If you’re like many compliance professionals, you know it can be a struggle to evaluate the performance of your policy management system—and to truly understand whether your approach is effective and efficient.
In this video, I share a few insights on best practices for policy management performance measurement with the Chair of the Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG), Scott Mitchell. (This video is part of OCEG’s “Tech Talk” series; you can access more of my conversation with Scott here.)
Keep scrolling to find some questions to ask yourself to get a sense of the effectiveness of your organization’s policy management practices.
Or, for an even more in-depth evaluation, take NAVEX Global’s Policy Management Self-Assessment. This five-minute survey delves deeper into all the key areas of your policy management program (including communication, formatting, lifecycle management, and tracking) to give you a sense of how your program’s performance stacks up.
Five Questions To Help You Determine Your Policy Management Program’s Effectiveness
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Are employees opening the policies I’m sending them to read? Using an automated policy management tool, it’s easy to check open rates, and follow up with stakeholders who haven’t read or attested to policies using a click-to-deploy, preset email workflow.
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Are employees indicating they have read and understood policies by completing a quiz and/or follow-up survey? To truly measure employees’ understanding of a policy, it’s important to go beyond sending an email and hoping for the best. This is particularly important for key documents, such as your code of conduct and workplace harassment policies.
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After training on a policy, is there an increase in hotline reports or other intake methods relating to that policy? If policies are truly connecting with your employees, you may see an increase in reports or cases related to potential violations of that policy. Employee reporting is even easier when your case management and policy management systems are connected. This connection will allow an employee to click a button to report potential violations while in the midst of reading policies.
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Can I spot issues before they become bigger problems? In a centralized and automated approach to policy management, you will be able to see what policies your employees are searching for and reading. This empowers you to get proactive in addressing issues before they snowball. For example, if several people in a particular division or functional group are looking for policies on harassment or retaliation, you might choose to check in with the manager of that department and deploy training or raise awareness of key company policies.
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Do I get unsolicited feedback on policies? When it is easy for employees to point out something about a policy that does not make sense, they often will. This includes typos, outdated information or just asking a clarifying question. Policy management systems that allow employees to click a button to communicate a policy-related issue help support and improve a “speak-up” culture.
