One hundred and twenty years ago, Connecticut signed the first law establishing speed limits for motor vehicles in America. This new law, designed to protect the majority of people who still walked or traveled by horse and carriage, limited drivers to 12 miles per hour in cities and a heart-pounding 15 miles per hour in the country. Fortunately for all of us, as the world evolved, those laws evolved with time. Your company’s policies and procedures should also evolve with time. Establishing a strong policy and procedure review process ensures proper evolution of your documents while supporting employee clarity, compliance readiness, and ongoing process improvement.
Without a formal review system, outdated policies can expose organizations to operational, legal, and reputational risk. The policy and procedure review process ensures that organizational rules remain accurate, relevant, and legally compliant. The review process involves critically assessing your policies, procedures, and supplemental documentation to determine what is still necessary, what has become obsolete, and what simply needs modification. A well-managed review yields multiple benefits, such as helping to improve business processes and maintain alignment with the best practices in your industry.
The Importance of Reviewing Policies and Procedures
Regardless of our strongest efforts, the policies we write today will eventually lose their effectiveness. Whether due to a shift in market conditions, new technologies, or customer demands, our policies may no longer be the best tools to help us achieve our mission; they must change. Regular policy and procedure reviews aren’t just optional; they’re a legal and organizational imperative, which helps ensure alignment with current laws, regulations, and internal processes.
You risk severe financial, legal, and professional ramifications if you’re not routinely evaluating your internal standard operating procedures (SOPs), compliance documents, and other company policies. Consistent policy review enhances audit preparedness and strengthens internal controls by identifying and mitigating potential risks, which protects the organization from legal and financial issues.
Routine updates reduce the risk of employee confusion, liability, or noncompliance. On the other hand, outdated policies can crush employee morale by making their job more difficult or by being needlessly restrictive. Antiquated policies may even hinder growth by stifling new ideas or processes to improve cost and efficiency.
A stout policy and procedure review process contributes to organizational transparency and builds a culture of accountability, while encouraging a mentality of ongoing improvement and effective response to feedback. The review process helps to maintain high standards of quality and service by regularly assessing and improving operational procedures to streamline processes, improving overall workflow and productivity.
What Triggers Policy Review?
A well-crafted policy and procedure review process should set guidelines for the frequency of reviews. To keep documentation current, many organizations follow annual or biannual review cycles. However, policy reviews should not be restricted to these cycles. An impromptu review may be triggered when a severe violation of company policy occurs, or when a significant change happens.
The introduction of new laws, regulations, technology, and norms can affect how we should operate. A great example of this is when Covid-19 entered our orbits, normalizing remote work. When policy fails to reflect these changes, our risk rises and it’s vital to review policies and ensure that they reflect our current needs.
Regulatory updates, system changes, and organizational restructuring often prompt out-of-cycle reviews. Every organization is different, including their structure, which means that policy review cycles may differ from department to department based on their regulatory environment. High-risk areas such as data security, safety, and finance may require more frequent policy evaluations.
Stakeholders in the Review Process
Department heads and policy owners are typically responsible for prompting and overseeing policy reviews. While they spearhead the initiative, a robust policy and procedure review process casts a wide net to garner the broadest perspective, seeking insights on the practicalities of existing policies from employees, management, or external partners (e.g., vendors). Legal and compliance teams cannot be overlooked in the process; they play a critical role in evaluating policies for regulatory accuracy.
Nobody can provide a better critique of what’s working and what isn’t than subject matter experts (SMEs)—namely, the people in direct contact with a policy or procedure, especially those who consult policies and procedures in their daily work. While executive leadership or governing committees often provide final approval for policy changes, cross-functional collaboration ensures that reviewed policies consider operational and employee impact.
Collect feedback through surveys, interviews, or focus groups. Emphasize that without the right insights, you cannot make the necessary changes to improve the company’s performance. “What procedural changes would make your job function smoother?” is an example of a great question to ask. Some of the best ideas don’t always come from the top. Listen to all the voices and analyze this feedback to understand stakeholder perspectives and concerns.
The Policy and Procedure Review Process: A Step-by-Step Overview
1) Identify Policies Due for Review
- A comprehensive policy and procedure review process begins with a clear inventory of existing documents and their current status.
- Maintain a centralized list of all policies and their last review dates.
- Use a review calendar to flag which documents need evaluation based on set intervals or triggered events.
2) Assign Ownership and Responsibilities
- Designate a responsible party or department head for each policy.
- Clearly define who will review, revise, approve, and distribute the updated document.
3) Evaluate Policy Relevance and Accuracy
- Evaluate each policy for clarity, operational relevance, and regulatory alignment.
- Review the policy against current laws, internal processes, and technologies.
- Determine whether the policy still aligns with company goals, industry standards, and organizational practices.
4) Gather Stakeholder Feedback
- Consult relevant teams (legal, HR, compliance, operations) for input.
- Identify any pain points or areas of confusion that have emerged since the policy was last implemented.
