As the compliance industry laws, regulations, and standard constantly changes, it is highly crucial for companies to ensure consistency, compliance, and risk management.
When you think about an employee policy or procedure, you only remember the old, dusty drawers where you stored the documents or haven’t opened them since the day it was created. The person who designed the policies and those who received them might have an impression that these policies are unalterable and established for good.
When an employee was handed over a huge 3-ring binder full of policies and procedures to read, the company may face several complications. One of which is there is no way to track if the employee has acknowledged the receipt of the document or has read it. The compliance team also has no option to track if the policies and procedures are updated to match current rules and regulations.
Maintaining, and updating policies and procedures that are in line with ever-changing regulatory standards is now critical for most organizations, especially for healthcare, manufacturing, or education. Remaining compliant with those changes also reduce financial and reputational risks.
Policies and procedures are living documents that should keep growing and adapt to the changing environment where your business operates. Managing these documents can be complicated and time-consuming, mainly for large enterprises with multiple locations and business units. This is where software can help your organization work more efficiently.
Here are some ways that Policy Management Software on Microsoft SharePoint can help keep policies upto date:
Policy Creation, Distribution & Acknowledgement
With Policy Management Software, compliance managers can make it simple to create, distribute and manage policies and procedures through automation solutions. The software can automate the distribution and acknowledgment of policies effortlessly. Organizations have complete control to ensure that employees access the updated policies only. In addition, the software will also offer employees helpful online courses, quizzes, and other training materials.
Real-time Policy Tracking and Updates
The Policy Management Software will help organizations implement policies and keep track of it consistently to ensure compliance. This can make it easier to own full version control, which tracks the policy versions and view all changes. As a result, it allows the users to see when the policies created, the last updated date, what changes made, and who modified the document. Through this, compliance managers can always confirm that the most recent policy version is available and accessible to the employees.
Effective Collaboration
All sized organizations, especially the large enterprises, approach collaboration within teams to create, distribute, and manage policies. When you rely on an effective software on the right platform, say on Microsoft SharePoint, you can promote collaboration between different departments and stakeholders. It boosts connection and makes it convenient to work on an assigned document. This software can also provide a platform for employees to raise questions, share feedback and communicate jointly about policies.
Audit and Reporting
Do not let your existing policies and procedures get dusty. Few policies require annually reviewing, and other policies may require monthly or quarterly audits. That’s where software can be of big help to your organization to schedule time for auditing and reporting your documents. A powerful Policy Management Software will set firm reminders to audit policies and procedures and generate compliance reports which can be beneficial to demonstrate compliance to regulators and stakeholders.
Related Article: The Importance of Maintaining an Audit Trail
Centralized Policy Repository
Policy Management Software provides a centralized system to store, manage and access the companies’ policies and procedures. When the document is stored in one place, it reduces the risks of using outdated policies and makes it easier to update those documents as needed. The software also ensures faster and easier navigation to the relevant document instead of spending days finding misplaced documents.
Choose The Software That Always Works Best for You!
It takes a lot of time to eliminate the challenges you face by outdated and ignored policies, which cause the ideal breeding place for liability. When companies use Policy Management Software, the compliance team can simplify policy creation, and distribution, track policy updates and facilitate collaboration, audit, and other reporting capabilities.
In such instances, software like ConvergePoint’s Policy Management Software offers more possibilities to digitalize and smoothen your policy management process. If you would like to learn more, watch our product demo to witness how our sophisticated software works best for you.