However, we can safely say that policies and procedures are not given the importance that they should be, and it is easy to see why. Managing policies and procedures manually always leads to policies and procedures being sidelined.
When policies and procedures are managed manually, they are spread out in many different documents and spreadsheets. These policies and procedures exist on paper and in files in the server, but they are often overlooked and ignored in actuality. The reason is very simple – people cannot easily access the policies when they need to, thus they simply skip. Think about it –when was the last time you actually went and asked for the written policies and procedures before making a business decision?
Making policies and procedures accessible to everyone
Succeeding in business means being efficient and making the right decisions at the right times. Since accessing and identifying the relevant policies and procedures takes so much time and is so inconvenient for people, it isn’t done. This situation changes when a proper policy and procedure management system is in place.
The biggest different that it makes it that it is now easy for everyone to access the policy of procedure they wanted. Instead of asking someone where the policy and procedure files are kept, getting access to them, and then manually going through them trying to find the relevant parts, one can simply open the policy and procedure management system and search through keywords.
Document and version control
Manually managing policy and procedure opens your company up to a new risk – the risk that a department or employee may have an older version of the policy and procedure documents. Policy and procedure management software includes version control for documentation, and it also eliminates the risk of multiple versions of the same files.
Multiple versions of the same files are created when documents are sent to colleagues over email or other file sharing services. There is no need to send or receive policies and procedures if there is a system in place; all the policies and procedures exist within the system, instead of on personal copies of files in everyone’s computers. Thus, if a policy or procedure is updated in the system, everyone can see the updates. Everyone will always be working with the latest version of the documents.
Controlling access
There are certain policies and procedures which are confidential or contain business secrets. These policies and procedures should never be sent to anyone, but they are – because how else will people access them when needed? This creates the risk that the files may be forwarded to someone who can use them to harm the organization. Policy and procedure management systems also have access control built-in. This means that you can control who can access what documents, as well as track who accessed what documents, resulting in better information security.
The biggest advantage of these systems is that they increase compliance. Since policies and procedures are now easily accessible for everyone with just a few clicks, there is no reason to ignore them. It will take just a few seconds to get the desired information. This creates a culture of compliance tracking where people actively seek out the right way to work and deliver services.
It is impossible to create this culture of compliance when policies and procedures are being managed manually. As long as policies and procedures are hard to access and buried in printed documents in cabinets or digital documents in servers, people will ignore them. When they are easily accessible to everyone and easily searchable for everyone, people will not ignore them. It is as simple as that.
If you want to see how a policy and procedure management system will benefit your organization, we recommend getting in touch with a provider who will be willing to give you a free trial for it. You also need to make sure you choose the right system to try – there are expensive and complicated systems targeted at multinationals, and sleek and affordable systems targeted at small to mid-sized organizations.
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