Every six minutes, a new regulation or update is issued across industries. That’s up to 234 alerts a day. Without the right regulatory change management software, GRC professionals see these updates arriving faster than they can keep pace with.
Manual tracking compounds the problem. It makes it difficult to remain compliant, as traditional processes slow down reviews. Tasks get stuck, and visibility into what your team has tackled, what’s in progress and what’s overdue starts to slip.
The Volume of Regulatory Updates Makes Manual Work Impossible
The scale of regulatory updates is staggering. In 2022 alone, global regulators issued over 61,000 individual regulatory items. Only some of these updates impose a direct obligation, but organizations must still identify, analyze and determine which items apply to their business operations.
If you rely on manual practices to track rapid regulatory updates, you’ll face several challenges:
- Too many sources to track: Updates come from regulators, global standards bodies, industry groups and internal policy changes. Tracking all sources manually is overwhelming.
- Difficulty verifying accuracy: Without a centralized system, your team can struggle to confirm which updates are relevant to your organization.
- Unclear audit trail: Without dedicated regulatory change management software, it’s hard to track review history and completion.
Combined, these challenges mean regulatory updates arrive faster than your team can handle, opening the door to compliance gaps. And all of this adds up. In fact, Aon reports that regulatory changes rank as the fourth biggest global risk.
Why Regulatory Change Management Breaks Down
Regulatory change management is breaking down because policy shifts across technology, sustainability, trade and workforce issues move at a pace traditional GRC tools cannot support. Manual processes can’t keep up with the volume and the timing of these updates, which creates delays and inconsistencies across change management programs. Plus, abrupt policy updates create uncertainty around how and where to invest in compliance efforts.
Silos Slow Every Step
Silos between legacy systems and departments limit teams’ ability to react to new rules with speed or consistency. When updates move through multiple systems, teams spend more time searching for information than reviewing regulatory requirements. Risk & Insurance reports that, on average, employees waste at least an hour per week searching for information in siloed systems.
Institutional Knowledge Creates Risk
In most organizations, only a few people understand how updates move through the system. Since the knowledge is undocumented, gaps appear whenever a team member goes on leave or changes roles. As the process isn’t written or repeatable, team members handle regulatory updates differently, which can lead to inconsistent reviews and missed steps.
Impact Assessments Take Too Long
Manual routing slows down impact assessments because regulatory review steps rely on team members to manually receive notifications. GRC leaders end up receiving delayed responses or getting stuck in repetitive workflows that drain bandwidth.
No Clear View of What’s Done or What’s Late
Without real-time visibility, GRC teams are unsure which updates they have reviewed and which still need action. They struggle to track past-due regulations, so work often stalls in the queue with no clear way to track progress. This uncertainty undermines GRC leaders’ ability to prioritize tasks or show progress to auditors and executives.
What a Modern Regulatory Change Management Program Needs
To stay prepared, organizations need a GRC platform capable of proactive regulatory change management. Teams can no longer rely on manual routing or scattered tools that can’t guide every update from intake to closure.
A Centralized Platform for All Regulatory Updates
Regulatory updates should come into one place. A centralized platform helps teams to:
- Track sources
- Confirm relevance
- Assign work
- Document decisions
- Maintain a clear audit trail
For GRC leaders, centralization provides a consistent view of what’s new and what needs attention.
Structured Workflows That Reduce Manual Work
Clear workflows help your team move faster. Instead of forwarding emails or chasing approvals, each update follows a defined path. You can assign work to specific team members so everyone knows their responsibilities, and no task falls through the cracks. This structure reduces repetitive work and keeps reviews consistent across departments.
A good regulatory change management program connects regulatory requirements to internal policies. The linkage highlights what needs to change and where gaps may appear.
Better Visibility Across the Lifecycle
Modern regulatory change management software gives your team clear visibility at every stage of regulatory change. You get a dashboard that shows the status of your updates and highlights bottlenecks. You can also see items that are running late.
Every task has a complete history, so your team can track who reviewed what and when. The right tool also has standardized reporting, which allows auditors and leadership to see progress and confirm compliance.
A Repeatable Process That Scales
Your change management program should reduce the risk of tribal knowledge. Instead of relying on only a few people holding critical information, use standard templates to guide teams through reviews, while consistently documenting decisions and actions for future reference. When you reduce the reliance on manual handoff of knowledge, your team can scale processes as the volume of regulatory updates grows. Repeatability also makes it easier to train new staff and maintain compliance across departments.
How Onspring Helps Teams Stay Ahead of Regulatory Change
Dealing with uncertainty doesn’t have to be difficult. When it comes to regulatory change management, you can count on Onspring to help you work faster and reduce manual efforts.
- Monitor GRC performance: Track progress with live dashboards and identify bottlenecks to help you align all team members.
- Eliminate unhelpful silos for unified GRC management: Automate workflows and data processing, so information flows smoothly across departments and groups.
- Manage vendors: Keep vendor compliance and risk assessment up to date with structured oversight to proactively manage third-party risks.
- Assess and manage risk proactively: Identify potential issues before they escalate and take action to reduce exposure.
- Manage incidents: Catalog incidents and evaluate their impact so you can mitigate risks and prevent similar issues from recurring.
- Run internal audits: Plan and execute audits with clear processes and documentation for audit-ready results.
- Manage internal policies: Maintain, update and distribute policies consistently to align every team member and apply changes across the organization without gaps.
- Automate report generation throughout the process: Provide leadership and auditors with real-time insights into compliance status and the progress of regulatory changes.
How To Fix Your Regulatory Change Management Program
You can take some steps to improve your regulatory change management practices:
- Map your current intake process to understand how regulatory updates enter your program and who handles them.
- Identify where tasks stall so you can address delays and keep updates moving efficiently through your program.
- Move regulatory updates into a centralized platform for easier tracking and assignment.
- Add structured workflows for review and approval to ensure consistency and reduce manual effort.
- Connect regulations to internal processes so the impact is visible and actionable.
- Track cycle time and overdue items to keep your regulatory change management practices on schedule.
Build a Proactive Regulatory Change Management Program
Regulatory change management often breaks down because organizations’ current practices can’t keep up with the pace or volume of new requirements. You can address these gaps by adopting an agile program that takes a proactive approach to change management.
At Onspring, we can help you move from a scattered to an integrated change management process. With a centralized platform for updates, reviews, policies, risk and reporting, you’ll work faster and with more confidence as requirements shift. Download the Building a Regulatory Change Management Program eBook now to learn how to build a proactive approach that keeps up with regulatory trends.
