The Evolving Role Of Regulatory Affairs

The Evolving Role Of
Regulatory Affairs

The past few years have provided both challenges and opportunities for many businesses and their regulatory professionals. The pandemic has thrown unprecedented obstacles in the path of regulatory teams, including rapidly changing customer needs, a more complex regulatory landscape, increased workloads, and greater pressure to perform.

But it has also helped elevate the role of regulatory affairs within businesses, demonstrating the adaptability and resilience of the professionals and their teams.

Still, not all regulatory professionals feel their organizations treat them as true partners and they would like to see a more collaborative relationship as they look to the future.

The past few years have been difficult for businesses as they work to adapt to a rapidly evolving business environment.

Nearly all (92%) regulatory professionals report that their company has struggled to adapt to new customer demands over the past several years.

The coronavirus pandemic has upended previous regulatory processes and added to workloads.

Nearly all regulatory professionals (93%) agree that the pandemic has created a more complex regulatory landscape while demanding they get products to market faster and more efficiently than ever before. As a result, the same number (93%) believe that their company must spend more time creating new regulatory strategies to respond to the long term impact that COVID-19 has had on the business.

How Recent Events Have Impacted The Regulatory Landscape

The role of regulatory affairs has been elevated within most companies by necessity.

Nearly all regulatory professionals (94%) agree that their teams have become more of a strategic partner within their organization due to COVID-19 as businesses have scrambled to conform with rapidly changing consumer demands and regulatory pressures.

Another 92% indicate that their employer has placed greater importance on the work happening across their team due to the pandemic.

94%

Of Regulatory Professionals Believe their Teams Have Become More of a Strategic Partner within their Organization

However, most regulatory professionals still feel under-resourced, and that regulatory compliance is not driving overall strategy at their organization.

While the pandemic has placed more importance on the work of regulatory affairs, these overburdened teams are not necessarily getting all the support they need.

More than 9 in 10 (91%) regulatory professionals assert that their company expects them to do more with less right now.

91%

Of Regulatory Professionals Say their Company Expects them to Do More with Less Right Now

Many regulatory affairs teams still feel siloed from the greater organization. While businesses have leaned on regulatory affairs in times of crisis, professionals are skeptical that their organization will treat them as strategic allies in the longer term.

Fewer than 3 in 10 (29%) believe that their organizations treat them as true partners, helping to drive strategy. Instead, a majority (56%) indicate that they are informed of and responsive to critical business decisions after they are made. And many are left in the dark, as 16% of regulatory professionals report that they are not always informed of decisions that impact them.

[A strategic partner would be] integrated more to the start of business decisions... Included with the idea portion before we go to the development stage of a new deal with a customer or supplier.

Manager, Food & Beverage, Wisconsin, USA