Compliance Management System
A compliance management system is the software and process an organisation uses to run its obligations in one place, covering training, policy sign-off, records, incidents and risk. It replaces scattered spreadsheets and inboxes with a single record of who was trained, who acknowledged which policy, and what happened when something went wrong.
The recognised benchmark is AS ISO 37301:2023, “Compliance management systems”, which Standards Australia adopted identically from ISO 37301:2021 in February 2023. It sets out requirements for establishing, evaluating and improving a compliance management system, and applies to organisations of any size across the private, public and not for profit sectors. Certification is voluntary, but the structure it describes is a fair test of whether a system is doing real work or simply storing files.
In an Australian workplace, the parts that earn their keep are:
- Records management, so completion and acknowledgement can be produced on request rather than reconstructed later
- Workplace policies that are current, distributed and signed off, not sitting unread on a shared drive
- Incident management, so reports are captured, triaged and closed with an audit trail behind them
- Reporting a board or an auditor can read without someone running a manual data pull first
Records are where organisations most often come unstuck. Section 535 of the Fair Work Act requires an employer to make and keep prescribed employee records for 7 years, legible, in English and readily accessible to an inspector. Failing to produce them is a civil remedy provision in its own right, separate from whatever the underlying issue was. A system that cannot answer “show me” quickly is not doing the job. For the wider framework, see AS ISO 37301:2023 from Standards Australia. Obligations differ across states and territories and change over time, so treat this as general information rather than legal advice.
Posts tagged here cover choosing, implementing and getting value out of one. To see how the pieces fit together, look at Sentrient’s compliance management system and the compliance training courses that run inside it.
HR Policy Builder: What a Template Gives You, and What You Must Change
Quick Answer: An HR policy builder is the part of compliance management software that lets you write workplace policies from scratch or adapt pre-built templates, then roll them out to employees. It matters because some policies are legally required with prescribed content, and a generic template that does not describe how your organisation actually operates […]
Streamline Compliance With Sentrient Compliance Management Software
Quick Answer: To streamline compliance is to stop spending your week assembling evidence that the work was done. Sentrient is an Australian owned workplace compliance management system that holds training, policies, records, incident and whistleblower reporting and culture surveys in one place, with the evidence produced as a by-product of ordinary use. It is used […]
Compliance Management System Components: What Each One Must Produce
Quick Answer: Compliance management system components are usually described as a feature list. That is the wrong way round. Each component exists because an Australian law requires something to be done and evidenced, so the useful question is not what a component is called but what record it has to produce when a regulator, an […]
Compliance Management System: What It Is, And What It Is Not
Quick Answer: A compliance management system, or CMS, is the structure an organisation uses to meet its obligations and prove that it did. Australia has a published definition: AS ISO 37301:2023, which identically adopts ISO 37301:2021 and covers establishing, developing, implementing, evaluating, maintaining and improving one. The distinction that matters is that compliance management is […]
Why Are So Many Australian Companies Switching to Sentrient?
Discover why many Australian businesses are switching to Sentrient for simplified compliance management. Explore our all-in-one system with training, policy templates, incident reporting, and more. Try a free demo today! Compliance shouldn’t be complicated. For many businesses, keeping up with regulatory requirements, training, and maintaining a safe work environment can be a never-ending challenge. That’s […]
10 Bullying Personality Archetypes in the Workplace and How To Stop Them
Bullying doesn’t stop in school. In fact, one might say that some of the most challenging individuals in the workplace have learned bullying from a young age. Remember that kid who used to tease you, push you around or even encourage others not to play with you in the schoolyard? Well, 30 years on, they […]
I’ll Take A Pint Of COMMON SENSE With A Dash Of COMPLIANCE
Ahhh.. Now, that is refreshing. These days, within Australian workplaces, there seems to be far too much workplace COMPLIANCE and far too little COMMON SENSE. What organisations are bucking the trend? The organisations that are bucking the trend are those businesses that regularly appear in the list of The 100 Best Places to Work in […]
Step #3 Have The Right Training And Policies In Place To Safeguard Against Successful Claims Of Legal Liability
Regardless of your leadership credentials, employee engagement scores or long-standing reputation of your business, breaches in safety, invasion of privacy and workplace incidents such as bullying, harassment and discrimination can happen. In fact, in today’s business environment, it is no longer a case of if but when. However, an incident such as bullying, harassment, or […]
MOST POPULAR POSTS
