Policies define roles and responsibilities, drive performance, and keep company objectives aligned with legal and regulatory requirements. There is no uncertainty about the importance of maintaining good policies, but they have no value if they are ignored. If the enterprise is having difficulty getting employees to pay attention to corporate policies, consider these tactics.
Dealing with Information Glut
At the best of times, the average human being has an attention span of about 20 minutes per activity. To take advantage of this:
- Make the case. In clear and succinct language state why compliance with the policy matters to end users and their work. For example, a customer privacy policy may indicate that “employees found to have released private customer information to outside parties will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination.”
- Make it snappy. Policies are short and sweet. State the enterprise’s stance on the issue in question, what can and cannot be done, and what will happen if employees do not follow the policy.
