Managing extended workforce compliance involves a series of meticulous steps to ensure that all necessary requirements are met efficiently and effectively. Depending on the industry, compliance can span various areas, including health and safety regulations, data protection laws, labor standards, and contract obligations. Each type of compliance requires a tailored approach to ensure that contingent workers meet the requirements specific to their roles and locations.
In this article, we outline how to establish a robust compliance process for your contingent workers and examine how reliable solutions like VectorVMS can help you further streamline your audit processes.
9 Best Practices to Ensure a Contingent Workforce Compliance
Determine Your Business-Wide Compliance Requirements
It’s crucial to identify the global compliance tasks applicable to all positions and locations. These universal requirements ensure that every member of the workforce adheres to the same basic standards. For example, background checks and safety training might be standard across all roles.
However, some roles may have specific requirements. For instance, a physical therapist might need a different license compared to a registered nurse (RN). Understanding these nuances is essential for accurate compliance. It’s important to document these requirements clearly and communicate them effectively to all relevant parties.
Ascertain the Timing of Compliance Items
Determine when each compliance task needs to be completed. This could be before the engagement begins, by the start date, or at the end of the engagement. Some tasks might have flexible deadlines, while others are tied to specific timelines. Clear scheduling ensures that all compliance tasks are completed promptly.
Consider using automated reminders and alerts within your vendor management system (VMS) to ensure that deadlines are met. This proactive approach can prevent last-minute rushes and reduce the risk of non-compliance due to inattention.
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Establish a Clear Review Process
It’s critical to establish who will review the compliance tasks. This could be the manager or designated compliance officer who handles reviews on behalf of managers. If a compliance task fails, having a thorough review process ensures that issues are caught and addressed promptly.
Developing a clear review process involves defining roles and responsibilities. Decide whether the responsibility lies solely with the direct manager or if there should be a dedicated compliance team. This team can act as an additional layer of oversight, catching potential compliance issues that managers might overlook.
Set Up Your Internal Audits
Internal audits are extremely useful for clients in highly regulated industries like finance or healthcare, especially those with ISO or similar certifications. By conducting these audits, clients can verify that their vendors are adhering to compliance standards, thereby mitigating risks during their own certification processes.
Decide on the frequency of audits, whether biannual or annual, and the scope of each audit. During an audit, a certain percentage of active engagements can be reviewed. This random sampling helps identify compliance gaps and areas for improvement. Documenting the audit process and findings is also essential for transparency and accountability. Using a VMS can further facilitate these audits by providing easy access to necessary documents and compliance statuses.
Ensure Regular Reporting
Efficient reporting mechanisms help track compliance completion without having to manually check each individual. Managers or compliance teams can generate reports to ensure all tasks are completed, providing a streamlined overview of compliance status across the workforce.
Regular reporting helps identify trends and potential compliance risks. These reports should be shared with senior management to keep them informed about compliance status and any emerging issues. Consistent reporting also aids in making data-driven decisions that enhance compliance efforts.
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Determine Ownership of Compliance Tasks
Determine whether compliance tasks are vendor-owned or client-specific. Typically, vendors handle standard requirements like background checks and drug screens. However, client-specific documents and training may require collaboration between the vendor and client to ensure completion.
Clarifying ownership upfront avoids confusion and ensures accountability. Vendors should be clearly informed about their responsibilities, and clients should monitor vendor compliance regularly. Establishing clear lines of communication between clients and vendors is crucial for smooth compliance management.
Provide Easy Access to All Relevant Documents
Some compliance tasks require specific documents or attachments. Ensure these are readily available in the compliance manager feature of your VMS for easy access.
Clients often provide templates or a list of necessary documents to be signed by new hires. These documents should be easily accessible within the VMS, allowing vendors to download and upload them as required. A streamlined process reduces administrative burden and ensures that all necessary documentation is in place.
Keep Track of Expiration Dates
Be aware of items with expiration dates, such as professional licenses, and set up alerts to prompt workers to resubmit updated documents or send reminders on the requirements in advance. Expiration dates should be tracked to avoid lapses in compliance.
