Compliance. Regulation. Security. These are the reasons why organisations write policies. But how can you be sure that staff have read, understood, and agreed to policy?

And how can you demonstrate policy compliance to auditors and regulators? Posting policies on the intranet, or relying on e-mails or staff handbooks leaves policies ignored, and impossible to track.

So how can you go about getting the right policies to the right staff, and more importantly, that they understand and actively sign up to them, and that this process is tracked and recorded?

Companies face the challenge of achieving and also demonstrating compliance, while at the same time maintaining business competitiveness and avoiding an unnecessary administrative workload. With policies changing, new people joining the organisation and people switching departments, the task of tracking and managing compliancy issues can often prove a time-consuming occupation. Traditional approaches such as e-mail or paper-based policies and acceptance forms are labour intensive and inefficient, and cannot be relied upon to ensure legal business obligations are met.

E-mails can simply be deleted or ignored by employees, and it is unfeasible to expect employees to sit and digest a 100-page corporate handbook. A user-friendly, bite-sized approach, which can be incorporated easily into the working day, will ensure policies are actually read and accepted. Policy management software can be used to deliver HR policy directly to the desktop, by presenting staff not with some dusty lever arch file, but with key points and the information they really need to know, in bite-sized, digestible form. In this way, organisations are able to meet business obligations and HR requirements automatically, without generating an unnecessary administrative burden.

A nonchalant click on the yes option is not enough to ensure corporate compliance - a real understanding of policy is required by employees, and businesses need to both achieve and actively demonstrate this level of understanding. Policy management solutions automatically test your staff on key points, to ensure they have actually taken in and understood the policy, as opposed to taking the path of least resistance by simply clicking yes to every automatic prompt. Managers get a clear picture of any refusal to read policies or of a lack of understanding, and can take the necessary action. Access to certain areas of the network can be blocked, or staff directed to relevant training pages to help them understand the issues at stake.

At the same time, it’s essential to bear business demands in mind. Employees may have a deadline to meet or a client meeting to prepare for, so it’s important to adopt a flexible approach, by staggering the release of policy details and enabling staff to defer reading the information if they have other business priorities to address.

BIOS, Nov 14, 06 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Business