A ‘Policy about Policies’?
No, the title isn’t a “play on words.” It’s a best practice that Matt Kelly of Compliance Week discussed in his blog post, Policy Management Best Practice. For instance, one professional said all of her organization’s policies must be two pages or less. The idea, of course, is to make the policy writer stick to his or her “core principle or objective.”
Another professional said his employer’s unwritten motto used to be, “We don’t believe in policies.”
Much as they might like to at times, compliance officers can’t eliminate policies and procedures. In fact, 30 percent of our survey respondents ranked it as the most important element in their organization’s compliance program.
Six Steps to Successful Policy Management
The Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG) created a six-part illustrated series on policy management, authorship, communication, training and enforcement.*
These include:
- How Should We Manage Policies – Provides an overview of how an effective policy management process should be structured.
- How Should We Track Changes – Addresses the need to track and evaluate changes in laws and regulations, business operations and strategies, and risk analysis that may each affect policy decisions.
- How Should We Author And Create Policies – Discusses how to establish a systematic and consistent approach to creating policies.
- How Should We Communicate And Train About Policies – Identifies best practices for distributing policies and determining when and how to provide training.
- How Should We Enforce Policies – Lists the steps in implementing and enforcing policies.
- How Should We Measure The Performance Of Policy Management – Discusses the steps in measuring and assessing policy management.
The concept of “a policy about policies” makes sense. It means that the method by which you implement policies and procedures must be consistent, measurable and enforceable.
Check back tomorrow for the seven factor framework of an effective compliance and ethics program.
