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I am hoping for as much feedback as possible on this guide I wrote from
scratch. I am drafting our first policies manual at work and haven't done
P&P for a couple of years, so I'm just starting to stretch out those mental
muscles again. There's a few cramps, so any comments at all will be much
appreciated.
This will also be a small part of my next article for the Whirlers as
described under the Writing FAQ > P&P in the blog.
Corporate Policies
The corporate policy is a formal statement specifying a set of rules for
staff to follow in a limited area of the business. This topic describes the
environment required for a policy to be effective, the minimum content of a
policy and some considerations for the overall presentation of the policy.
For a policy to succeed it must:
* be supported by Management
* be technically feasible, understandable and enforceable
* be implemented globally throughout the company
* be widely distributed to defined locations
* be flexible to adapt to changing technologies and company goals
* be independent of underlying technologies and methodologies
* be suited to the business's needs and costs and is appropriate for it's
relative level of importance to the company mission
* have sufficient resources for implementation, monitoring, enforcement and
resolution
* have changes communicated clearly and promptly to all affected staff
* have staff trained in their use where appropriate, including mock
violation resolutions
A good policy defines:
1. its scope, making reference to business rules and relative importance to
the business, and all atomic elements within
2. acceptable use, including allowable activities and explicit violations,
addressing all potential issues within scope
3. applicable guidelines, standards, regulations, or laws
4. identification of and responsibilities for all staff roles involved
5. accountability for all required activities
6. the reporting of violations, sanctions and the expected incident handling
for risk mitigation
7. identifying and treating exceptions
8. an administration authority and their scope
9. references to similar documents
10. (Q) an audit process to ensure policy is implemented and detail the last
audit date
11. (Q) the update and review process
Overall, policies should:
* address staff and management expectations for controls and procedures
* address recorded incidents and be appropriate for the expected cost of
violation
* consider the staff base, including geographically and socially
* contain different levels of compliance where necessary
* have all supporting documentation such as procedures and references
* encourage information flow between appropriate groups
Steve Hudson - Word Heretic, Sydney, Australia
Email: heretic -at- tdfa -dot- com Blog: www.tdfa.com/blog/blog.htm
For MS-Word questions please use msnews.microsoft.com before
heretic -at- tdfa -dot- com -dot-
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