How do you measure success?
For many, this question can be extremely difficult to answer. And while the go-to success metrics might include no findings during audits or a lack of deficiencies, being able to truly measure and calculate the success of your compliance program goes beyond those initial markers.
But, where to begin? What are the most important aspects to measure? Analysis paralysis can be a real thing, especially when analyzing something as complex as your compliance program.
To help you get started, we’re digging into how some of our most successful clients calculate success…and the tools they’re using to do so.
Moving from Cost Center to Business Driver: The Importance of Measuring Your Compliance Program
For many firms, compliance is simply looked at as a cost center.
However, this outdated perspective can have huge ramifications – especially if that perspective means budget cuts, resource constraints, and a lack of prioritization.
Which can ultimately lead to potential and severe consequences. (Hint: The SEC does not take too kindly to firms deprioritizing compliance and cutting budgets.)
So, what’s a compliance team to do? Change the narrative.
In order to make the move from cost center to business driver, you have to be able to clearly tell your story, define what you are doing for the organization, and, above all, measure your success.
What KPIs Should You Be Tracking?
Much like your firm’s Policies and Procedures, there is no off-the-shelf answer to this question. Your success metrics will depend on your firm, your goals, your priorities for the year, and the pertinent risks you are actively mitigating.
Before jumping into any specific KPIs and metrics, you will need to differentiate between project metrics and program metrics. Project metrics will provide you with a clear look at strategic projects and very specific, niche outcomes, while program metrics will provide you with an overarching assessment of how your compliance team is positively impacting the firm.
Project Metrics
- Project deadlines
- Cost
- ROI
- Key outcomes
Program Metrics
- Most recent regulatory exam results, findings, and remediation efforts
- YOY trends in findings, deficiencies, etc.
- Results and outcomes of internal compliance controls testing and annual review processes
- Investigations and their outcomes
- Should include time from violation to finding as well as time from finding to remediation
- Employee whistleblower reports
- Compliance inquiries resulting in violations or other potential issues, uncovered through the course of ongoing compliance monitoring
- Employee trainings and participation
- Completion rates of employee tasks
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- Should be measured across the organization as well as by department
- Employee feedback and sentiment
- Overall cost of the program
What looks like success for one firm may not be considered success in the next. Defining your goals, expected outcomes, and key priorities will be essential to determining how successful you are in meeting your KPIs and moving your compliance team from cost center to business-driver.
Above all, your team will need to establish quantifiable metrics for continuous monitoring and improvement of compliance programs.
Leveraging Technology to Measure Compliance Program Success
The fastest way to begin measuring success?
Leveraging a dynamic solution equipped with integrated analytics and assessment capabilities. One which provides a 360-degree view of risk and compliance across your firm.
Not only does this kind of powerful technology provide an overarching view of your entire compliance program – meaning everything from your annual review findings down to each employees’ status on attestations and certifications – but it provides a means to fully assess and measure your program and its successes.
Within the COMPLY Platform, firms can:
- Leverage configurable data widgets provide at-a-glance metrics on key concerns for your program
- Assess cross-departmental trends to gauge potential risk factors
- Track key tasks and projects
- Identify and monitor any potential non-compliance, documenting remediation efforts
- Easily track MNPI-related events and as well as follow on risks
And the best part? You can do it all without the burden of Excel sheets, pivot tables, and hours of calculations.
Ready to see it all in action? Let’s talk.