Ensure documentation is reviewed periodically, ensure information is current, compliant and legal.
Set default review periods for documents based on their location.
Assign custom review periods to individual documents
Determine if still relevant or go straight to change control.
In any organisation there can, over time, be huge amounts of information for employees and contractors to contend with. Some of this is externally generated, much will be internally generated, all of it will be generated for a reason. Over time, the driving reason may no longer be valid and so that leads to a need for maintenance of the information store.
Some information may even have an expiration date, being valid for set number of days or until some mitigation is in place.
Outdated, inaccurate documentation is worse than no documentation at all.
There can also a be a problem with outdated information obscuring what people need to find. Faced with a choice of conflicting versions of information to choose from, a user needs to make a choice.
By reviewing documentation regularly, you help ensure the information within remains accurate, the processes described within remain current and the version of information you are presenting is relevant, useful and dependable.
Our solution allows all documentation to be assigned owners. These owners are roles within the organisation, for example the quality assurance manager, or the HR manager. This owner then assumes responsiblity for reviewing documentation whereever reviews are required. The reviews and their outcome is logged, and if required a change can be submitted from within the review process to update a document or remove as required.
Since document review is tied to ownership, and ownership is based on an individual job role, we also cater for changes to job roles, and staff absence. It’s possible in system to transfer ownership of documentation between roles, and with it document review obligations. In addition to this via named delegates our solution can allow others to perform the document reviews on behalf of the designated owner as required. All reviews contribute to the history of a document so anyone can see at a glance when it was reviewed, who by, and what the outcome was, whether it was considered current and left as is or updated as a result of the review.
The requirement to carry out a document review can be limited to specific documents, documents in specific sections of a manual, or omitted entirely based on the need.
Default review periods can be assigned, for example you could configure the system to require all documents in a HR section be reviewed every 24 months, but perhaps have individual documents in that section not requiring review, 12 month review or 60 month reviews respectively. It is entirely configurable based on your document review needs and the needs of the underlying types of information.
For those with document review responsibilities, they can see at a glance when they log into the system, all of the documents they are responsible for, when a review is due, and how long they have left to complete the review.
From a system oversight perspective it’s possible to see outstanding reviews or reviews close to expiration via our reporting features. Our solution can also notify people when they have review obligations getting close to expiration.
By regularly reviewing critical information, you greatly increase the chances of ensuring people always have the most current information to hand when they need it. Remove the obsolete, update the outdated, and ensure all information you ask people to use as part of the day to day operation of your business is current and accurate.