Johannesburg, 18 Oct 2012
Compliance in today's business environment is a non-negotiable. All South African companies are aware of the compliance demands pertaining to Acts such as the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA), the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) and the Protection of Personal Information Bill (PPI), among others.
One of the most important responsibilities of company boards and executives is to ensure the company's compliance with all applicable laws, rules, codes and standards. Compliance assessments play an essential role in developing and maintaining a credible and defensible compliance strategy.
"One tool that has enabled major South African companies such as Telkom, Consol, SAA, Sanlam, FNB and Nedbank to centralise their assessments and gain a company-wide view of compliance-related initiatives, activities and status is Questionmark Perception," says Madeleine van Tonder, Business Unit Executive for Online Learning Technologies at Bytes People Solutions, the Questionmark regional partner in southern Africa.
"Questionmark Perception enables organisations and management to securely measure regulatory compliance, knowledge, skills, attitudes and successful learning outcomes. This means they know they are compliant, rather than merely hoping they are," says Dr Madelise Grobler, Managing Director, Bytes People Solutions.
While companies are aware of the rules and regulations that apply to their businesses, there tends to be too much conjecture when information is not readily and easily available. "The fact is that you need to have the data at your fingertips - from top-level overviews, right down to granular-level information on all compliance issues, so that you know where the gaps are, what the risks to the business are, and which people need to be re-trained in order to maintain compliance.
Van Tonder adds that Questionmark Perception's auto-sensing, auto-sizing delivery features take the guesswork out of blended delivery. "You can author an assessment once, schedule it once and then deliver it in as many different ways as you like - including standard Web browsers on PCs or Macs and mobile devices such as Android devices or iPhones. These flexible delivery options make it easy to deliver observational assessments. Assessments may also be delivered via integration with other systems or can be printed for scanning in participants' answers."
Among the benefits of using an assessment management system like Questionmark Perception is that it's easier and more cost-effective for subject matter experts to author questions and to manage a bank of questions. In addition, scores and feedback are reported at the topic level, as well as at assessment level. Stronger security prevents cheating and fraud. Furthermore, assessments can be embedded into business processes so that compliance resides within the processes and does not exist separately.
"It's essential for managers and senior leadership to know that compliance-related reports can be trusted and drilled down into for further detail when necessary," Van Tonder says. "Using a best-practice tool for all forms of skills audits and compliancy initiatives can add real value to the organisation and ensure compliance with all applicable laws, rules, codes and standards."
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