How to Effectively Monitor Compliance in Your Organisation
Jan
Any compliance action is only as good as its outcome! Remembering this is essential if you want to understand how to effectively monitor compliance in your organisation. You can have any number of procedures, systems and monitoring tools in place. However, without defining goals and monitoring the results and outcomes, you will end up with useless data and tick box exercises.
What Does Compliance Mean?
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines compliance as “the act or process of complying to a desire, demand, proposal, or regimen” or “conformity in fulfilling official requirements” (Merriam-Webster). When referred to in a business sense, compliance means obeying and conforming to the rules, regulations and standards applicable to a company. Complying with rules is an essential part of running an organisation. Most business functions and activities are governed by rules to ensure consistency, equality and the safeguarding of employees and customers.
Why is Compliance Important?
Paul McNulty, a former US Deputy Attorney General serving between 2006-2007 famously said “if you think compliance is expensive, try non-compliance“. His quote became synonymous with highlighting the cost of rule breaking and breaches in business. Compliance is important because it allows actions to be aligned with industry regulations and business standards. It also helps organisations to avoid the often serious consequences resulting from not following the rules. These include, but are not limited to: –
- Penalties and fines.
- Reputational and brand damage.
- Legal or court action.
- Lost business and revenue.
- Personal liability or imprisonment.
- Suspension of licences or insurance.
How to Monitor Compliance Effectively
Effectively monitoring compliance in the workplace means using a layered approach. The use of systems, tools, automations, procedures and manual monitoring can all be used to make an effective framework. Most businesses have multiple rules and regulations they need to comply with at any given time. It’s simply not possible to monitor compliance with each of these with a single approach.
Compliance monitoring needs to happen every day and not just on the days you have client visits or audits. The more you do it, the more effective it becomes!
Technology Based Compliance Monitoring
Technology has come on in leaps and bounds where compliance monitoring is concerned. There are systems and tools that make the tasks much easier than manual monitoring alone. Sprinto recently published an article on the Top 12 Compliance Monitoring Tools for 2026 (Sprinto, 2026). This useful article notes that “organisations can’t afford to wait for annual audits to discover gaps. They need continuous visibility, real-time alerts, and automated controls”.
For example, the use of transaction monitoring software to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations is a must. There more daily customer transactions you have going through your business, the less likely human monitoring becomes possible.
Technology and software designed specifically for the purpose of monitoring transactions and payments uses rules and algorithms. These features can be tailored to your company and help to identify patterns, set alerts and provide real-time reports.
With automation comes time saving efficiency, cost benefits and less room for error. Compliance monitoring technology can often do what people do, only quicker, better and cheaper! It’s not about replacing your workforce with computers. It’s about using the tools available to develop a tiered approach when monitoring your compliance.
Monitoring Compliance Manually
Computers are good, but they can’t always replace the human side of business. Monitoring compliance at the human level should always be in the arsenal of your compliance monitoring framework. Certain criteria cannot be programmed into a computer or reviewed autonomously.
Reviewing emails for compliance requires context cues and the personal touch. Reviewing the shredding of confidential waste or checking if biometric locks are working effectively can’t be delegated out to technology. Ensure your employees are trained in compliance monitoring and understand what they are looking for. Use human intervention alongside technology for a universal approach to compliance monitoring.
The Cost of Non-Compliance
Fines are only a small part of the consequences of non-compliance. However, they have the ability to affect a large part of a business.
Fines can cause the loss of customers, employees and reputation. In severe cases, fines can result in a business ceasing to trade or bankruptcy.
Fines in 2025
- FCA fines last year exceeded £124 million.
- ICO handed out £21.5 million in fines in 2025 for data protection breaches.
- HMRC fined businesses £5.1 million between Oct 24 – Mar 25 for AML failures.
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