Policy & Training for the Next Generation

In today’s modern and dynamic business environment, organizations need to rethink how they are managing and communicating policies to their employees and the extended enterprise. When organizations approach these policies that are scattered across different internal functions and portals reactively, it is not in tune with today’s modern and younger workforce and presents a burden to the organization in managing policies during a time in which organizations need complete visibility and operational effectiveness – which requires a complete understanding of policies, especially amongst younger generations.

Younger generation within or entering the workforce are highly adept to mobile technologies with integrated capabilities and experiences. Organizations should take heed and seek of innovations in technology to integrate policy and training into a single portal and help engage what is becoming the main front lines of the organization more efficiently. The millennial and even Gen-Z generations are accustomed to technologies that are interactive, mobile, and highly engaging, meaning organizations need to find a way to bring policies and training together in a similar integrated experience to be in tune with the changing world we live in.

Organizations need an engaging and integrated policy and training portal where:

• Employees can provide any comments on policies and even share policies within the network. An integrated portal makes it is easy for employees to ask questions and receive timely answers to increase policy understanding and training.
• Employees can come to find anything that might be necessary. Policies should also not just be boring and lengthy written documents but should also include different types of resources, tools, and media embedded into the portal. Organizations should seek to leverage videos and other resources that can be integrated alongside the actual written policy.
• Understanding is increased through bold, new strategies i.e., games, hypothetical scenarios, and different sorts of interactive content/media can be leveraged to reinforce critical elements of the organization’s policies.
• Changes are reflected within the portal when an employee’s role changes. The most important policies should be easy to find within the portal, and individual users can customize the policy portal to their specific role and needs.

Organizations should want to deliver effectiveness, efficiency, and agility to the business while managing GRC, and in order to do this it requires the development of a strategy that integrates and connects the business and all of its processes, units, training, and information into a single, unified policy management program and portal. Designing this unified policy management program for the future starts with a strategy and this strategy will inevitably fail if it does not seek to be mobile, interactive, and engaging for the changing workforce. This also sets up a foundation within the organization that can enable transparency, visibility, and control across the organization.