Internal policy signed: how to order and register acceptance

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A record of acceptance serves when it says who accepted, what version of the policy, when and what it responded, and when it also includes who rejected. A hand-signed PDF stops reflecting what is in place as soon as policy changes. This article is for those who manage in Human Resources, compliance or internal communication of a medium or large company the internal policies that the company defines and updates: code of conduct, use of equipment, telework, information security. If your team fits in a room, a carefully archived paper signature can be enough for you.

Receive, read and accept: three different facts

They get confused because the same mail or the same paper seems to cover all three. Each is detected with a different signal and none implies the following.

The reading has its own problems of measurement, which are explained in how to know who read an internal ad. Here the third row is interested: accepting is an act of the person, and an acknowledgement of receipt or reading does not replace it.

What a record of acceptance should bear

Five data, whatever the method:

1. The person. Identified so that you can then attribute the act to her: a signature of fist and letter, or a personal account to which she only accesses.
2. The version of politics. A version number or date, and the possibility to recover that exact text later. Without this, the constancy says that someone accepted "the code of conduct," but not which.
3. The date and time. With a time zone if your staff is in several countries.
4. Which he accepted exactly. The phrase the person saw. "I have read" and "I commit to fulfilling" are different commitments: choose one and write it.
5. What if he rejects. The rejection is also recorded, with the same person, version and time, and with someone assigned to care for it.

To these five is added a condition of good management: that the record cannot be edited later without a trace. A spreadsheet where anyone with permission changes a cell offers few guarantees that the record will continue as it was.

Such a record is information about specific people. Before activating it, check with your legal advice or with your data protection delegate, and let staff know that it exists and for what it serves.

Four methods, compared to these criteria

PDF and mail leave consolidation to someone who counts answers. In the mail, some tools help: Outlook, for example, allows vote buttons they collect the answers in a tracking table, but according to Microsoft they require an Exchange account and the data must be copied to a spreadsheet to work with them. The form automates the collection, but identity and inalterability depend on how you mount it.

The platform offers mandatory reading agreements with acceptance or rejection per person, and a record that cannot be modified. It has a cost to say: it requires each person to have corporate mail, because access is by a link to that mail. For staff without corporate mail, the possible channels are compared in how to communicate to workers who do not have corporate mail. Whatever the method, check which data from the above list shows your registration.

Why the hand-signed PDF stops serving when policy changes

A paper signature indicates that a person signed a text on a date. It does not accompany the text when it is amended. Imagine that all staff sign the code of conduct in March and that in September you change the gift section: the file continues to say "signed code of conduct" and nothing warns that the signed is no longer the current.

It is avoided with four customs, for paper or software:

• Number each version and keeps the text of all, without overwriting the previous one.
• Define what change it requires to accept again. A drafting correction may not ask for it. A change of obligations, yes. If you ask for acceptance for any coma, people stop reading.
• Treat each material version as a new agreementwith your deadline and your list of earrings.
• Archive together the version and list of who accepted and who rejected.

For the warning accompanying each new version, there is a new internal policy announcement model.

Before you rely on a registered acceptance

The legal value of a registered acceptance is decided by the legal advice of each company and should be consulted before relying on it.

When a registered acceptance is not sufficient or necessary

No need for information: a notice of change of cleaning hours does not need to be signed by anyone. And it's not enough in two cases.

When you need to know it's understood. A record indicates that the person pressed or signed, and nothing else. He does not say that he has understood the content or that he agrees. If the policy is delicate, such as a security rule or a complaint channel, what you are looking for is understanding, and for that it works better a session with each team or a question of understanding at the end of the text.

When acceptance becomes a procedure. If you ask to accept fifteen documents by blow, people press unread and your record is perfect and empty. Prioritize the policies that matter and ask only for the acceptances you will use.

What to do with those who don't accept

A rejection may point to a problem of policy or process. Keep the answer provided:

1. Find out the cause in a short conversation: he didn't understand, he doesn't agree with a point, he couldn't access or he was off.
2. Solve the solvable. If doubt is a misunderstanding, it clarifies and offers to accept again; if it points to a point that deserves change, take it to the policy-makers.
3. Distinguish the silence of rejection. He who does not answer has not rejected; he is told again by another channel and by a particular person.
4. Check before you act. What to do if someone maintains their rejection of a rule that the company wants to comply with is a decision that should be made with your legal advice. Don't announce consequences to the staff before you talk to her.