Managers Devote Significant Time to Regulatory Compliancetest

By Dave Lubach, Associate Editor

January 2015

In general, where does regulatory/standards compliance rank on your priority list?

About 70 percent of managers responding to the survey ranked compliance as a high priority. More than 60 percent say they spend up to five hours per week on compliance, while 18 percent say they spend more than five hours a week on the issues. They probably underestimate that total, Camplin says.

“I don’t think they realize they’re actually spending a lot more time on regulatory compliance,” Camplin says. “I think when they’re looking at this one to five hours per week, they’re probably thinking of a specific regulatory item, like checking fire extinguishers or somebody that’s going to do an inspection for elevators or something more specific, like holding a training event.”

On average, what percentage of your time per week do you spend on the issue?

No matter how managers count work hours devoted to regulatory compliance, many expect that figure will increase. More than 42 percent of the respondents expect time for compliance to increase in the next year, compared to 57 percent who do not anticipate any change.

Do you expect the amount of time you devote to compliance to change in the next year?

Many managers cite continually changing standards and new regulations as reasons they anticipate devoting more time to compliance. Among their comments on the issue of time commitment:

• “Always seems like regulations change, which in turn requires more work. It never seems to decrease.”
• “Because it has been a low priority, and there have been problems that need to be corrected.”
• “Because of the potential increase in new employees that will need to be trained properly.”
• “Keeping up with the constant changes and compliance and the inconsistent interpretation by different regulatory groups.”
• “This has historically increased and to my knowledge has never decreased. With our government, I don’t anticipate that changing in my lifetime.”