A company can develop hundreds of procedures, but they are completely useless if employees do not follow them. It is difficult to enforce the use of procedures in environments where procedures are updated in a half hazard manner. The following are some examples of positive and negative reinforcement methods in dealing with employees regarding established procedures.
Positive Enforcement:
* Link to systems development staff- Build a working relationship between the procedures development staff and those employees tasked with making alterations to the company's systems. In doing so procedural revisions are issued at the same time system changes are made.
* Link to auditors- If the internal or external auditors review the company systems and find control problems, the procedures development staff should be aware of those issues so that they are developing procedural remedies.
* Issue timely updates- Create a system that issues procedural updates on a regular basis.
* Conduct training- Provide training as needed regarding procedural changes, especially when an entirely new procedure is being installed.
Negative Reinforcement:
* Report on procedural failures- These issues should be documented and issued to the management team. The CEO should enforce the remedy of each failure, with follow up actions to ensure that improvements were implemented.
* Request internal audits- Request that the internal audit staff engage in an ongoing series of review to determine the extent to which employees are following procedures. If no internal audit staff, consider hiring a systems consultant for this work on an ongoing basis. The result of these reviews should be a report that is sent to the management team, pointing out areas of noncompliance with procedures.
* Create audit committee- The audit committee comprised of board members, can pressure the CEO to enforce greater compliance with the company's official set of procedures.
* Integrate into employee evaluations- convince the CEO and the HR manager to include procedural compliance in the reviews of employees. Serious non-compliance could be grounds for dismissal from the company.
* Link to systems development staff- Build a working relationship between the procedures development staff and those employees tasked with making alterations to the company's systems. In doing so procedural revisions are issued at the same time system changes are made.
* Link to auditors- If the internal or external auditors review the company systems and find control problems, the procedures development staff should be aware of those issues so that they are developing procedural remedies.
* Issue timely updates- Create a system that issues procedural updates on a regular basis.
* Conduct training- Provide training as needed regarding procedural changes, especially when an entirely new procedure is being installed.
Negative Reinforcement:
* Report on procedural failures- These issues should be documented and issued to the management team. The CEO should enforce the remedy of each failure, with follow up actions to ensure that improvements were implemented.
* Request internal audits- Request that the internal audit staff engage in an ongoing series of review to determine the extent to which employees are following procedures. If no internal audit staff, consider hiring a systems consultant for this work on an ongoing basis. The result of these reviews should be a report that is sent to the management team, pointing out areas of noncompliance with procedures.
* Create audit committee- The audit committee comprised of board members, can pressure the CEO to enforce greater compliance with the company's official set of procedures.
* Integrate into employee evaluations- convince the CEO and the HR manager to include procedural compliance in the reviews of employees. Serious non-compliance could be grounds for dismissal from the company.
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