Key reasons to use SharePoint for policy and procedure management

You probably already have SharePoint

Many organisations already have SharePoint bundled with their Office 365 or Microsoft 365 licensing, making it a readily available platform for policy management. Microsoft’s continuous improvements have enhanced SharePoint’s ease of use and speed, making it a familiar tool for document management. Documents can be easily shared, collaborated on, and version control is effective, ensuring a single source of truth—critical for managing policies. Leveraging SharePoint for policy management means your users are already familiar with the system, and it is fully secured and backed up by Microsoft, providing peace of mind.

You can introduce automation and track the policy lifecycle

Lifecycle management is key to successful policy management. SharePoint integrates seamlessly with Power Automate, allowing you to automate workflows and processes around the policy content lifecycle. Create clear ownership, notifications, and workflows to ensure policies are kept up to date and provide views that show admins the status of policies.

Audit trails and version control ensure compliance

SharePoint provides a complete audit trail of changes made to policies and procedures, offering transparency and accountability. You can track updates across versions, showing when and who made changes, which is crucial for compliance and external auditing purposes.

It provides easy access for all employees

Centralised access to policies is crucial. With most organisations using SharePoint for their intranet, project sites, or communication sites, integrating a policy document library into existing channels is quick and easy. This ensures employees can easily access necessary documents, whether through the intranet or Microsoft Teams, which is increasingly central to workplace communication.

You can leverage Microsoft search

Using Microsoft search ensures policies are easily discoverable, helping employees find necessary documents through intranet search functionality. With CoPilot, Microsoft’s AI offering, it’s possible to include policy knowledge and content in AI outputs, further enhancing findability.

You can track usage

SharePoint allows tracking of policy usage, including views and updates. Integration with Active Directory and Power BI enables real-time reporting, supporting effective policy management. Critical data such as mandatory document reads can be tracked, ensuring compliance.

You can target policies

You can integrate with Azure Active Directory and the 365 groups that have been set up to help target policies to the right groups, such as new hires or a function like engineering or sales staff. You can also ensure people access the right policy based on their profile so people in Brazil see a different HR policy to those in France, for example.