Friday the 5th of February 2010
I recently used the services of Fire-Compliance & Safety Reading Ltd (http://www.fire-compliance-safety-reading.com) who carried out a fire risk assessment at my office in Reading and they were very efficient on the day. Before I found FCS I would have fully expected a paper report with a list of things I had to do to be compliant. But what these guys deliver is an online system that you can use to manage your compliance. It guides you, it shows you and it prompts you to be compliant and best of all it has a gauge so you can see where you are at all times. Get your gauge in the green and you're compliant. It's great - simple, effective and above all legal. Real peace of mind for a business owner.
OK so that's all well and good for fire compliance but what about everything else. There are so many rules and regulations that all businesses have to comply with, it can be a mine field. So much so that many companies simply ignore their requirements or complete them only in part.
If the UK Government were to provide every company a simple to use compliance dashboard then business owners would know where they stand. All government agencies could put their requirements into such a system. Business owners would ensure that their companies score in the green in all areas. The overall status of a company could be published publically. How many companies would want to be fully compliant if their status was a matter of public record? Smart companies would publish this live on their website.
The system would work with companies by giving them tools and information to get them to compliance and correct tolerances could be set-up so that an overall (public) green status is only jeopardised by companies who totally ignored acceptable timescales.
Most business owners cannot cope with red tape because they have to go to so many places to find out what they need to do. Once they get the information it can be unclear if they have complied or not. The system could also prompt for VAT, PAYE and NI payments etc... It would become a daily resource for a business owner and give them real peace of mind that when they're in the green they are safe from prosecution or other remedial action.
Other features could be included such as approved service providers who would only appear on the lists if they were in the green and as such would have to be fully compliant with not only the government requirements but also any additional industry compliance requirements that applied to them.
Often small business are in full support with government legislation but in order to cut the red tape they need to get on board and give us the tools to stay compliant in a straight forward way.
I wish you a profitable week!
Julian.
