Compliance means different things to different participants in the property maintenance and facilities management worlds. For our residential clients, things are fairly black and white .. Gas Safety Certificates (GSCs), Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICRs), smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Even the most basic calendar software can handle reminders and notifications for any upcoming expiries. For these clients, Homyze provides reminders and an ease of booking the required visits that takes this administrative task off property managers’ plates. Our clients can also see their individual properties’ or overall portfolio compliance to ensure that they are staying on top of these requirements.
For facilities and block managers, life is a little more complicated...
Which standard or framework are you using to determine guidance?
Are you adopting best practices or just the specific definition of what constitutes compliance?
For these clients, Homyze will work with you to ensure that your (or your clients’) budgets are hit and that any tradeoffs are made clear from the outset. Following this initial discussion, we will create a CPPM (compliance planned and preventative maintenance) schedule and provide the same service thereafter - instant insight into your real estate portfolio’s compliance.
At Homyze, we typically divide compliance requirements into 3 primary areas:
- Statutory & Regulatory
- Operations
- Contractual
The areas for consideration are therefore as follows:
Statutory & Regulatory
These are the specified requirements and may be affected by the following governing frameworks: international requirements, national requirements, industry-specific, regional and local. As you can imagine, our healthcare sector clients have very different needs to those of our car dealership customers.
Operations
Operations compliance ensures that the ways in which you are going about your business meet the necessary processes and protocols. This may be in ensuring that your contractors’ insurance policies and accreditations remain valid, that your financial reporting is complete and clear, that your information security is tight along with your data governance policies, etc..
Contractual
Perhaps the least dynamic of the compliance areas, the contractual component covers the terms of engagement or master services agreements that you enter into with your suppliers; the labour contracts that you use; pricing agreements and tender documentation. Whilst unlikely to require as much ongoing involvement by staff, it is critical to ensure that this is robust and kept up to date.
Ethical
Whilst not part of Homyze’ remit, companies may also want to ensure that they have documented policies regarding, for example accepting gifts or entertainment from suppliers. Homyze has our own policies on this matter and will never put our clients in a situation which could be negatively perceived, but it is always best to make these explicit for all the parties with whom you interact.
Given the varied elements that contribute to compliance, you can see why many clients have opted to use Homyze to ensure that their desired compliance levels are met. These are rapidly shifting frameworks and likely outside of the core business operations of your company. For some insight into the way in which Homyze handles compliance work, have a look at our CPPM brochure here.
If you choose not to outsource compliance
We understand that this is a big decision, and so here are a few things to bear in mind if you are keeping your compliance activities in-house.
- Ensure that processes and procedures are thoughtfully and strategically designed
- Communicate between contracting parties frequently and regularly review documentation
- Have periodic reviews with suppliers and ensure performance levels are monitored
- Make explicit your expectations on ethics as well as prospective enforcement actions
At Homyze we understand the importance of satisfying compliance requirements, whether mandated or values-based.
If you would like to discuss how we can help you with your compliance goals, get in touch.