Importance of Flowcharts in Compliance Management
“The most influential people strive for genuine buy-in and commitment – they don’t rely on compliance techniques that only secure short-term persuasion” – Mark Goulston
Compliance management is an important aspect of modern business practices. In a business sense, “compliance” refers to a corporate entity obeying the laws of the land and conforming to regulations in terms of managing business, staff, stakeholders, and consumers. The importance of compliance gains importance as issues become more complex with the growth in business. In this context, flowcharts can empower the modern corporate entity to plan the granular stages that will ensure an organization is in line “with the internal controls set forth by management, as well as the external regulations implemented by governing bodies.”
Flowcharts, also known as inter-linked diagrams, can help a corporate entity establish modern information-governance practices. The compliance management aspect rises to the fore when we consider that the use of flowcharts can promote better record-keeping within an organization. Each stage of the flow of information can be captured within a flowchart for the benefit of all stakeholders. This act, in itself, also helps to promote transparency within an organization and demonstrate compliance to regulators, auditors, and the public. That said; organizational actors could consolidate compliance management through different sets of flowcharts that ensure a company’s information assets are consolidated, categorized, and analyzed. The net outcome of such actions can lead to better strategic decision-making.
Conflict resolution remains one of the cornerstones of the operational design of a modern organization. Conflict can arise from multiple sources, and as such, must be resolved smoothly to ensure organizational success. This forms a part of compliance management requirements, and therefore, organizational actors must design flowchart diagrams that demonstrate the stages of conflict resolution. These diagrams can effectively detail each step that must be undertaken as part of a corporate investigation or conflict resolution mechanism. Various actors can be appended to said stages, and the overall design of the mechanism can be refined to ensure compliance management in said domain. The objectives of such a flowchart should include elements of corporate governance bylaws, as well as the fair treatment of actors placed under investigation.
The protection of customer data holds high importance in modern paradigms that define and implement compliance management practices. Compliance managers may invest their time and focus their efforts to outline flowcharts that help protect customer data and (other) information pertaining to the workings of an organization. Such a flowchart diagram may emerge as a succession of stages, each designed to reinforce the stated objective. A competently designed mechanism can safeguard the organization from serious penalties imposed by industry regulators, while documenting each stage of the compliance process. These forms of flowcharts are necessary to safeguard an organization from the risks that emerge from corporate espionage and the fallout of actions initiated by bad actors within said organization.
Policy enforcement remains critical inside the modern organization. Such actions allow the organization to walk the proverbial talk in terms of demonstrating a firm-wide commitment to a unique set of avowed policies. The enforcement of compliance management itself is a policy that can benefit from the design of detailed flowchart diagrams. These linear illustrations can empower organizational actors to address various employee issues, improve the quality of issue resolution, and boost overall compliance efficiency. Ergo, the multiple iterations of such a flowchart diagram must be shared across all levels of the organization in a bid to improve the awareness levels of the average employee. One of the outcomes of such actions may emerge in the form of fewer policy violations, thus adding another proverbial feather to the organizational hat.
Various processes define the workings of the modern organization. In recent times, market regulators have imposed compliance management functions on many of these processes keeping various factors in view. Such diktats can be admirably achieved through the creation of appropriate flowcharts. Organizational actors can create these flowcharts with specific objectives in mind; these include a clear delineation of the working principle and objective of each process, while accommodating compliance management requirements. A typical example of such a flowchart emerges in the creation of a sales process. Probity, prudence, commercial logic, and industry best practices can emerge as the planks on which this illustration rests. In addition, such a flowchart must remain subject to constant refinements, thereby serving the wider objectives of the sponsor organization.
The modern world of commerce imposes a certain measure of risk on every enterprise. In response, most organizations have devised and framed risk management paradigms that allow them to mitigate risks as these emerge. Typically, such risk management frameworks include various checklists and process flows that can be implemented through a flowchart diagram. Various elements that point to the identification, tracking, and management of various risks populate the various stages of such a flowchart diagram. Organizational actors, by creating and implementing said actions through flowcharts, help the organization to achieve compliance management in risk mitigation. The various actors may also use these flowcharts as templates that allow them to deal with new risks that may confront an organization in the future.
The various rights of the employees working within an organization must be safeguarded at all times. Business gurus aver such safeguards pay outsize returns in the long-term and allow the organization to thrive at multiple levels. Flowcharts can be designed to explore the various rights of an employee in terms of rewarding outstanding performance, overtime hours, etc. The diagram may emerge as a sequence of stages that explores multiple scenarios and identifies the rights of an individual employee in each instance. This promotes transparency within the organization, and boosts the levels of confidence each employee vests on the organizational structure. In addition, such initiatives allow organizations to achieve certain aspects of modern compliance management practices.
Regulatory reporting has assumed fresh significance in the recent decade in the aftermath of the events of 2008. Flowcharts can help the modern organization to chart the course of such reporting as part of their compliance management activities. Each stage in such a flowchart marks a certain facet of regulatory reporting pertaining to the various activities of an organization. Such illustrations help to promote transparency, avoid missteps, and ward off the specter of excessive regulatory scrutiny. These flowcharts also instil discipline amongst organizational actors and can be instrumental in flagging the stray instance of non-compliance. Further, businesses can employ these flowcharts to accommodate future regulatory requirements and dovetail existing reporting practices into new reporting structures.
The foregoing paragraphs have examined the various facets of compliance management and the use of flowchart diagrams to attain the same. Certain industry observers note that the essential structure of a flowchart diagram allows organizations to decipher the full implications of a policy and frame an adequate response in terms of compliance management. This ability stems from the use of flowcharts and the high levels of transparency that issue from these diagrams. In addition, these illustrations allow organizational actors to survey and assess the connections between various elements such as rules, operations, regulations, policies, management stances, process particulars, business objectives, etc. Such assessments can help the organization to strike a fine balance between these factors and emerge as a titan in the corporate world.
