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How to Overcome Compliance Staffing Shortages and Stay on Track

COVID-19’s ongoing aftermath has left many organizations facing severe corporate compliance staffing shortages. As competition for skilled professionals heats up, companies are finding it harder to fill key regulatory compliance officer positions. With limited resources, maintaining risk management compliance programs and avoiding regulatory compliance risks and compliance violations has become a major challenge. 

compliance staffing shortages

Why are Compliance Staffing Shortages Happening?

Several factors are fueling the shortage of compliance professionals and compliance team retention challenges. Retirements are leaving significant gaps, for one thing. Additionally, there’s a growing demand for flexible, remote work, especially in highly regulated industries like healthcare and finance. This impacts compliance hiring strategies and local talent pools for those companies looking to hire according to geographic location. In the meantime, many employees are being lured by competitors offering better pay and perks, only further shrinking the talent pool. 

How Can Gaps Be Filled?  

To cope, companies are exploring different compliance staffing models, such as: 

Insourcing compliance staff, which temporarily reallocates staff from other departments, although it does risk creating internal resource conflicts. 

Outsourcing compliance operations, which relies on external vendors for specific tasks like hotline management and compliance training—potentially cost-effective for smaller organizations. 

Co-sourcing compliance functions, which allows larger companies to collaborate with external compliance experts on projects, maintaining compliance without full-time hires. 

How Can Our Organization Attract and Retain Compliance Talent?

Offering remote and flexible work options can help attract and retain top talent, meeting the growing demand for flexibility. Strategic resource allocation, compliance automation solutions, strategic workforce planning, and investment in automation tools can also ease the manual workload on compliance teams. The result? Their jobs become way more manageable. 

Final Takeaway: It’s About a Proactive—Not Reactive–Approach to Compliance Staffing

By embracing flexible staffing solutions and automating manual processes, organizations can maintain a strong compliance program–even during staffing shortages. Proactively managing resources will be key to staying compliant, managing risk, and avoiding costly penalties from compliance gaps. 

This article was inspired by SAI360’s webinar with Strategic Management Services, The Modern Compliance Office: Tackling Present-Day Challenges and Refreshing Practices

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