What Your Business Can Do to Surmount Periods of Uncertainty
According to the ADP Research Institute®, midsize business owners top concerns continue to revolve around health care compliance.
According to the ADP Research Institute® (ADP RI) report, Midsized Businesses: Poised to Lose Balance in a Time of Uncertainty, midsized business owners and executives identified health care compliance as their primary overall concern. The Trump administration's efforts to revise the tax code as well as reduce the number and complexity of regulations governing business activity, only adds to the uncertainty.
So while much remains undecided, what can midsized businesses do to anticipate and respond to inevitable changes in health care law and the broader regulatory environment?
A Continuous Improvement Mindset
In order to survive and prosper in an uncertain environment, focus on what you can control, which means directing your attention to the overarching efficiency and effectiveness of your business. To that end, adopt a continuous improvement mindset that aims to generate incremental improvements in how your business delivers its products and services. Committing to periodic reviews of your operations ensures that the people, processes and technology employed within the business function efficiently and effectively.
5 Ways to Stay Ahead of Compliance Changes
Here's a guide to help your organizations improve its operational effectiveness.
1. Develop Process Maps
Forty percent of midsized businesses indicate they have experienced unintended expenses as a result of noncompliance with government regulations, according to ADP RI. Develop detailed process maps of how your business delivers its products and services. In the event that the health care compliance environment changes, you'll have up-to-date documents detailing the inner workings of your organization's operations, and therefore, the ability to adapt and comply with new or revised laws and regulations.
2. Use Process Maps
Use process maps to enhance revenue and remove costs. While businesses can only cut so much in terms of the expenses it incurs, over time, fraud, waste and abuse contribute to inefficiencies and losses. Using detailed process maps, identify ways to increase revenue, streamline processes, leverage technology and eradicate costs throughout the organization.
3. Engage Frontline Staff
When businesses attempt to improve their operations, they sometimes forget to ask their employees for help. Remember, employees have in-depth knowledge of how the business operates. Therefore, their input often can make the difference in a mediocre versus a stellar change to how a business operates.
4. Engage a Benefits Consultant
Among larger midsized businesses, 17 percent identify the ACA as the largest source of unexpected expenses, according to ADP RI. In order to manage expenses more effectively, if you've not done so recently, consider engaging a benefits consultant to evaluate your employee benefits package. While the future of health care remains undecided, revisit the components of your benefits package to determine whether it meets your employees' expectation in a cost-effective manner.
5. Monitor Changes in Health Care and the Regulatory Environment
Create a small task force to keep track of the potential changes relating to health care specifically, and the regulatory environment in general. From time to time, assess your organization's ability to respond or comply with the most likely changes and report their findings to executive leadership.
While uncertainty remains constant in today's business environment, there's a great deal that midsized organizations can do to survive and prosper. In particular, when executives focus on operational improvement, they position the organization to respond to inevitable changes in the operating environment, while enhancing how it serves its customers. And it's that unwavering focus on the customer that makes all the difference.
