There are plenty of jobs at work that take longer than you’d like, but at least you know they’re going to take a while before you start them. Unfortunately, manual compliance work isn’t always like that, and a lot of the time it starts with what looks like a quick request, and ten minutes later you’re searching through folders, checking dates, reading old emails, and trying to remember where something was saved. Then another request comes in later, and another one after that, and eventually you’ll have spent a massive amount of time dealing with things that were only supposed to take a few minutes.
That’s one of the reasons manual compliance work can be so expensive, and we’re not just talking about money – the hidden cost is often the amount of time, attention, and energy it takes away from everything else, and with that in mind, keep reading to find out more.
It Never Really Feels Finished
One of the frustrating things about manual compliance work is that there isn’t always a clear start and finish and that tends to be because you deal with one request and think you’ve got everything sorted, but then somebody needs an updated version. Then another question comes through. Then someone notices a small gap in the records and wants to double-check something from a few months ago, and in the end you’re probably doing work for the second or even third time.
Does it seem like a big problem? No, at least not at the time, because they’re such small jobs, but when you look back at what you’ve done (or haven’t done) during the week, you’ll see it’s actually a bit of an issue.
Everyone Ends Up Getting Involved
Compliance work spreads… And it can spread a lot. For example, something starts with one team, but it doesn’t usually stay there for long because so many different sectors and people need to be involved a lot of the time, and again, they might not spend ages on it, but how much time is being lost altogether? Loads. And lost time means lost productivity and profits.
That’s why the overall cost is often much bigger than it first sees because the work isn’t with just one person who can just get on with it and allocate time to it, and instead it’s spread across different departments and multiple workloads.
Finding Information Shouldn’t Be This Hard
Most businesses have information, and the challenge is usually finding it, but the problem is that information has a habit of ending up in different systems, different folders, and different formats over time. So basically what started as a simple way of storing something can gradually become a whole lot harder to manage as more people, processes, and requirements get added into the mix. What’s the result? A simple request that turns into an epic of a search.
Audit Preparation Can Totally Take Over
A date gets added to the calendar months in advance, and everyone feels as though there’s plenty of time, but… don’t be fooled because there isn’t, and that’s usually when businesses discover how much of their compliance process still relies on manual work. After all, you’ve got people checking records, gathering evidence, following up on missing information, and trying to make sure everything is organised before the deadline arrives.
And the work gets done, but it often needs a huge amount of effort in a relatively short space of time, and that’s going to be stressful.
Repetitive Work Has A Cost
There are plenty of jobs that require expertise, judgement, and experience – searching for the same types of evidence over and over again usually isn’t one of them.
That’s why more organisations are looking at ways to automate audit evidence collection because they want people spending their time on the work that genuinely needs human input. After all, most compliance professionals bring a lot more value to an organisation when they’re assessing risks, improving processes, and solving problems than when they’re chasing documents for the third time that week.
The Small Things Add Up
When businesses think about compliance costs, they’ll often focus on the obvious things like audits, certifications, consultants, software, and training, but what doesn’t always get included in those conversations is the amount of time being spent behind the scenes.
All that work can take up a large amount of time across an organisation, and that’s really the hidden cost of manual compliance work – and it’s a problem that can be solved.
