There is one very basic problem with Do It Yourself (DIY) Compliance Monitoring: first you must admit you might have a problem!

I have seen many consultants recommend that companies conduct their own compliance monitoring audits and employee monitoring to determine operational performance, employee adherence to procedures and customer satisfaction levels. The problem is that most companies do not do this until they suspect they have a problem – which, often occurs after significant damage has already occurred.

So, what am I saying?

Compliance Monitoring Ideas

The point of having independent companies routinely do this on your behalf is that they can discover problems at an earlier stage, mitigate the damage, identify untapped opportunities and provide tactical guidance based on their breadth of experience. Managing a small problem is always preferable to managing a big problem.

Yet there are articles in many industry trade journals – from the self-storage industry to hospital and banking industries – that advocate a DIY approach. I applaud these consultants on helping guide industry management to take a closer look at the inside of their operation. Potential Do It Yourselfers should think about the following:

• You need to do it even if you think your business is healthy.
• You also need to be prepared to do it regularly and unannounced to your employees.

There is also a point where Do It Yourselfers may need to call in the big guns – companies that specialize in monitoring and compliance management that can help you fix issues: (Full Disclosure: my company offers a broad spectrum of programs and services in this arena, so I have a stake in that opinion.) Call in the Big Guns when you uncover problems that could materially affect your business either with your customers or with regulatory/legal entities. For instance:

• Healthcare compliance violation issues
• Significant or sustained instances of employee theft
• ADA or OSHA compliance violations
• Holes in your sales and/or operational processes

Companies that wait until they know they have problems relating to their employee performance and operations – particularly as it relates to Customer TouchPoints – often find they are in a pretty deep hole. So, another hint for Do It Yourselfers: put a system in place prior to your first suspicions – consider it your Early Warning System.

It’s all good here – whether you embrace a DIY approach or use professional services from the get-go. The very act of assessing a customer’s perspective at Point-of-Sale or Customer TouchPoints will help a company to develop a deeper understanding of their day-to-day operations and develop a greater understanding of the challenges faced by location managers, employees and customers.