Why Policy Management is Key to Risk & Compliance

Within an organization, policies guide day-to-day processes to fulfill legal and regulatory obligations, while cementing an organizational cultural that builds a foundation for success. Today, there are hundreds of internal and external requirements that organizations must satisfy. In this article we will look at how policies fit into an organization, challenges of policy management, and different approaches to successful policy management implementations.

Policies and Policy Management

A policy defines a set of guidelines or rules to determine the course of action to be taken to achieve business goals and set strategies in accordance with regulatory compliance frameworks. Policies are critical to an organization as they determine how business operations and transactions are conducted, outlining boundaries and relationships among entities in an organization. By setting rules or a predefined course of action, policies ensure that organizations adhere to compliance frameworks and their requirements.

To track, update, and communicate policies, many companies have implemented a process for policy management. Policy management is an ongoing task that entails the creation, communication and maintenance of organizational policies. When done correctly, policy management drives everyday compliance, minimizes risks and liabilities, and builds company culture. Like an investment, policy management brings value to the organization.

Roles Policies Play in an Organization

Organizational Governance

Policies define the relationships, behavior, rules and what is expected by various entities that interact with one another in an organization. By doing so, policies, establish accepted company values and ethics which form pillars of company culture.

Identify and Mitigate Risk

Procedures and protocols defined in policies offer an actionable way to deal with risks and potential threats. The actions include evergreen processes, as well as processes that are deployed in case of an incident.

Define Compliance

Policies define how an organization meets regulatory obligations and requirements for compliance in terms of day-to-day actions. This in turn fosters a security conscious culture.

Having a policy management system also makes audits a much simpler and smoother process: as all policy records and versions are maintained in a one platform and can be quickly accessed as needed

Policy Management Challenges

Due to changing requirements and complexities around compliance, proactive teams are continuously seeking to improve their processes when it comes to policy management, including:

Unstructured Policy development

An unstructured policy creation process will be problematic. It leads to the creation of inconsistent policies and implementation of rogue policies. This challenge can be partially mitigated by using templates.

Maintenance and Tracking

This challenge arises when organizations do not regularly update existing policies nor maintain records of past policies and versions. This leads to scattered policies across team/divisions and thus makes tracking compliance and acceptance a difficult task. The auditing process will also be tiresome since it will be hard to gather evidence and link related standards and regulations.

Communication and Attestation

If policies are not well communicated, accepted, and easily accessible, organizations may not meet the set requirements and obligations. Organizations should provide ways/controls to ensure policies are in effect, and all entities are aware of them. This might include proof of attestation, e.g., Tracking of acceptances and acknowledgement

Training

Lack of coordinated policy training and communication may lead to non-compliant and even inefficient work behavior. Training helps raise awareness and standardization of organization critical processes.

How Are Companies Managing Their Policies?

SharePoint/Document Depository

Storing policy documents in a folder on a network share is a great place to start. Although this approach lacks the security and control needed to mitigate rogue policy and version control.

Dedicated Document Management Solution

With new SaaS platforms popping up every day there is countless options for centralized document management. Advantages should include, document controls, versioning, policy communication, and acknowledgement tracking.

GRC Policy Management

As policies are built around compliance requirements and legal obligations, having a policy management solution that is built-in or can integrate your GRC solution is becoming increasingly popular. Combining all of the advantages of a dedicated document management solution with a GRC tool keeps everything under one roof.

Summary

Policy management is a crucial part of compliance that keeps employees in the know and grows your company culture. A well-developed dedicated policy management program or built-in GRC policy management solution allows for policy changes to be made and communicated, while delivering real-time reporting keeps you organized when preparing for an audit and minimizes risk.

If you are looking for a comprehensive tool to manage your policies as part of the larger risk and compliance picture, reach out to our team today and schedule a demo.