Compliance is both a necessary and grueling process that organizations have to continuously maintain and follow. Compliance can be both time and effort intensive when done in house. Because of this, most organizations prefer to outsource this process to compliance services.

Third party concerns called compliance services take over and oversee all compliance related activities in an organization. These concerns ensure that organizations stay complaint to a set of regulations and standards. Failure to comply can result in penalties and a loss of good will and poor public perception.

Third party concerns handle compliance at both the state and central government levels. Compliance is of 3 major types:

Regulatory Compliance

Refers to compliance of rules that have been stated by a regulatory body that is overseen by a state or central government.

Statutory Compliance

Refers to compliance of rules or standards passed with a local, state, or central government.

Legal Compliance

Refers to compliance with laws concerned with business activities that are carried out within an organization.

Handling compliance is no mean feat. Compliance officers require some key traits and qualities. Some of those that define the successful one includes ones such as:

1. Innovation and Problem Solving: Compliance officers face challenges and problems in the workplace every day. Being able to innovate in the face of those problems is a key skill. Creativity and the ability to handle different crises is a major part of a compliance officer’s job. Compliance officers need to help organizations look at different perspectives and offer innovative solutions to deal with their compliance-based issues.
2. Industry Knowledge: Compliance officers are expected to have a vast, in-depth knowledge of the industries or sectors that they operate in. They must constantly be ahead and be aware of developments or amendments related to legalities or compliance in their fields. Industry knowledge can make or break the effectiveness and presence of a compliance officer’s place in an organization.For instance, officers must be aware of a list of statutory compliances in an organization such as the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, The Industrial Employment Standing Orders Act, 1946, The Minimum Wages Act, 1948, The Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948, The Employees Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 and so on.
3. Connecting with People: The ability to connect with people is a crucial quality for successful compliance managers. In times of a crisis, dealing with teams and managers effectively and ensuring a smooth handling of any issue is key. The ability to effectively communicate, be empathetic and create positive relationships between individuals and departments and thus, enabling them to be complaint is an important trait for successful compliance officers
4. Organizational Skills: Compliance officers will have to work with different areas, sectors, tasks and departments as part of their assignments. Organizational skills are essential for successful compliance officers to deal with different audits, reports and timetables. It can go a long way in establishing them as efficient, effective workers. For instance, as a part of payroll compliance services, a compliance officer must handle different payrolls from different departments in an organization and ensure that there are no discrepancies.
5. Analytical and Detail Oriented: While dealing with compliance in an organization, compliance officers have to be extremely detailed oriented when dealing with finer points in compliance. In addition, officers have to be analytical while dealing with data. Being able to analyze data and understanding finer points in laws and compliance can go a long way in promoting effective workplaces, departments and organizations. For instance, while looking at data from payroll in an organization, officers have to ensure that there are no errors or discrepancies and inform higher up and concerned authorities if there are.