In this ever-connected world, risk management is vital to your organisation. Even if you are confident about all aspects of your business you must have a robust risk management strategy in place. At the core of this strategy should be an effective Change policy management system.
An effective policy management system will be one that has a consistent method of creating policies, one that adds structure to your procedures and maintains your organisations rigorous routine. This also makes it easier to track attestation and responses of staff. This is integral from an internal standpoint, but more critically from an external standpoint, if the occasion arises where you need to answer to any regulators about policy breaches by members of staff.
By having an effective change policy management system in place, you are able to properly determine employee understanding of the policy. By approaching policy management in an ad-hoc manner without a clear and concise way to track responses you are only creating more work for yourself. Policy creation, distribution and reporting should be intertwined within the same system to make the whole process as smooth and streamlined for everyone involved in the chain. This will include everyone from the company itself, to the employees, to the person who will be reporting on the outcomes of any policy distributed.
Change Policy Management in Modern Enterprise
In modern enterprise, there is no ‘one size fits all’ rule when it comes to change policy management. That’s why any business looking to implement a policy management system should ensure that it has the ability to target or exempt specific groups of users. Not every policy is going to apply to every employee, sometimes you’ll need one for specific departments. In this case, you need a system in place that can do that kind of fine targeting that ensures the right policy is going to the right people, at the right time.
Sending out policies is integral to the smooth operation of many businesses and being able to glean valuable information as soon as possible can give your business a competitive edge. This is why an effective policy management system will have real time reporting in place that can allow you to find out which areas of your business need attention and which ones you can already rely on.
Benefits from Automation
By automating your change policy management, you will streamline your processes and become more nimble as a result. You will be able to quickly change documentation designs, push out documentation, validate, and reconcile policies. It will also help you direct the team you have on policies focused on the analysis of your policy management
All major regulatory oversight requirements begin with writing compliance policies. It is these policies that guide staff and partners on the relationship the organisation has with current legislation and industry regulations.
Policy Management & IS027001
When choosing a policy management system, you need to ensure that it is as secure as possible as you’ll likely be running your entire organisation’s policy documentation through it. Those with ISO27001 accreditation are best positioned for this as it mandates specific security requirements that vendors must have to attain the accreditation.
These standards help ensure your policy management is dealt with cost effectively and has the added benefit of sending a message to your employees and business partners that you do things the right way. ISO 27001 enables you to monitor, review, maintain and improve your policy management process and keeps your business secure from ever more prevalent cyber threats.
Are you struggling with policy management in your business? What is going wrong and what steps have you taken to fix it? Let us know in the comments below.