Benefit From Reusable Compliance Tasks
Where available, you should leverage your VMS’s support for reusable compliance tasks. Examples of entries that benefit from this feature include background checks and documentation with expiration dates. By setting up reusable tasks, you can streamline the compliance process for workers who have multiple engagements with your organization. This approach reduces redundant work, allowing you to focus on other critical compliance activities.
The Positive Impact of Regular Audits
When a vendor fails a compliance audit, the feedback typically motivates them to implement the necessary changes to achieve compliance. Rather than waiting an entire year to assess progress, scheduling a follow-up audit within three months can provide valuable insights into vendor improvement.
This additional layer of information can significantly enhance decision-making when selecting vendors, ultimately leading to a stronger talent ecosystem. Even if a vendor fails to make the required enhancements, the follow-up audit will at least serve as a clear indicator that it may be time to seek an alternative provider.
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The VectorVMS Advantage
To implement the best practices above and streamline your compliance process, a highly configurable VMS with robust compliance manager features is essential. Platforms like VectorVMS enable you to create specific tasks for each required compliance item, offering virtually unlimited customization. When a compliance item becomes obsolete, you can easily deactivate it and reactivate it as needed.
Moreover, the VectorVMS platform facilitates the upload and storage of vendor documentation, reducing the documentation burden on your audit team and accelerating the overall audit process. Items tracked by the VectorVMS compliance manager can include:
Onboarding
- DOBs
- SSNs
- Background checks
- Drug screenings
- Education verifications
- Employment verifications
- Reference checks
- Employment authorizations
- Vaccinations
- Code of Ethics
- Non-disclosure agreements
- Pay verification forms
Healthcare
- Licenses (RNs, therapists, pharmacists, etc.)
- Certifications (basic life support, CPR, etc.)
Drivers
- CDLs
- Safety performance reports
- Road test records
- Motor vehicle records
Offboarding
- Badge returns
- Equipment returns
- Access revocations
- Exit surveys
In addition to fully customizable items, VectorVMS allows you to seamlessly integrate with third-party compliance tools, receive alerts when a worker is non-compliant, and even link a compliance item to a candidate for a specific duration. This last feature is especially valuable when returning contingent workers join new projects, as it eliminates redundant compliance checks.
The SMS Approach
Using the VectorVMS Shared Managed Services (SMS) model can further simplify compliance management. SMS handles tasks like report generation, audit execution, and vendor communication. If your company expands into new territories or undergoes changes, your dedicated SMS manager will keep you informed and ensure compliance with all relevant regulations. This allows clients to focus on core activities while ensuring compliance is maintained.
Main tasks for compliance under the SMS model include:
- Running reports to identify candidates for audits
- Checking which individuals have already been audited to avoid redundancy
- Sending communications to vendor partners, including audit notifications and instructions
- Performing the audits
- Compiling and analyzing audit results, broken down by vendor
- Discussing results with clients and providing specifics about non-compliant vendors
- Providing feedback to vendors and discussing scores and necessary improvements
Compliance As a Catalyst for Excellence
Ensuring accurate compliance for an extended workforce requires a systematic approach to identifying requirements, scheduling tasks, and conducting regular audits. Leveraging advanced VMS features and approaches like VectorVMS’s SMS can significantly streamline this process, ensuring that all compliance tasks are handled efficiently and effectively.
By implementing these best practices, organizations can not only meet regulatory requirements but also enhance the overall quality and reliability of their extended workforce. Prioritizing compliance fosters a safer, more efficient, and legally sound working environment.
If expediting and ensuring proper compliance management are critical for your organization, VectorVMS is the ideal solution. Contact us or request a demo today.
Meet the Expert
Teresa Hodges Bryant – Program Manager
With more than 25 years of experience in contingent workforce management, Teresa Hodges Bryant provides strategic consultation and program management for mid-market clients. As a member of our Strategic Services team, Teresa helps clients implement and optimize our vendor management system (VMS). She facilitates client-vendor partnerships, recommends program enhancements, and leads development workshops and other initiatives to help clients move from tactical to strategic program management. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
