What is a Compliance Job Description?

Compliance Job Description

A Compliance Officer plays a unique role within an organization. A compliance officer creates, implements, and maintains compliance programs that his or her organization must adhere to. What is a compliance job description? A compliance job description is a description that an organization creates in a job ad or posting. The compliance job description should include all necessary components of the role the compliance officer is expected to perform.

What is a Compliance Job Description? An Overview

Many job ads for compliance officers are vague on specifics. Many ads describe the position with language such as “responsible for overall compliance,” or “responsible for compliance with all applicable laws.” These descriptions are not necessarily inaccurate, but they don’t convey what the role really involves to a job seeker. A compliance job description should include a summary, or overview, of the duties the compliance officer is expected to take on. Such duties typically include drafting and review of company policies and procedures related to specific topics, and advising management or senior staff as to whether the organization is meeting its compliance obligations.

What is a Compliance Job Description: Tips on Creating an Effective Job Advertisement

A compliance officer ensures that a company functions in a legal and ethical manner while meeting its business goals. This person reviews company policies, and advises management on possible risks associated with not complying with a particular law, rule, or policy.

A compliance job description should reflect these job duties, by listing job responsibilities and job requirements. Job requirements are the skills and qualifications necessary for the position. Skills and qualifications may include, for example, a bachelor’s degree in a particular field, such as finance, law, or human resources; prior experience as a compliance officer; strong interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills, and others. “Skilled at problem solving,” “experience working with regulators,” and “highly analytical,” are examples of other skills that can be listed on the job description.

A compliance job description should also contain the job responsibilities. The responsibilities are the tasks and functions that the applicant will apply his or her skills to.

Responsibilities of a compliance job officer may include the following duties:

Supervision of HR Department and HR employees;

Addressing and resolving employee concerns about whether an organization is meeting its compliance obligations;

Preparing for an external audit and cooperating with auditors as necessary;

Responding to auditor concerns or violations by implementing appropriate remedial measures; and

Advising management on the organization’s compliance with applicable laws, including HIPAA, Medicare and Medicaid laws, and their associated regulations.

Some responsibilities specifically pertain to risk analysis or risk remediation. These responsibilities, which should be included in the compliance job description, include:

Developing policies and procedures that address the concepts of risk analysis and risk remediation, and how to apply these concepts to various compliance areas;

Regularly auditing of existing organization policies and procedures to identify and document potential risks or gaps in compliance; and

Regularly assessing departmental operations to determine whether these operations present a compliance risk.

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