Compliance Management Software New Zealand

Compliance management software gives a New Zealand organisation one place to assign training, capture policy acknowledgements, store compliance records and log incidents, with reporting that shows who has completed what. For a PCBU it turns scattered evidence into something that can be produced on request.

The duties it supports are New Zealand duties, and they do not map exactly onto Australian ones. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, a PCBU must provide the information, training, instruction or supervision necessary to protect people from risks arising from the work, so far as is reasonably practicable. WorkSafe New Zealand is the regulator. The Privacy Act 2020 adds a separate obligation. Where a privacy breach is likely to cause serious harm, the agency must notify the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the people affected as soon as practicable, and failing to notify is an offence carrying a fine of up to $10,000.

That shapes what a New Zealand buyer should be looking for:

• policy acknowledgement, so you can show people read and accepted the current version rather than an old one
• records management for licences, checks and qualifications, with reminders before they expire
• incident and breach reporting, which carries weight for health and safety events and privacy breaches alike
• compliance courses covering health and safety, privacy, bullying and harassment

Two questions are worth putting to any vendor. Where is your data hosted, because IPP 12 of the Privacy Act 2020 governs disclosing personal information to an overseas agency. And how closely does the content map to New Zealand requirements, since a good deal of trans-Tasman material is written for one market and reused in the other. The WorkSafe New Zealand introduction to HSWA is a sound starting point. This is general information rather than legal advice, and requirements change over time.

Sentrient’s compliance management software supports organisations across Australia and New Zealand, and is hosted in Australia.