- Speak with employees to which each policy applies – those who should be following it. Ask them if the policy makes sense to them. Is it being complied with? What are the use cases?
5) Update the Policy or Procedure
- Revise outdated language, correct inaccuracies, and improve clarity.
- Ensure formatting is consistent with company standards and templates.
6) Submit for Review and Approval
- Route the updated document through the necessary approval workflow.
- Apply comments from document reviewer, make changes, and procure final sign-off for audit purposes.
7) Archive Previous Versions
- Retain older versions as part of your compliance documentation, with timestamps and approval history.
- Clearly mark outdated versions as inactive or archived to prevent confusion.
8) Publish and Distribute the Updated Policy
- Upload the new policy to a centralized system accessible to all relevant staff.
- Record who reviewed the policy, when it was reviewed, what changes were made, and who approved it.
- Notify affected employees and departments of the update, outlining what has changed and why.
9) Track Acknowledgment and Training
- Require employees to confirm receipt or acknowledgment of critical policy updates.
- Provide training or clarification where necessary, especially for high-risk or complex changes.
Maintaining an Effective Policy and Procedure Manual
After investing hours of your valuable time, energy, and effort – perhaps blood, sweat, and tears – into the policy and procedure review process you get to taste the sweet fruits of your labor; your newly polished documents are published for use in a strategic, centralized policy manual to make certain that employees can easily access up-to-date procedures and reduce the risk of using outdated files. Policies within the manual should include ownership information, last review date, and next scheduled review. Version control and change tracking ensure the manual reflects only the most recent approved policies.
Few things can be more frustrating than discovering that you have labored in vain. If employees cannot locate the policies or cannot find the most pertinent information within them, what’s the point? Easily accessible files are like low-hanging fruit, requiring little effort. Equally important as the placement is the appearance. The fruit must be ripe and free of pests or deterrents, or it won’t be consumed – much less digested. An effective policy and procedure manual will be well-organized, formatted in a way that is visually pleasing and inviting to the viewer.
Organizing your manual—by department, function, or risk level—improves navigation and usability. Use simple language. Avoid dense, lengthy explanations, and paragraphs of legalese that will simply go unread. Where possible, use visual aids like charts, diagrams, or graphics in your manual to not only break up the text, but also to provide clarity. If your manual includes an explanation of employee hierarchy, for example, including a diagram will help employees visualize workflows much better than simply writing it out.
Examples help employees to internalize vital company policies and procedures by putting the information in context. Simple hypothetical scenarios will assist employees in translating procedures in the manual to their actual work environment. For instance, when explaining the rules for company leave and paid time off, present examples of different scenarios illustrating how that leave can and cannot be used. The better your employees can relate to the information being provided, they will be more likely to retain and remember it for the future, rewarding your hard work and ensuring the fruits of your labor do not rot on the vine.
Best Practices for Ongoing Policy Management
Reviewing policies and procedures isn’t a one-time task. To make your policy and procedure review process worthwhile, ongoing policy management is a must. After your revisions are approved, work on their implementation and develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor their progress.
Assign policy owners to activate accountability and ensure subject-matter expertise. Empower them with a sense of ownership, encouraging them to speak to stakeholders to see how the changes are taking effect. If something isn’t working, don’t stick with it for the sake of avoiding further reviews. Note issues for future policy and procedure evaluations.
Implement systems such as a master calendar with built-in review timelines helps prevent missed deadlines or overlooked documents. Remove roadblocks and streamline processes. Standardize policy templates to improve consistency and reduce formatting time during updates. Present clear documentation of responsibilities to enhance accountability throughout the review process and conduct internal audits to help identify policies that may need clarification or revision.
Policy Management Software Supports the Review Process
No matter the size of your business or what industry you’re in, the policy and procedure review process is complicated. Ensuring that your policies are legally compliant, mission-driven, easy to understand, and suitable for your employees feels like a juggling act – certainly more than one person can handle. Delegating tasks and assigning ownership empowers employees, cultivating ownership and accountability, but you must manage all of it, which can feel overwhelming.
So, how can one oversee all of this effectively? In today’s world of business, you simply can’t – not without the assistance of policy management software. Software platforms can automate policy reminders, approvals, and version tracking to streamline the review cycle. Digital solutions centralize policy access and eliminate the need for manual distribution and acknowledgment. Real-time reporting and dashboards improve visibility into review status across departments.
ComplianceBridge offers a customizable platform that facilitates review workflows and ensures audit readiness. From the first step to the last, we help you master policy management, simplifying the policy and procedure review process by automating key tasks. With features like auto-review notifications you can rest assured that nothing slips through the cracks.
ComplianceBridge is a complete solution to your policy management needs. With easy-to-use customizable tools such as collaborative policy creation and approval, automated workflows, centralized storage for your policy library, and version control, the review process is as quick and painless as possible. Our software also offers custom quizzes to give you a company-wide view of policy comprehension, allowing for a more targeted review process.Don’t let the world evolve while your policies stay the same.
See how ComplianceBridge can help you take control of your policy management by requesting your free demo today!
