Is compliance a wet blanket, a rain cloud, a downer in the process of cultivating a high performing workplace? Does compliance squash creativity and flexibility in how we do things? Is it a culture killer? It is, if you look at compliance through a black and white lens. I believe that when it comes to embedding values and improving culture, there’s room for an approach to compliance that allows for shades of grey.

It’s no secret that I wholeheartedly love the role and the practice of HR. I believe that a role that’s all about helping people maximise their potential and their impact is one that brings so many benefits to the individual and to the collective. HR offers creativity and flexibility in creating workplaces where people thrive, and where dreams come true, like I wrote about in this piece. Creative, responsive and flexible HR practices allow for organisations to do their work in a way that meets their obligations without being stifled, for want of a better word. I work with many people – specifically business owners, CEOs, leaders and HR professionals –  who find exploring the grey within the black and white of compliance difficult. Supporting them as they tease out programs, initiatives and activities that provide their people with room to move while also meeting obligations is highly rewarding to me. It’s working in the shades of grey that’s given me some of my most valued work experiences across the course of my career.

There’s no denying that Australian workplaces operate within a heavily regulated environment. Workplace law is complex and obligations are often extensive. Compliance is huge, regardless of industry, with some sectors more regulated than others. I think this is why compliance can be seen as a culture killer. Complying with legislation is inevitable, but I find that when compliance is viewed through a values lens, or through a different perspective, compliance offers a framework to deliver HR support and services in a way that’s based on flexibility and responsiveness, one that’s based on values, rather than black and white blanket approaches that the organisation needs to fit around.

It always comes back to values – which is why I find myself writing about them so much! Values drive and dictate behaviour and attitude. When we consider compliance through a ‘we have to do this’ lens they become a wet blanket and a culture killer. When we look at them as desirable, as behaviour we want to comply with, as a means to thrive at work, they become motivating. HR professionals have a unique opportunity to craft approaches to meeting compliance that meet the obligations as well as the norms and values of the organisation. Let me give you an example:

If an organisation is one with espoused values of trust and psychological safety, compliance legislation and/or internal policies and procedures around working from home will include boundaries around availability and accessibility. HR can provide information and guidelines around expectations such as work hours (including core business hours), perhaps a performance or a productivity matrix and communication tools guidelines that specify how and when a remote worker is required to communicate with their colleagues, managers, stakeholders or clients. Bringing it back to that value of trust- when role modelled by the leadership team, a remote worker’s leader won’t regularly email their team member out of hours, or if they do, they do so with an expectation that a response isn’t required until core business hours.

I’d hazard a bet to say the number one goal of anyone who is leading the HR function of an organisation, or is leading a team, or running a business as an owner or a CEO, is to create a thriving, inclusive, high performing workplace that meets its obligations. If this is the case, then the number one challenge is to do so in a way where compliance isn’t a culture killer. The best way to have compliance as that motivating factor is to incorporate organisational values with compliance, policies and regulations across all facets of organisational training, such as inductions and professional development and learning programs.

Of course, this is just a skate across the surface of exploring that concept of compliance vs culture. My experience after many years at the coalface of HR in organisations is that it doesn’t have to be one or the other. The best organisations are those that have compliance and values interwoven, and they do this through deep awareness of both the obligations AND their people. This is why I never adopt a cookie cutter approach. Rather, when I’m supporting people to create a high performing workplace, I see it as a partnership. Our work is based on relationships built over time – this is how we can find that grey in the black and white to meet specific, individual needs. And I love it! Want to know more about how I work with leaders, business owners, CEOs and HR professionals? Why don’t we have a conversation?