Enhesa Flash November 2014 Issue | Page 4

JOURNEY TO COMPLIANCE: 6 Steps to EHS Regulatory Compliance Studies have shown that the cost of complying with the law is substantially less than the costs (direct and indirect) that can result from an incident of non-compliance – where the damage to a business often goes well beyond the fine imposed and has a bearing on share price, marketing efforts, brand perception and employee morale, amongst other things. Clearly, there are a wide range of parties that share an interest in a company being compliant with the law. Enforcement bodies exist to make sure companies and individuals comply, but equally concerned are shareholders; employees; consumers; government bodies; the general public; insurance companies; suppliers; and, above all, your employees. this area. So however you approach compliance, it needs to be done as effectively and efficiently as possible. Regardless of your company’s progress on the regulatory compliance journey, Enhesa has the tools to help you attain your goals. We have for several years now been focusing on offering services that manage every aspect of our multination client’s regulatory compliance program. To this end, we frequently refer to our “6 steps to compliance” methodology to help guide your journey. The 6 steps approach is by no means The Bible of EHS regulatory compliance and it can take years to progress through the different steps – but it gives a framework and vision. SO WE ALL WANT TO “BE COMPLIANT”. THAT IS EASY TO SAY; BUT IN GLOBAL COMPANIES THIS IS LOT EASIER TO SAY THAN TO BE DONE. OUR CLIENTS COME TO US AT VARIOUS STAGES OF THEIR JOURNEY TO EHS REGULATORY COMPLIANCE. THESE JOURNEYS RARELY START IN THE SAME PLACE – IT MAY BE AN EDICT FROM ABOVE, IT MAY BE YOUR OWN INITIATIVE, IT MAY BE, HEAVEN FORBID, THAT YOUR ORGANIZATION IS BELATEDLY RESPONDING TO AN INCIDENT OR ACCIDENT THAT HAS HAD ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR BUSINESS. Regardless of the source, the ultimate goal is always the same: the wish to be in compliance with EHS and product regulations wherever you operate or put products on the market. It goes without saying that your primary role as an EHS manager or director is to avoid people getting hurt or sick, or that you pollute a river or the air (for example). Laws are of course designed to help to facilitate this. However, the financial costs associated with things going wrong provide an equally prominent motivation to manage EHS pro-actively and effectively. With regards to regulations that need to be complied with there are substantial and varied challenges to overcome. We recently carried out a study across global EHS professionals who were asked to describe their main challenges in this respect. The results were not particularly surprising, but highlight the broad range of hurdles to overcome – across all your sites and continually… The word cloud below provides a concise overview of the results of our questionnaire. Do you have the resources to manage and keep on top of all of these challenges? Corporate EHS teams can vary in size, as can budgets and executive leadership and interest in 5