HR policies with acknowledgement
Publish the employee handbook, code of conduct, POSH and other policies as numbered versions, to everyone or to chosen departments, staff categories or designations. Each person acknowledges by a deadline, and you see who has not.
PLANSScale only
The problem it solves
- The handbook went out by email two years ago, and nobody can prove who read the current version.
- A policy changes, and old and new copies float around in shared folders.
- During an inquiry or an audit you are asked to show that an employee accepted the POSH or code of conduct policy.
- New joiners and people who move departments never see the policies that apply to them.
How it works
- HR creates the policy under Conduct and Policies > Policies > All Policies. It has a name, category, Entity, owner and a number of days to acknowledge.
- HR chooses the audience with Only Departments, Only Staff Categories or Only Designations. Left empty, the policy is for everyone.
- HR clicks New Version, writes the text or attaches the PDF, fills in the effective date and what changed, and clicks Publish.
- Everyone in the audience gets the policy with their own deadline. They open My Policies, read it and click I Have Read and Accept.
- HR follows the count on the version and the Acknowledgements list, with filters To Acknowledge and Overdue. People are reminded the day before the deadline and each week while overdue.
Everything it does
Policies
- Name, category, Entity (empty means every Entity of the group), owner
- Six categories to start with: Employee handbook, Code of conduct, Leave and attendance, Prevention of sexual harassment (POSH). Also Child protection / safeguarding, and IT and data privacy
- Acknowledgement Required: on to start with; turn it off for a policy that is for information only
- Days to Acknowledge: 7 to start with
- Audience: only some departments (with their sub-departments), staff categories or designations; empty means everyone not yet separated
Versions
- Each version has a number (1.0 to start with), an effective date, What Changed, the text and an optional PDF
- New Version copies the current text and file into a draft numbered one up (1.0, then 2.0)
- A version is Draft, Published or Replaced; publishing a new one replaces the one before
- A published version cannot be edited or deleted; only a draft can
- A version needs a text or a PDF before it can be published
- Every version is kept on the policy with who acknowledged it and when
Acknowledgements
- One acknowledgement per person and version, To Acknowledge or Acknowledged, with the date and time
- The deadline is the day of publishing plus Days to Acknowledge
- A new version asks everyone again; pending requests for the old version are removed, finished ones stay as history
- Each night the audience is checked again; new joiners and people who moved in are asked, with their own deadline
- Only the person can acknowledge; nobody can do it for them
- The version shows how many acknowledged out of how many, as a number and a percentage
Following up
- Acknowledgements list: filters To Acknowledge and Overdue, grouped by policy or department
- Overdue lines show in red
- The Conduct and Policies dashboard: policies to acknowledge, acknowledged, and pending acknowledgements by department
- The employee 360 view lists a pending policy among the person's open items
Who uses it
EmployeeReads the policies that apply to them and clicks I Have Read and Accept, on the web or in the app.
HR Officer or HR AdminWrites policies, sets the audience, publishes versions and follows the acknowledgements of their Entities.
Policy ownerNamed on each policy as the person responsible for it.
Where you use it
- Web: HRMS > Conduct and Policies > Policies (My Policies, All Policies, Acknowledgements) and Configuration > Policy Categories
- The SmartMy HRMS app: Menu > Policies, to read the text and tap I have read and understood this. Built and in testing, not in the app stores yet.
- Not in the app: writing, publishing and following up are done on the web. A policy kept only as a PDF is read on the web
- Pre-joining page: joiners accept the policy texts set on the onboarding template, which are separate from the versions here
What you control
Settings
- Acknowledgement Required: on, per policy
- Days to Acknowledge: 7, per policy
- Audience: everyone, until you choose departments, staff categories or designations
- Policy categories: six to start with, which you can rename, add or archive
- Reminders: the day before the deadline, then every 7 days while overdue
Approvals
- No approval chain: an HR Officer or HR Admin publishes a version directly
Notifications
- Policy to Acknowledge: to each person asked, when asked, the day before the deadline and weekly while overdue. In the app, by email and as a phone notice
- It goes out at once; each person can switch off a channel, such as email, but in-app notices always arrive
Works with
SmartMy LearnA policy can be a lesson in an online course, for example in induction. Finishing it with I Have Read and Accept records the acknowledgement here, and a new version sends the course out again.
Questions
What happens when we change a policy?
Click New Version, edit the copy and publish it. The old version becomes Replaced, and everyone in the audience is asked to acknowledge the new one with a fresh deadline. Earlier acknowledgements stay on record.Can we show that a person accepted a policy?
Yes. Each acknowledgement records the person, the version and the date and time they clicked I Have Read and Accept. Only that person can acknowledge it.Do new joiners get the policies?
Yes. Each night the system adds people who are now in a policy's audience, with a deadline counted from that day. On the pre-joining page joiners also accept the policy texts of their onboarding template.Can a policy apply only to one site or one group?
Yes. Set the Entity, and choose departments, staff categories or designations. A policy with nothing chosen goes to everyone in its Entity, or in every Entity when the Entity is empty.Can a policy be read without asking for acknowledgement?
Yes. Turn off Acknowledgement Required. The policy is kept with its versions, and nobody is asked or reminded.Can we add a quiz to check people understood the policy?
Not in SmartMy HRMS. With SmartMy Learn, a policy lesson can be followed by a quiz in the same course.Related features
JOINING AND PROBATIONPre-joining, onboarding tasks and the joining kitFrom the accepted offer to the end of the first week. Each joiner gets a joining page without a login, a daily risk score and the joining kit to sign online. Medical checks run where a role needs one, every department gets its onboarding tasks, and each joiner gets a buddy and a first-week plan.PERFORMANCE, CONDUCT, LEARNINGTraining, certificates and required hoursPlan courses and sessions, nominate people or let them ask to join, mark who attended, and issue certificates that expire. A yearly check shows who is short of the training hours their group must do.PERFORMANCE, CONDUCT, LEARNINGDiscipline: memos, hearings and appealsRun a disciplinary case from the memo or show-cause notice to the employee's reply, a committee hearing, the decision and an appeal. Fines are deducted in payroll, unpaid suspension days are cut from the payslip, and every letter is issued from your templates.LINKS AND PLATFORMGrievance and POSH committeeA confidential place for complaints of sexual harassment at work (POSH), misconduct and unfair treatment. Employees report with their name or, where the type allows, anonymously. The committee runs the inquiry through findings, action and appeal. Nobody outside the case reads it, not even HR.VIEWS AND REPORTSEmployee 360 and organisation chartOne screen shows everything about an employee: profile, attendance, leave, pay, loans, assets, documents and what is pending. Each viewer sees only the parts their role allows. The organisation chart covers the whole group, with search, CSV export and open positions.ACROSS SMARTMY HRMSNotificationsSmartMy HRMS tells each person what needs them: a request to approve, a decision, a payslip, a holiday declared today, an exit task, an interview. More than 200 events, each with its own recipients and channels, by email and in the app inbox, with a log of every message.
See your own month run in it.
Tell us how many people you have, how you take attendance and how your salary is structured. We will show you SmartMy HRMS set up that way.