More Knowledge Means Greater Regulatory Compliance Successtest

By Dave Lubach, Associate Editor

January 2015

How would you rate your department’s success in staying informed of new or changed regulations and standards?

When it comes to staying informed about new or changing regulations and standards, more than 85 percent of the managers who responded to the survey gave themselves grades of either good or excellent. Based on his training experiences, Camplin says those statistics are perhaps a bit exaggerated.

“Whether it’s safety compliance, emergency response, or environmental, (managers) are hungry for keeping up to date,” he says. “Everybody’s kind of struggling to understand that. What I would say is when they answer excellent or good, that means they have an awareness level of a lot of these codes, standards and regulations that are out there.

“But what they’re really missing out on is, we try to boilerplate answers to sometimes very complicated standards, regulations and codes. The key is not just being aware of what’s out there and being informed but understanding how to properly interpret, implement and even comply with the current standards. That’s probably the most critical factor we’re looking for.”

Two common tactics for improving regulatory compliance are outsourcing compliance testing and providing training for front-line technicians.

Managers cite outsourcing as a common practice for handling equipment inspections and testing to ensure compliance. About 80 percent of managers say they anticipate outsourcing compliance testing at the same level in the future, while 17 percent anticipate still more outsourcing. More specifically, at least 70 percent of managers said they plan to outsource inspections of boilers, elevators, and fire-safety systems.

How will your department address future compliance training for front-line technicians?

As compliance responsibilities continue to increase, managers also anticipate devoting more time to training. Almost 60 percent of the managers who responded to the survey expect to increase their time devoted to training employees. One point of emphasis should be to take steps designed to make training meaningful.

In which areas do you outsource inspections and testing related to regulatory compliance?

Says Camplin, “You’ll find a lot of the training that’s done, someone will sit down and watch a boilerplate DVD or sit through a generic training program that somewhat educates them to what laws or codes might be out there, but doesn’t really show them how to apply proper work practices or engineering controls to the workplace.”

In the future, how will you handle outsourcing for inspections and testing related to compliance?