Policies
Governance → Policies
The policy library holds your governing documents — policies, standards, procedures — each versioned, approved and acknowledged.
Lifecycle
draft → in_review → approved → published → effective
then under_review when it comes back round, and retired at end of life.
The two that people conflate:
- Published — the version exists and is visible.
- Effective — it is the version people are actually held to.
A policy can be published ahead of its effective date so staff can read it before it binds them.
Versions
Every change creates a new version rather than overwriting. Old versions stay readable, which is what lets you answer "what did our policy say in March?" — the question an investigation always asks.
Approvals
A policy version moves to approved through recorded approvals, with who approved and when. This is the evidence that the document was authorised, not just uploaded.
Acknowledgments
Publishing a version lets you run an acknowledgment campaign: staff confirm they have read it, and the record of who acknowledged what version and when is kept.
Staff see their outstanding items under Governance → My Acknowledgments.
Someone who acknowledged v1 has not acknowledged v2. Re-issuing after a material change is the point — otherwise you are evidencing that people read a document that no longer exists.