Even in the midst of substantial growth — and backed by a strong reputation — the KPA compliance team regularly finds themselves selling the impossible.
“A lot of customers have a ‘that could never happen to me,’ attitude,” said Ryan Daly, KPA’s finance and insurance district director.
Compliance has a very real impact on the vast majority of businesses in the United States, from training requirements to daily operations. According to the federal government, regulatory compliance costs businesses approximately $300 billion every year. While many potential customers may choose to ignore looming consequences, the team at KPA is well attuned to local and federal compliance laws changes — and how difficult it is to stay on top of it all.
“The demand for compliance is not going to stop — we need to be ready for more clients with increasingly complex compliance needs,” said Daly.
What KPA Does
KPA is a compliance software and services provider that specializes in environment, health and safety — or EHS — and Workforce Compliance for mid-sized businesses. KPA helps businesses identify, remedy, and prevent workplace safety and compliance issues with EHS consulting services, training content and an all-in-one compliance platform.
The Hands-on Compliance Experience
When Daly joined the KPA team over seven years ago, he was the second on the finance and insurance team, which has grown steadily alongside the company’s expanding compliance product offerings, software and loyal customer base.
Customers often come to KPA after suffering the consequences of falling out of compliance — like fines from government agencies or recent investigations — and rely on KPA’s expert advice to get them back on track. After seeing the value of KPA’s expertise, customers stick around for regular maintenance to keep up with the latest legal changes. For the finance and insurance department, this process often includes auditing what went wrong, rebuilding the customer’s risk profile and providing regular updates to help them stay compliant.
“We have many stories of customers more than six years removed from an ordeal still using our services and software,” said Daly.
It’s easy to understand the impetus behind KPA’s growth journey when viewing it from the customer level. As the compliance field becomes increasingly complex, so, too, do the individual needs of customers, and KPA’s suite of offerings has extended and enhanced to meet customers where they are.
“Our goal has always been to live and breathe compliance, understanding that it’s not one size fits all,” said Daly.
“Our goal has always been to live and breathe compliance, understanding that it’s not one size fits all.”
Some future product offerings include more in-depth and in-person compliance services, like on-site training and hands-on support to help teams reach compliance goals after an audit.
Daly and his teammates are also looking to other facets of a customer’s business, like the way they advertise. KPA’s recent acquisition of ComplyNet — an auto industry-focused compliance organization — expanded the company’s reach to a significant number of car dealerships. With its sights on new transparency laws regarding buying and leasing cars from the Federal Trade Commission, KPA is leaning on the knowledge of its ComplyNet team to build better advertising compliance support ahead of the changes.
“We are expanding more into advertising with the goal to be the leader in this space,” said Daly.
As its customer base and product offerings grow, the KPA team is keeping its eyes out for additional team members who thrive in an industry where continuous learning and a passion for problem-solving are table stakes.
“Having people who want to excel and advance their knowledge with an appetite for delivering value to clients is crucial,” said Daly.
Specializing Talent and Streamlining Process
For the client implementation team, the continuous learning process has felt more like a companywide evolution. Alaina Adair, KPA’s client implementation manager, can measure the distance KPA has come in areas of responsibility. Where her team once handled the entire life cycle of a customer — sales, support and implementation — KPA’s growth has allowed teams to diversify and focus on improving one element of service, resulting in more efficient work for KPA employees and an overall improved customer experience.
“It was difficult to sign a client and then onboard them wearing all of those hats.” said Adair. “Now, with separate teams and experts in each domain, we can specialize for better service.”
“Now with separate teams and experts in each domain, we can specialize for better service.”
On the implementation team alone, further specialization has allowed for a wider selection of tiered services, ranging from a “Quick Start” implementation, to a “Premium” implementation for customers in need of hands-on support. As the team expands, Adair is focused on future implementation options, like a self-serve option for customers who want to access KPA’s platform quickly while saving money.
As it fleshes out the implementation teams, KPA has improved internal processes with automation to reduce friction as employees manage their customers with fewer administrative headaches. These updates are due, in part, to KPA’s flexible and feedback-oriented approach to company culture, which has driven positive change for employees like Adair as the team continues to grow.
“The company really wants to improve and I’ve seen lots of changes based on employee feedback,” said Adair.
A Feedback-Powered Product
Feedback — both from KPA employees and the customers they serve — transparency, and foresight into compliance trends are the driving forces behind KPA’s product improvements over the years. Product Manager Belinda Sexton credits the products’ continuous improvement to a combination of internal buy-in and goal alignment and customer feedback channels, like surveys and interviews.
“Product works with everyone from sales enablement to our consulting teams,” said Sexton. “We’ve emphasized open communication, seeking feedback and being very open to new ideas.”
More internal communication with a focus on team improvement has proven essential to developing product teams at KPA. Retrospectives and open feedback channels, especially following major product launches, have kept the team at pace as they onboard more employees and customers.
“A big takeaway from our recent launches has been getting more internal parties involved in the process sooner so that we don’t take two steps forward and one step back,” said Sexton.
“A big takeaway has been getting more internal parties involved in the process sooner so that we don’t take two steps forward and one step back.”
Other recent improvements to improve scalability have included developing more microservices, greater testing automation and exploratory testing of how AI can help identify potential areas of risk for customers. The acquisition of ComplyNet bolstered KPA’s product offerings with Privacy and Safeguards services for automotive dealers, offering a complete compliance package for dealerships across the country.
Looking out on the future of compliance, KPA’s products are becoming more digitally oriented to meet new generations of customers who prefer accessing an online platform over unnecessary paperwork. With more streamlined processes and automation, KPA is positioned to rise to the challenge of a widespread compliance need.
“The regulatory space is getting more complex: Fines are getting larger, and clients need a solution to help manage complete compliance,” said Sexton.
Where many tech companies would sweat at the shifting, intensifying landscape of compliance law, employees like Daly have years of experience watching KPA sprout new ideas, roles and solutions to tackle the needs of customers head-on. As the compliance world advances, KPA is guaranteed to stay ahead of the curve.
“I haven’t worked anywhere that has grown the way we have in the last seven years,” said Daly.
