2017 Policy Management Benchmark

Editor's Notes

• #5: Our Software: Industry-leading solutions that standalone to meet immediate ethics and compliance needs, but also integrated to ensure that critical components of your ethics and compliance program management are connected. This includes our incident management, policy management and enterprise due diligence software. Our Services: Advisory Services: We are home to the industry’s foremost group of compliance experts – most of whom are former in-house ethics and compliance officers or former DOJ prosecutors – who assist organizations of all sizes with their ethics and compliance responsibilities – from program evaluations or, as mentioned, policy and code writing services. Their work and experience also helps to shape our own software solutions through their unique knowledge and work with clients.
• #7: Top justifications from senior management to purchase a purpose-built policy management software parallel the highest rated features of those organizations currently using a technology for policy management: (1) centralizing policies and procedures, (2) document management and versioning, (3) improving employee access, and (4) audit trails.
• #8: Top Industry
• #11: In 2016 – top concern was keeping up with changing laws and regs
• #13: Coaching on difference between policies and procedures Later discussion on policy on policies
• #14: Definitions: Reactive: We don’t have best practices in place. When an issue or a need arises we create a policy to address it. Basic: Policy authorship happens in silos. Department managers create policies on their own, using Word, Excel, or other tools we already have. There is not a common practice for authoring or publishing policies. Maturing: Our policies are centralized and translated as appropriate (through a shared folder or intranet). We have a system for updating them and controlling different versions, but policy processes like authoring, reviewing, publishing and collecting signatures are not software-driven or automated. Advanced: We have a software-driven or automated solution in place that standardizes the creation and review of policies, responds to regulatory change and reduces the time it takes to write, approve, find, distribute and certify policies in multiple languages.
• #15: Active Stakeholders when it comes to REVIEW and APPROVAL of Policies and Procedures are similar but in a slightly different order: (1) Legal, (2) HR, (3) Ethics and Compliance, (4) Finance, (5) Information Technology, (6) Risk Management, (7) Internal Audit
• #16: Low budget / less than $25k or no budget at all
• #20: Non Commercial Software would include SharePoint or other in-house systems Organizations With Automated Policy Management Software Are 70% Satisfied Compared to only 29% of those with in-house solutions
• #21: Senior management is most likely to support automation to ensure access and consistency of policies and procedures. As the program moves along a continuum of maturation, automation can provide additional benefits. The automation solution can produce many additional benefits to efficiency, risk reduction and your bottom line. The value proposition for purchasing commercially developed policy management software should include education about the broader range of benefits which may help move the organizations policy management program from Basic to Maturing/Advanced.
• #22: Senior management valued these same top four features as reasons to justify the purchase of policy management software. This reflects an alignment between value of the software and budget to purchase.
• #23: We just talked to the most important elements of automated policy management software, and CENTRALIZED REPOSITORY was ranked at the top. Here we dive into those using a centralized/standardized software solution for policy management, and we can see that users value multiple benefits of this system at levels in relatively equal importance.
• #24: Advanced – have a policy management software with automated workflows for the creation/review of policies, response to regulatory change, distribution and certification of policies in multiple languages Maturing – Policies are stored in a shored folder / intranet. Systems are in place for updating but processes of writing/reviewing/attestation are not automated or software-driven. Full Definitions: Reactive: We don’t have best practices in place. When an issue or a need arises we create a policy to address it. Basic: Policy authorship happens in silos. Department managers create policies on their own, using Word, Excel, or other tools we already have. There is not a common practice for authoring or publishing policies. Maturing: Our policies are centralized and translated as appropriate (through a shared folder or intranet). We have a system for updating them and controlling different versions, but policy processes like authoring, reviewing, publishing and collecting signatures are not software-driven or automated. Advanced: We have a software-driven or automated solution in place that standardizes the creation and review of policies, responds to regulatory change and reduces the time it takes to write, approve, find, distribute and certify policies in multiple languages.
• #26: Reactive/Basic Organizations are Nearly Four Times as Likely to Review Policies Reactively After an Issue Has Been Raised
• #27: Stat to go with the first bullet point: Document management systems don’t cut it when it comes to policy management – organizations with Automated Policy Management Software Are 70% Satisfied Compared to only 29% of those with in-house solutions like SharePoint
• #31: In the last three years, has your company faced legal or regulatory action, where a policy came under review For this purpose, we excluded the I don’t know answers.
• #32: Showing that a lot of people in the “unsure” don’t have automated software so they were unable to track this trail / spending more time Automated software allows people to track and control more effectively – and measure it.
• #33: Employee Attestation Requirement Decreased 7% from 2016 Findings
• #34: Freeing up resources to focus on other key aspects of effective policy management would include: keeping detailed records on all policies and maintaining documented guidelines for policies Additional education on the reduction of fees, fines and resources needed to respond to regulatory and litigation demands provides additional ROI for purchasing this type of a solution
• #37: We have some great additional resources including a best practice guide to policy management and an ROI Calculator to see how much time and money can actually be saved on your current processes.
• #38: Also, since you’re interested in benchmarking and improving your policy program, we’d like to invite you to join Compliance Next. Compliance Next is a community-driven website that offers accelerated education, program guidance and skill enhancement through best-practice examples, how-to videos, research, regulatory updates and the ability to interact with others in the compliance community. You’ll also have exclusive access to PolicyShare, a community-populated library of policy templates and samples to get you started. You can also contribute your own! We’d love to encourage everyone on this call to join today at www.compliancenext.com