Dave Lubach: Rethinking the Commitment to Regulatory Compliance Issues

How much time do you really spend on regulatory compliance? If someone asked you how many hours each week you devote to compliance issues, would your answer be fewer than five?

If you answered yes, and then someone asks how many hours you spend on a specific compliance issue — fire extinguishers, elevator inspections, or safety training, for example — would your answer still be five hours? Jeffery Camplin, the president of Camplin Environmental Services, which provides safety and environmental consulting to facilities, thinks your answer actually might be fewer than five.

Only 18 percent of the respondents in our recent survey on regulatory compliance (http://bit.ly/1JdLn1D) said they spend more than five hours a week on compliance issues. But maybe it is time to reconsider the amount of time you really spend on them because you might spend more time than you realize. Consider these situations:

• Planning a plumbing upgrade often helps a facility comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
• Speaking with technicians about the safety aspects of operating a lift before changing lamps might prevent an Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) violation.
• Requiring technicians to wear personal protective equipment while working on electrical circuits falls under National Fire Protection Association requirements and might prevent a finable offense from OSHA.

After considering these situations, would you still say you spend fewer than five hours on compliance? Probably not. Clearly, managers tackle compliance issues nearly every moment of every working day, whether they realize it or not.

Dave Lubach offers insights gleaned from conversations with managers who make key maintenance and engineering decisions in commercial and institutional facilities.

Agree? Disagree? Have something to say? We want to hear from you. Visit myfacilitiesnet.com/davelubach, and start a conversation.

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