Regulatory Change Management For GRC Leaders 

Imagine this: You’re a 500-person company with ten departments, rolling out GDPR protocols since you’re expanding in the EU. A support employee working on a customer ticket downloads a file with personal data to get a “quick, unofficial second opinion.” Seems innocent enough, right?

But in the GRC world, that’s a major red flag.

So what went wrong? Is it a training gap, or are employees just not taking the shift to a compliant business seriously? And if your system flagged this breach instantly, could it still count as a violation?

Regulatory change management happens swiftly only in an ideal world. In a practical world with a myriad of tasks to handle, slips are common. Let’s take a deeper look at this.

TL;DR Major problems that GRC managers face during regulatory change management are resistance, silos, limited resources, audit documentation, etc.  Solutions for minimizing audit disruptions include basic hygiene tasks along with either a change manager or software, or both.  Change managers are adaptable roles based on organization size: part-time for smaller companies, dedicated for larger ones.

Balancing people, processes, and automation during audits

Regulatory change management is monitoring the regulatory landscape of your organization, including internal policies, procedures, and business operations. It aligns your organizational activities with the requirements of regulatory standards crucial for audits and compliance.

There are some hygiene tasks that need to be conducted organization-wide during and while preparing for an audit:

• Having all the evidence handy
• Conducting mock audits
• Training employees before-hand
• Maintain inter-department communication channels
• Create a cross-functional GRC team
• Anticipate auditor feedback and follow-ups

Apart from these tasks, do not forget to keep a check on your vendors. Vendor-level changes such as system updates, policy shifts, or certification lapses can have downstream effects on your compliance.

To take a step further in the regulatory change management process, you can assign an internal employee as a Regulatory Change Manager, who would be solely responsible for tracking updates and coordinating teams. Or, you could have automation software take care of things. 

Do you need the best of both worlds or just the more cost-effective one? Let’s explore. 

The role of a Regulatory Change Manager

A regulatory change manager can either be a dedicated resource or a multitasker with part-time responsibility for change management in the organization. It depends on the size, complexity, and needs of your organization whether or not this role is required. 

Organization Size	Regulatory Change Manager	Triggers for Hiring
Small (<50 employees)	Usually managed by HR/Legal/Operations head	Part-time responsibilityFocus on basic compliance
Medium (50-200 employees)	Existing cybersecurity analysts can manage with a tool	Especially if handling sensitive data/regulated industryMultiple compliance requirements emerge
Large (200+ employees)	A dedicated Regulatory Change Manager is essential	May need a GRC teamComplex regulatory requirementsMultiple jurisdictions/standards

The key responsibilities of a regulatory change manager or a GRC lead acting as one include:

• Staying up-to-date with new and evolving regulations relevant to the organization.
• Assessing how regulatory changes affect business processes, policies, and teams.
• Revising internal policies and workflows to align with new requirements.
• Ensuring teams understand and comply with updated regulations through targeted training.
• Collaborating with different functions to ensure consistent implementation of changes.
• Maintaining documentation, evidence, and systems to remain audit-ready at all times.
• Identifying and addressing compliance risks arising from regulatory changes.
• Providing regular updates on compliance status and the progress of regulatory implementations.

Can software solve regulatory change management?

Yes, software and GRC automation platforms can solve regulatory change management to a great extent. It makes use of common integrations to pull data to the software and use them as ‘evidence’ to conduct compliance checks and provide automated output. 

The following image provides a similar workflow of common functions.

By integrating various critical functions, modern GRC platforms eliminate the traditional silos that often plague regulatory change.

Furthermore, they can integrate with vendors to track vendor compliance and flag potential risks, such as a vendor falling out of SOC 2 compliance.

While working through an audit, what would you rather prefer? Checking multiple systems to chase evidence or review a singular dashboard with real-time data?

We’re not saying here that a GRC tool replaces a GRC lead or a compliance manager. But it never hurts to have more efficient processes in place while saving your time and money. 

Cherry on the cake: GRC automation tools like Sprinto can generate audit-ready reports with a few clicks. 

The automated workflow system ensures that compliance tasks are appropriately assigned and tracked. For instance, when a team member updates a security policy, relevant stakeholders are automatically notified, and the change is documented with a complete audit trail.

Staying ahead of regulatory changes

In GRC, staying informed is half the battle. 

A missed regulatory update or an unnoticed vendor change can create compliance gaps, trigger penalties, or put your operations at risk. The question is: how do you track these moving targets without overwhelming your team?

