Creating the right policy and procedures for your businesses is a great first step in ensuring organization and adherence to standards. However, to make sure that the policies actually help you take your business to the next level, there needs to be an efficient system to manage them. That’s where policy management software programs come in.
And, to help you pick the best software to manage your policies, below, we look at seven of the most important features of policy management software;
1. Compliance
Compliance is a big part of document management. With regulation changing almost all the time, you need a policy management system that would allow you to remain in compliance at all times to prevent costly mistakes. The system should also update you on whether or not all employees in a department have read and understood the policy.
2. Ease of use
The best policy management systems are simple and easy to use. End users should be able to go in, locate and access the sections they want to read, share the information as they wish, and log out without complications. A complex policy, on the other hand, is a recipe for chaos and frustrations.
3. Search features
One way to tell if the policy management software would be easy to use is to find out if it has search functionality. And, it shouldn’t just be search functionality for the sake of it – it must be a robust search “engine” that employees can use to quickly find the documents they are looking for.
4. Document bookmaking
You should also choose a system that makes it possible to bookmark documents. This way, users will have the most viewed documents available to them in one click. Bookmarking also allows users to make personalized lists of important documents as a reference that they can quickly access when there is urgency.
5. Document history
It also helps if the policy management software keeps a history of recently accessed documents. More importantly, it should keep track of all changes recently made to the documents in question, the employee who made the changes, and the time when the changes were made. This will help you to monitor the evolution of the business.
6. File support
This is very important. Different businesses deal with different types of files. Some mostly deal with Microsoft Office documents, some deal with PDFs, others need to share XML files, and so on. Ideally, find a policy management system that supports as many file formats as possible. If not, then find one that supports all the document types used in your business.
7. Reporting
As a final point, ensure that the software you pick generates reports. The reports will be vital for system administrators and other senior employees who manage company policies. They can print out reports to use in boardroom meetings and use the statistics to plan for upcoming challenges such as potential compliance issues.
Always choose a policy management software with all these features. Otherwise, you’re not getting value for your money.