New research shows that nearly 50% of UK organisations could be leaving themselves open to litigation through managing their corporate policies primarily on the intranet.
The poll, conducted by NETconsent highlights that many organisations have a passive and potentially dangerous attitude towards managing their policies. Intranets are designed to facilitate information sharing and communications across an organisation and can be used to provide efficiency improvements and support business processes. However, implementations that grow organically can prove challenging to manage and might no longer meet the increasing compliance requirements for such processes.
NETconsent highlights the following dangers of managing policies over the Intranet:
Dangers of Intranet Policy Management
No proof ñ Simply making a policy available for reading on the intranet is not sufficient. In the instance of a legal challenge companies need to demonstrate that an employee has agreed to the policy in question, if not also read and understood it
Out of date / inaccurate ñ Policies need updating on a regular basis. If policies are not kept up to date with company and legislative changes, employees may be reading and agreeing to inaccurate information, leaving the company open to risk
Understanding ñ Without measures to ensure that policies are read and understood, organisations do not know whether their policies are viable and effective.
Relevance ñ Many policies will only be relevant to a set group of people. Managing policies through the intranet may make it confusing for employees to identify which policies are relevant to them. Ideally policies should only be targeted at the relevant employees
Access ñ In many organisations not all employees have access to the intranet or use it on a daily basis. This may result in employees being unaware of policy changes or unable to access policy documents
Dominic Saunders, NETconsentís Operations Director, says: ìThe research indicates just how many businesses rely on the Intranet to communicate policies. While it is encouraging that companies are using policies to educate their employees and protect themselves, managing them over the intranet might not be enough.î
He continued: ìBy using Intranets to communicate policies, companies are leaving it to employees to locate and read policies but the responsibility should be with the employer, not the employee. Without evidence of the signed document, employers are leaving themselves open to risk. In the event of a breach of policy, organisations need to be able to demonstrate not only that they have a policy in place but that the employee concerned has seen and agreed to the document. The NETconsent suite helps organisations mitigate risks by rigorously maintaining full and accurate records of written policies, identifying who has seen and agreed to them, as well as proving whether users have understood the policies.î
Tips for better Policy Management
Ease of use ñ The more policies that are managed through the intranet the more updates and changes will be required. To minimise the time spent on managing policies by staff it should be easy to create, update, distribute and monitor responses of new and revised policies
Updates ñ Keep all policies updated and current in line with corporate culture, working practices, legal precedents and legislation changes
Record agreements ñ Maintain records of employee agreement to relevant active policies, whilst retaining a full archive of agreements to previous policy versions
Access for all ñ Ensure that all employees, including those that work from home or remotely, have access to central policy repository.
Control ñ Make sure that access of ëauthor rightsí to policies is tightly controlled and only nominated persons can make changes to policies and policy records
Understanding ñ Randomly test employeesí understanding of policies to determine whether further education or policy reviews may be required
Check ñ Carry out checks to ensure that any required policy agreements can be accessed for evidence at short notice
Avoiding the legal loopholes in intranet policy management
New research shows that nearly 50% of UK organisations could be leaving themselves open to litigation through managing their corporate policies primarily on the intranet
