Finding the Right Compliance Vendor Through Due Diligence

For most organizations, the choice of compliance vendor is one of the biggest decisions they’ll make.

Unlike hiring a vendor for, say, office supplies, compliance has a lot at stake. Hiring the wrong vendor can have dire legal ramifications, as liability is at a premium.

Let’s break down what you should look for in a compliance vendor and how you can simplify this process.

We want to give you the keys so that you can perform your due diligence and find the right vendor for your ROI.

Ask The Right Questions to Your Hotline Reporter

Even average or below-average compliance vendors might present a slick sales pitch. But how do you look past this in order to see what they are really about?

Their job is to lead a coherent compliance strategy. If they prove ineffectual, the results can be damaging to your brand. Find out what they’re really about by asking the right questions from the start.

Things like…

What Do You Value as an Organization?

Values are everything. It’s not what they tell you, it’s what they show you in practice. 

Your vendor should be able to clearly demonstrate their values and how those values will reflect upon your organization.

Consistency is what truly matters. Does your vendor exhibit the same behavior across all situations and circumstances? Ask them to provide examples of past experiences to help you determine whether they’ve been adequate.

How Well Does Your Team Understand Compliance Issues?

Compliance and ethics issues aren’t static, they are malleable and can evolve quickly. Your compliance professionals should recognize this and be prepared to adapt accordingly.

Ask your vendor if they’ve had in-house experience and have intimate knowledge of best practices for a given situation. Their adaptability is critical.

They should also be able to understand and adjust to new regulations and legalities.

How Are Their Call Wait Times and Client Handling?

Leaving people hanging on the phone is never good. Short, concise calls are better for everyone.

It allows the reporter to disclose the issue quickly and get back to work, plus it allows the compliance vendor to handle more issues that are thrown their way.

When a would-be reporter is not given a chance to speak, you’re allowing potentially serious issues to slip through the cracks. This endangers individuals as well as the organization as a whole.

Ask to see your vendor’s hotline statistics to determine their attentiveness. You may even consider testing the hotline yourself.

A quality vendor may use a very basic script, but this should act as an outline rather than a word for word monologue.Going off-script is a vital step in successfully managing a compliance hotline, and it will lead to better outcomes for all. If your vendor uses a prewritten script for the entirety of each call, go elsewhere.

Does Their Management Team Analyze Reports?

Some managers will look at a small sample of reports and assume they are representative of a larger pattern.

Rather than implementing a thorough quality assurance check, these vendors are operating off of assumptions and generalizations that could be non-indicative of larger patterns.

What to Ask Your Case Management Solution Provider

Can We Customize Your Solution?

When picking a case management solution, you shouldn’t be required to deviate too much from your original processes. Determine whether the product will conform to your way of doing things.

Ease of Use

You want software that makes everyone’s job easier. All files and case information should be obtainable from a single location.

What Type of Analytics are Available?

Make sure progress is easy and intuitive to track so you can measure results over time.

What to Ask Your Compliance Training Provider

Why is Your Training the Best?

The content used to train your organization needs to be informative, valuable, and engaging. If employees are bored, they won’t absorb anything.

Learn about why a particular vendor’s training is better than others. Talk to them about training aids, learning methods, and more to ensure the lessons taught are going to be easy for your team to comprehend and embody.

What to Ask your Sanctions Screening Provider

How Well Will You Vet My Candidates?

Their sanction screening process should be like a smooth, well-oiled machine. They should be using the right lists that are designed to vet candidates and make your search a lot faster.

Learn about their error rates as well and see if they search outside of public databases.

What to Ask About Policy Management Software

Is the Software a Breeze to Use?

Learn whether the software is intuitive and determine its overall effectiveness for your policy management needs.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask

You need to ask or you may never know. A compliance vendor is trying to sell you on their services, but they need to be providing enough information for you to make a fair decision. 

Asking these simple questions to learn more about their compliance advantages and why you should give them a call.

Interested in ComplianceLine’s services? Get in touch and give us a chance to serve you.