• Leverage regulatory monitoring tools: Platforms like Sprinto or Compliance.ai provide real-time updates on regulatory changes specific to your industry and region. Instead of sifting through irrelevant updates, these tools deliver only what matters to your organization.
• Subscribe to trusted sources: Sign up for newsletters from regulatory bodies like the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) or industry-specific organizations such as the SEC or FINRA. You can also consider signing up to our newsletter for the latest updates and expert insights.
• Invest in automation: AI-driven compliance tools connect with regulatory databases to flag relevant updates automatically. For example, a new GDPR guideline is instantly highlighted, prompting you to assess its impact. 

What is the impact of an excellent regulatory change management system? 

The criticality and impact of regulatory change management in compliance cannot be overstated. It serves as the cornerstone of an organization’s risk management and legal standing. 

Its influence can be expressed in terms of 

• Financial impact: Non-compliance can lead to devastating fines and penalties
• Business continuity: A single missed regulatory update can halt operations and disrupt service delivery 
• Competitive edge: Swiftly adapting to regulatory changes can help you capture market share and build trust.
• Stakeholders’ confidence: Builds trust with investors, partners, and customers 
• Risk mitigation: Identifies and addresses potential compliance gaps before they become costly violations

What problems should you expect to face during regulatory changes org-wide?

In almost every case, real life rarely follows the theory. 

Regulatory change management is not a one-time activity. It’s not feasible if it’s not sustainable. Since, there are multiple steps involved in the process with the involvement of multiple teams, it can get complicated and chaotic.

Before you head on to solve for the problem of change management, you need to be aware of what problems you’re likely to face during the process. Here are five.

Problem 1: Resistance toward change 

Employees and teams often push back against new regulatory requirements and processes since they are way too comfortable with their existing workflows. It’s more of a ‘We’ve always done it this way’ problem.

Regulatory changes can also make employees feel anxious about additional workloads and complicated processes. This can be solved by providing them with ample understanding about why such changes are absolutely necessary and how they benefit the organization.

Problem 2: Siloed processes and information

A lot of times, when compliance or GRC managers are trying to implement new processes for a regulatory standard or framework, it’s noticeable that information usually gets trapped within individual departments. 

Such practices make regulatory change management a challenge. Poor communication among teams and a lack of a centralized documentation system are also some culprits here. 

Problem 3: People are simply busy- Resource constraints

Businesses seldom have a dedicated team for executing regulatory requirements. This can be justified if the organization has a ‘security’ culture, then it can be done away with. But, for new organizations to get compliant with competing priorities and deadlines, it’s a hassle. 

Do you think the solution is to hire a team of dedicated cyber analysts and GRC executives or get an automated tool that reduces manual workload? Keep reading to know the right answer. 

Problem 4: The stakes are high!

The consequences of getting compliance wrong can be severe because of severe repercussions like 

• Significant penalties
• Risk of business disruption
• Potential damage to reputation
• Multiple stakeholders affected (+ your customers)

Problem 5: Getting ready for audits

You’ve done the hard work, you’ve implemented all processes, and everything is in working order, but it’s time to gather evidence of everything you’ve established in the last six months. (Take a deep breath)

Can you vouch for your record-keeping system and for everything to be stored on a single platform? Can you track evidence log details and changes of any random date in history? 

We’re talking about an audit trail here, and you cannot achieve this without a proper system. Audits aren’t a last-minute scramble to gather all documents and evidence. 

Monitoring change with a GRC tool: A cascading effect

Organizations using integrated GRC solutions report a 70% reduction in evidence collection time and a 45% decrease in overall compliance management costs. (Gartner’s “Critical Capabilities for IT Risk Management Solutions” Report (2023)

Sprinto, a GRC tool, is a particular example here because it creates a single source of truth for truth: when a change occurs in one system (like a new hire in HR), it automatically cascades through all relevant compliance processes from training assignments to access control updates. 

Furthermore, Amshuman Hegde, Certified GRC Professional at Sprinto, highlights that any updates or regulatory changes are seamlessly integrated into the platform by updating framework criteria and connecting these to relevant controls, pre-existing or otherwise.

As a result, your control status automatically adjusts to reflect these changes, ensuring you remain aligned with the latest regulatory requirements without any additional effort on your part.

The real power lies in the platform’s ability to transform discrete data points into actionable insights – turning what was once a reactive, manual process into a proactive, automated system that continuously monitors, updates, and maintains audit readiness.