Every January, organizations make the same quiet promise: This year, we’re going to stay on top of compliance.

No one says it out loud like a gym resolution, but the intention is there. And just like the gym, enthusiasm is high… until reality shows up.

By February, compliance is often back where it started:

Something to deal with later
A task for “audit season”
A fire drill waiting to happen

The problem isn’t motivation. It’s how compliance work is designed.

This year, instead of resolutions that depend on willpower, here are a few compliance resolutions that actually have a chance of sticking.

Resolution #1: Stop treating compliance as a side project

When compliance is treated as “extra work,” it always loses to:

Production deadlines
Customer issues
Staffing shortages
Year-end chaos

That’s not a people problem: it’s a design problem.

Compliance works best when it’s compliance by design: built directly into the way work already happens, not stacked on top of it. When the only time compliance gets attention is during an audit or inspection, it will always feel disruptive and easy to postpone.

Resolution: Design compliance activities so they align with daily operations, not compete with them.

Resolution #2: Do smaller audits, but do them more often

Many organizations swing between two extremes:

No internal audits at all
One massive, exhausting audit each year

Neither approach works well.

Large, infrequent audits create stress, shortcuts, and surprises. Smaller, routine audits spread effort across the year and surface issues while they’re still manageable.

Resolution: Replace “one big audit” with smaller, focused internal audits that happen regularly.

Resolution #3: Treat audits as evidence collection, not interruption

Many people think of compliance audits as separate from real work. In practice, audits are simply about collecting evidence that the right things are already happening.

That evidence usually falls into familiar categories:

Planning and risk decisions
Documented procedures
Training and competency
Production or operational records
Monitoring and verification
Change management and follow-up

None of this is exotic. It’s the natural output of a well-run operation.

The problem is that evidence often lives in too many places (or never gets captured at all) because it’s seen as “audit work” instead of part of daily work.

That mindset no longer makes sense.

In today’s digital and mobile-device world, people can capture compliance evidence with almost no friction:

A quick entry instead of a handwritten note
A photo instead of a description
A checkbox with context instead of a follow-up email

When evidence is captured as work progresses, audits stop being disruptive. They become a review of what’s already there.

Resolution: Design compliance so evidence is created during normal work, not reconstructed later for an audit.

Resolution #4: Focus on risk, not just requirements

Not all requirements carry the same risk every year, so it’s easy to treat them as equal wastes time and attention.

Risk changes, and is often affected by:

Process changes
Staffing turnover
New equipment or suppliers
Past audit findings

Resolution: Spend more time auditing what matters most this year, not just what’s easiest to check off.

Resolution #5: Make compliance visible all year, not just at audit time

When leadership only sees compliance during an audit, it feels like a periodic disruption instead of part of running the business.

Ongoing visibility changes that:

Progress is easier to track
Issues are addressed earlier
Compliance becomes expected, not exceptional

Resolution: Create simple ways to see compliance activity and status throughout the year.

A better resolution: Make compliance hard to forget

The most successful compliance programs don’t rely on reminders, heroics, or last-minute pushes. They rely on structure.

When compliance activities are:

Scheduled
Integrated into normal workflows
Designed to be small and repeatable

They stop feeling like an extra chore, and they stop getting overlooked.

That’s when resolutions turn into results.

— Contact us to learn how GapCross can help with compliance audits.

New Year’s resolutions for compliance teams (that actually work)