Whether it is a small startup or a company with more than 200 employees, every business has some important set of policies that requires a policy management solutions. This policy can be anything from standard company policy to standard operating procedures. The number of documents can range from 5 to 500, but ensuring full control over your policy management can be tricky sometimes. SharePoint Policy management turns all your chaos into clarity.

What can be better than leveraging your existing M365 suite and integrating your customized policy management in SharePoint? To get this we must explore a few things like struggles while managing policies and benefits of using SharePoint to manage policies.

What are the Challenges with Policy Management?

 

Traditional paper-based management of policies may encounter various challenges like:

1. Storage Issues: Following the traditional paper-based management process can make it challenging to store multiple documents in a safe and secure place.
2. Hard to Find: Scattered documents require a lot of time to find the right one. Employees waste hours searching for the right documents.
3. Outdated Information: Multiple copies can lead to confusion. In addition to this, old versions of policies can lead to confusion and mistakes.
4. Tracking Issues: It’s tough to track the changes and know if everyone has read the policies or not.

1. Traditional Methods: Even after being in the digital era many companies are still practicing the traditional methods. They are using paper, shared drives, or email to manage policies.

Traditional vs Digital Policy Management SharePoint

To choose between the traditional and digital management of policy, you need to understand the difference between these two. Following the paper-based process, shared drives and email chains for sharing policies have some bottlenecks:

• Paper: It is quite hectic to store, update, and share the latest updates or changes.
• Shared Drives: Shared drives are hard to control and keep track of who sees what and what are the changes made.
• Email:  Important emails or updates can get lost in the bulky inboxes.

Following the old ways can lead you to a hard situation where you may witness multiple challenges in handling policy management.

SharePoint for Policy Management

Since then we have been aware of how the old and traditional method works. Let’s try to explore what happens if we choose SharePoint to manage policies. This can help you decide better.

1. It’s Familiar: SharePoint has a familiar interface now. Today, most businesses use Microsoft 365 Suite and SharePoint to handle operations. You won’t have to spend time learning a new tool or software.
2. Central Repository: Businesses can secure all the documents and policies in a single place. A central repository makes it easy to find the right policy.
3. Keeps Track of Changes: With version history SharePoint allows users to keep track of all the latest changes. You can find who made the changes and where were done.
4. Search Features: Utilizing top-notch features like search features you can search and find the right policy within seconds. This saves a lot of your time.
5. Integrates with Other Tools: Your policy management in SharePoint can be easily integrated into various other tools like Teams or Outlook.
6. Scalable Model: Whether you have 50 or 50,000 employees, SharePoint can handle your documents and policies.
7. Control Who Sees What: With features like Co-Authoring you can ensure who can view, edit, and print the policy.

How SharePoint Makes Policy Management Easier?

SharePoint Policy Management can transform the way you used to manage your policies earlier. But how? Let’s check it out:

Unified Dashboard

You can create a special section only to store all the company-related important policies. With one central repository finding the right documents within the organization becomes a breeze.

Keeping Things Updated

No more confusion in finding the latest and updated version of documents. With SharePoint, you can keep track of changes and the latest files. You can even retrieve your old version, in case you need to recheck things.

Making Sure People Read Policies

One of the interesting features is keeping track of who has opened the policy and who has not. You can keep track of employees who are still not aware of the latest policy and later on ask them to check it again.

Working Together

SharePoint allows easy collaboration. Multiple users can together work on the same file. With this policies can be easily updated without any chaos of multiple approvals and reviews.

Staying Secure

The Co-Authoring feature of SharePoint brings control in the hands of the departmental head or management head. You can control who can see, edit, or share policies. This helps in securing the sensitive information.

Reminders and Workflows

Getting an update with every single update in the policy is what you dreamt of? SharePoint allows you to set automatic reminders for reviewing and approving the policies. This helps keep everything up-to-date without someone having to remember to do it.

Making the Switch to SharePoint

So are you convinced with the idea of turning your SharePoint for the Policy Management portal?  Then here are some quick tips to make it more efficient:

1. Start Small: Start integrating your few policies in the initial phase. Once you get used to the portal you can upload all the important policies and documentation.
2. Train Your Team: Provide proper training to people who are apart from the technical team. Employees may find the new system tricky but yes a little training goes a long way.
3. Create Clear Rules: Make clear decisions and decide who will be in charge of each policy. This will help in timely updates and reviews.
4. Use SharePoint’s Features: Leverage SharePoint features like Version Control, Co-Authoring, and Search functionality to make things much easier.

Conclusion

Policy Management isn’t a time-consuming and irritating process for the organization using SharePoint. SharePoint Policy Management makes the whole process easy and effective. Businesses can leverage features and ensure that their policies are easy to find, always up-to-date, and actually viewed. This not only makes work smoother but also helps keep the company following all the rules it needs to.

FAQ’s

1. Can you use SharePoint as a document management system?

Yes, SharePoint can be used as a document management system. It has various features like version control, co-authoring, and multiple others.

2. What is a policy management tool?

The policy management tool streamlines policy management, ensuring compliance, and boosting efficiency through automated workflows and centralized document access.

3. What is the information management policy in SharePoint?

Information management policies regulate access, usage, and retention of organizational information to ensure compliance with legal and business requirements.