Company policies, though variegated in content, work towards protecting and improving an organization on a handful of essential fronts. Experience indicates they are business-critical and legal lawsuits show they are unavoidable. However, as a course or principle of action, a policy isn’t to be reduced to a tool intended to placate strict regulatory bodies and maintain an untarnished public image. As much as it guides decision-making, a policy shapes the future and carries the power to effect change. Therefore, growing organizations do well to invest in better mechanisms for drafting, implementing, and updating policies.
“Order is the shape upon which beauty depends,” said the famous American author and novelist Pearl S. Buck. In the realm of organizational governance, the stages of policy management profoundly resonate with this truth.
In a nutshell, policy management involves creating, implementing, communicating, and maintaining guidelines that govern an organization’s activities. It helps in navigating legal requirements, streamlining operations, reducing compliance risks, and clarifying employees’ roles to ensure adherence to standards.
However, policy management is not as easy as it sounds. According to a survey conducted by MetricStream, over 41% of organizations cite updating policies and procedures as a major compliance challenge, while 48% struggle with tracking third-party compliance.
Addressing these challenges requires mastering the key stages of policy management. In this blog, we’ll discuss the five critical stages of policy management and how these can lead to improved compliance, reduced risk, and enhanced operational efficiency in your organization. Ready to dive deeper? Let’s start with the first key stage of policy management.
The first stage of policy management involves creating an effective policy management system to ensure compliance and governance within an organization. This stage involves forming a dedicated policy management team and securing approval from top management for policy initiatives. A robust framework that supports the creation, implementation, and maintenance of policies relies on both steps. Here’s how you can do that:
Ensure diverse perspectives and comprehensive policy coverage by forming a team with representatives from major departments. Follow these steps to form an effective team:
Successfully implementing policy initiatives requires gaining support from top management, which is an essential stage of policy management. Here’s how to secure their approval:
Also read – The Roles and Responsibilities of Compliance Officers.
Once you have your team’s commitment, the next step is making sure everyone knows exactly where to find these policies.
The second of five critical stages of policy management involves centralizing access to policies. It ensures that all employees can easily find and refer to the necessary policies, promoting compliance and consistency across the organization. A centralized policy database improves accessibility, enhances consistency, and simplifies updates. Here’s how you can centralize access to policies.
These steps seem a bit overwhelming while doing manually, hence, implementing cloud-based solutions can help.
Cloud-based solutions like VComply PolicyOps offer flexibility and efficiency in managing policy accessibility and updates. These systems ensure that employees can access policies anytime, anywhere, and that updates integrate seamlessly. Here’s how to implement cloud-based solutions effectively.
To streamline this process, VComply’s PolicyOps platform offers a robust solution for centralizing policy access. It provides a cloud-based repository that ensures real-time access and automatic updates, enhancing compliance and operational efficiency.
Having all policies in one place is great, but when was the last time they were actually reviewed?
Reviewing policies comes third among the five critical stages of policy management. Policies must evolve alongside organizational changes to remain effective. Regular policy revisions are crucial to ensure alignment with these changes and to maintain compliance with legal and regulatory standards.
Organizations stay relevant and mitigate potential risks by proactively reviewing and amending policies. This process ensures that policies remain effective, support business objectives, and reflect current practices.
Let’s discuss effective strategies on how to review and amend policies.
Schedule Regular Reviews: Set periodic intervals, such as annually or bi-annually, to review all policies. This ensures they stay up-to-date with organizational changes and regulatory updates.
Assign Ownership: Designate specific individuals or teams responsible for different policies. This creates accountability and ensures thorough reviews.
Incorporate Feedback: Gather feedback from employees and stakeholders to identify areas where policies may be unclear or outdated. Use surveys and suggestion boxes to collect input.
Monitor Regulatory Changes: Keep tabs on changes in rules and regulations that may impact your policies. Regularly consult legal experts and industry resources.
Also read – How to Stay on Top of Regulatory Changes (2024)
Benchmark Against Best Practices: Compare your policies with industry standards and best practices. It helps pinpoint gaps and areas for improvement.
Utilize Technology: Use policy management software to automate review reminders, track changes, and maintain version control. Tools like VComply can streamline the review process.
Now that you’ve got your policies up to date let’s talk about keeping them that way.
The fourth stage, among the five stages of policy management, involves planning the policy lifecycle. This involves knowing when to update or retire outdated policies and planning the lifecycle of each policy accordingly. Organizations can ensure their policies remain relevant, compliant, and aligned with business objectives by planning the lifecycle accordingly. For this, you need to understand when to replace the outdated policies with the new ones. Here’s how you can do that.
Determining if policies are still effective requires regular assessment, which is crucial. Compliance risks and operational inefficiencies can result from outdated policies.
According to Deloitte’s 2019 Global Regulatory Outlook, 60% of organizations struggle with policies that become outdated due to regulatory changes, leading to compliance risks. Here’s what you can do to identify outdated policies.
Updating is essential, but how do you decide when it’s time to retire a policy?
Planning the lifecycle of each policy helps maintain its relevance and effectiveness over time. This involves defining the stages of the policy lifecycle and setting timelines for reviews and updates. Here’s how you can do that.
Alright, you’ve streamlined and updated your policies—now let’s make sure they’re actually working in practice.
Also read – What are the Five Reasons for Compliance Failure.
When it comes to the five stages of policy management, auditing takes the last spot. Regular auditing is essential to ensure that policies are not only being followed but are also effective and comprehensive. Organizations maintain compliance, identify weaknesses, and address gaps in policy coverage by conducting regular audits.
The 2020 Protiviti Internal Audit Capabilities and Needs Survey notes that 75% of organizations that regularly conduct internal audits are better equipped to manage compliance and performance. Here’s how you can conduct regular audits:
Plan the Audit: Define the scope, objectives, and criteria for the audit.
Collect Data: Use interviews, surveys, and document reviews to gather information.
Analyze Findings: Compare current practices against policy requirements.
Report Results: Document findings, highlighting areas of compliance and non-compliance.
For a smooth auditing process, GRC platforms like VComply AuditOps can be instrumental in organizing and analyzing audit data efficiently.
Analyze audit results to identify policy gaps where policies may be lacking or outdated. Implementing solutions ensures comprehensive coverage and improved compliance. Here’s how you can do that.
So, what have we learned from all these stages? Let’s wrap it up with some key takeaways.
Understanding and leveraging the five stages of policy management ensures a robust and effective framework for your organization. Best practices include scheduling regular policy reviews, providing comprehensive training to employees, maintaining consistency, and engaging stakeholders in policy management.
To significantly enhance efficiency and consistency, adopting advanced policy management tools like VComply is crucial. It offers features such as automated reminders for policy reviews, real-time updates, and secure cloud storage. With VComply, organizations can ensure their policies are always accessible and compliant with regulatory standards. So, are you ready to streamline your policy management? Request a demo today!
Discover the immediate impact VComply can bring to your compliance program. Move beyond the limits of spreadsheets with a system of record designed for complete compliance management.