, and easily understandable.

Nonetheless, the design of a CMS is not a simple undertaking due to the variety of topics and areas of interest that can influence the definition of enforcement. For a project like this, even medium-sized enterprises often lack the necessary know-how. There will be specific criteria for implementation depending on the sector, company size and form as well as the organizational structure, so there is no generally applicable protocol. The following, however, is a rough explanation of the most important steps.

Step 1: Assemble a team to comply

Every CMS starts with a company management commitment to enforcement and a concept that is unique to the client individually. This is the only way to make sure all those responsible get together and avoid misunderstandings about the project’s nature and scope. From how much personal capacity and expenditure they are willing to spare can already be seen how serious the management team is about this pledge. The active compliance group should be comprised of professionals from all organization divisions (e.g. staff management, financial management, legal department).

It is only in this manner that all possible areas of interest and risk in the business can be defined and protected. It is possible to obtain additional professional experience from lawyers, tax advisors, and management consultants. Involving the works council in all decision-making processes is also legally necessary and advisable. It is necessary, for example, to decide whether to change existing employment contracts or operating agreements. A reasonable timeline and a clearly defined task distribution (including a knowledgeable team leader) will help manage costs and produce a timely outcome.

Step 2: Compliance analysis

The main task of the team is to analyze the current situation. It could be that the company already has (at least rudimentary) compliance structures that apply among employees in the form of “unwritten rules”. The target state is then defined based on this pre-evaluation: which measures and mechanisms need to be supplemented, modified, or completely recreated to do justice to the concept of compliance of the company? Identifying the interfaces of civil society that the company has to deal with in its daily business is worthwhile.

Hiring a company with enforcement services that could manage processes and operations in line with existing regulatory regulations and requirements could even be worthwhile. Many companies work with workers to teach them how to integrate regulation into the environment of the internal workplace and offer many benefits as well:

• Ensure compliance with all federal and state laws
• Keeping a firm ethical footing
• Transparent procedures for reporting
• Processes that are well-defined to increase efficiency
• Reduced litigation scope and other legal issues
• More efficient processes of auditing

Step 3: Formulate and communicate guidelines for compliance

There are various compliance policy trends on the internet, but content and structure do not have a general requirement. Alternatively, it is recommended that all guidelines be adjusted explicitly to the company’s individual needs and circumstances.

The following could be one possible structure:
• Specific laws of conduct
• Complex problems (e.g. business partners ‘ gifts, competitor behaviour, workplace equal treatment)
• Contact individuals and violation notification formalities
• Mechanisms for recording infringements
• Sanctions (e.g. reminder/caution, relocation, (extra)ordinary dismissal, reduction of wages, payment, police reports)

When completed, it is necessary to communicate the enforcement guidelines freely throughout the organization. This is achieved by newsletters, intranet articles, and information events. Regular training sessions are required to raise awareness of the new compliance culture among all those involved in the company (including contractual partners and suppliers). It is also essential that all employees are bound by their contracts of employment through appropriate additional clauses.

Many companies also decide in the form of a “Code of Conduct” or “Mission Statement” to place a reduced version of their compliance policy on their website. Being so open will strengthen customer and business partners‘ confidence and draw candidates to the branding of employers. Nonetheless, the most important thing is that managers constantly set a good example and both internally and externally exemplify the culture of compliance.

Step 4: Implementation and adjustment in regular operation

Although the company management has the main responsibility and full liability for compliance, this responsibility can be given to a single chief compliance officer, a complete compliance team, or a company with compliance solutions (as mentioned above) who can take over the work.

These are then responsible, among other items, for the following tasks:
• Implementing the CMS
• Organizing training courses
• Continuous control of quality
• Conduct surveys of employees
• Monitoring for improvements in law
• If required, adapt, invest, and further improve the CMS
• Documentation of violations
• Daily leadership statements

Such a complex task requires professional and assertive workers, which is why hiring requires special care. To be able to work effectively, the compliance officer does not necessarily have to be at the highest level of management but should have a direct, reliable, and shortest possible relationship. This is the only way to ensure that compliance efforts are ultimately successful.

Is compliance a “business obstacle”?

In the light of existing laws and corporate social responsibility, the benefits and objectives of compliance measures are evident. This does nothing, however, to change the fact that in some management circles the theory has a very questionable image-challenging established procedures and hampering business activity.

Some find the main challenge in the enforcement concept’s inherent complexity and changeability. Companies, especially global players, face a real flood of domestic, regional, and industry-specific rules and bans. Themes are also constantly changing. As a result, robust compliance management systems are often seen only in large corporations, whereas in small and medium-sized enterprises the subject is often of secondary importance.

It makes it all the more relevant (and urgent) to ensure compliance with the regulations for all those responsible in the business and to appoint a trained and experienced compliance officer to address the job description challenges.

Need help Regarding Compliance?

Regardless of your organization's business, corporate compliance is an essential part of operations. GDPR. PCI-DSS. HIPAA. ISO 27001. These are just some of the acronyms names that organizations need to know today about large regulatory compliance systems.