Achieving Compliance: Why It Matters, And How To Do It

30th June 2021

We’ve been doing a lot of work recently with some of our waste management clients, and in this sector it’s becoming increasingly clear how critical WEEE is to doing business properly, sustainably, and in a way that meets customer – as well as regulator – expectations.

No, that wasn’t a typo: WEEE stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling. It’s a require of the UK’s Health and Safety Executive, and places requirements on waste management firms to make special arrangements for the handling of a variety of electrical appliances – which can contain harmful and hazardous substances.

Demonstrating compliance with the WEEE guidelines, which became law in the UK in 2014, is crucial for waste management firms – and requires a good deal of work and continual monitoring. That, in turn, has recruitment implications: good people with knowledge of the sector, but also particular skills related to attention to detail and effective project management, need to be placed in key roles in order to achieve compliance.

It’s not just the waste management sector, of course, that is subject to regulatory oversight. Most sectors have some form of legislation affecting how it should do business, but construction is another sector which is particularly strictly governed – and one in which we, too, do a lot of business.

Compliance recruitment has thus become a key aspect of many businesses’ strategic employment approach. Highly regulated industries must navigate often intricate legal and regulatory frameworks – and for this they increasingly rely on specialists in the field. This requires smart and expert recruitment – which is where an agency like DMA can come in.

Failure to comply with relevant regulation can have serious financial, legal and reputational costs. The most obvious and severe recent example, of course, is that of Grenfell Tower, but there are many smaller and still serious examples in sectors from waste management and construction to financial services and logistics.

The key to avoiding these outcomes is to get people in place that understand the regulatory environment – and what needs to be done in a given business to achieve compliance. Specialist recruiters in your sector will be best placed to do this, since regulation varies so widely across business areas.

Drop us a line about compliance recruitment if this strikes a chord. Whether its ISOs or WEEE, we can help.