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Managing Compliance in Digital Workplaces Through Forms and Checklists

Updated: Dec 13, 2023 | Published Jan 28, 2021

The global pandemic caused an abrupt and immediate shift in the daily routine of billions of people around the world. It goes without saying that this impactful change caused specific hurdles for many companies across every industry with many moving to completely remote work. This digital shift has accelerated a process that we have long been advocating to be digitized: compliance forms tracking.

Faced with the reality of remote work turning the workplace digital, companies have finally taken a much-needed step forward in compliance management. It’s now becoming paperless, thanks to the use of digitally accessible forms and checklists.

Where checklists serve as a safety and guide to ensure compliance, forms record specific data, archiving and documenting business critical information. Let’s dive into how forms and checklists can be used to manage compliance in a digital workplace.

 

Compliance Forms

Whether forms are used for regulatory compliance, company specific Standards of Practice (SOPs) or for quality assurance, digitization of documentation can help streamline the process. Digital forms provide practical solutions for traceability and record keeping.

Ensuring compliance is a business critical activity. The stronger the process to achieve compliance, including proof and documentation, the safer a business positions themselves. In digital workplaces, forms used for compliance are an absolute must. An employee app can provide a consolidated space to compile this necessary data.

Nearly all types of forms for compliance can be digitized, making integration into digital workplaces seamless. A mobile form app can integrate compliance forms for documentation across a wide array of business activities:

  • Manufacturing: Tracking quality standards, such as ISO 9001, or dimensional and tolerance checks.
  • Collecting and submitting forms to regulatory bodies: Industry-specific compliance in areas such as food production, logistics, pharmaceuticals or banking.

Checklists for Compliance

Famed businessman and Warren Buffet partner, Charles Munger, put it bluntly: “No wise pilot, no matter how great his talent and experience, fails to use his checklist”.

Checklists are a simple, yet highly effective, tool that can be employed in all areas of business. Whether you’re a front-line worker or spend your day behind a desk, checklists ensure processes are followed, minimizing potential gaps and issues.

In a digital workplace, checklists serve an invaluable purpose. Working alone, without a direct connection to colleagues, can potentially leave a worker vulnerable to certain oversights. Following checklists keeps everything on track and greatly limits deviations from SOPs, giving an employee greater accuracy in ensuring compliance.

In a digital workplace, checklists can serve to streamline compliance management tracking in areas such as:

  • Wellness checks: Especially in times of COVID-19, if you’re managing a team of front-line workers, self-assessments for illness are often necessary before starting work.
  • Opening and closing checks: When you can’t be on-site, on the floor, or in-store, a digital checklist confirms whether all opening and closing procedures were performed.
  • Proving adherence to SOPs: A checklist informs managers and team leaders that everything has been done according to standards.

Paperless Compliance Forms In Digital Workplaces

Through an employee app, digital forms and checklists are available instantly. Realtime verifications on compliance can boost efficiency and mitigate problems before they escalate. Managers can digitally access compliance related documentation remotely and securely, all consolidated in one convenient mobile app.

Paperless forms and checklists are automatically submitted to a secure digital environment, where managers and team leaders can sign off and approve in seconds.

The employees submitting the forms and checklists can also verify that the documents were transmitted correctly, with read receipts to acknowledge the message has been delivered and read.

 

Preparing for the Future of Work

Digital workplaces can benefit greatly from the use of forms and checklists through an employee app. Even though physical connection may be missing, you can ensure that SOPs are followed and compliance is met through conducting checks and balances safely in a digital format.

Teri Maltais
Teri Maltais

Specializing in digital marketing programs for industrial and commercial technology solutions.

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