Join Our Email List
Email:  

Travel and Off-Site Meeting Policy

Protection of data and software is often is complicated by the fact that it can be accessed from remote locations. As individuals travel and attend off-site meetings with other  employees, contractors, suppliers and customers data and software can be compromised.  This policy is four page in length and covers:

• Data and application security
• Minimize attention
• Shared public resources
• Off-site meeting special considerations

Things to you need to do to make an off site meeting successfuL

• Set clear objectives. The worst mistake you can make is neglecting to set key objectives for your off-site meeting, just because you want everyone to “relax.” Nothing will get accomplished, and you’ll end up with a group of bored, frustrated employees who will resent you for not respecting their time.
  
  
• Choosing the right meeting site
  Remember that an off-site meeting is meant to “shake things up.” If your office is located in a busy downtown area, don’t hold your meeting in another crowded urban location. Choose a site that provides employees with a new experience. If you work in the city, take them somewhere rural and relaxing; if your office is located in the suburbs, employees might enjoy a trip to a bustling city center.
  
  
• Schedule just enough to be accomplished
  Don’t hold your employees hostage at the meeting site by trying to accomplish too much in one day. Make sure the meeting doesn’t cut into people’s evening activities or family time. You can’t solve the entire year’s problems with one daylong retreat, so don’t even try. However, if the off-site meeting encompasses two days, the evening between can be a good time for a fun activity.
  
  
• Publish an agenda beforehand
  Be careful not to mislead your employees with promises of relaxing outdoor activities, only to transform into a corporate drill sergeant who puts them through a series of grueling trust-building exercises all day. Be clear about your intentions from the start.
  
  
• Schedule meetings during normal working hours
  Just because you can get a cheaper hotel or convention center rate, it’s always a bad idea to plan your off-site meeting around weekends or holidays, which will make attendance a hardship for your employees. Also avoid days when there might be other important things going on within your company.
  
  
• Hold meeting at site where you can work
  When booking your site, inquire what other events or company meetings might be scheduled for the same day. You don’t want the distractions of a raucous wedding party or other large group sharing your space or causing delays in the dining room.
  
  
• Have time to interact
  Don’t turn the day into a PowerPoint marathon or fill it with endless speeches by the boss. The energy will be sucked right out of the room in no time. Keep the day active and engaging, with opportunities for all employees to participate
  .
• Have good speakers
  When considering guest speakers for your event, be certain they have a solid understanding of your company — and not just from the CEO’s lofty perspective. Choose someone interesting who will hold people’s attention in a way that's clearly relevant to the meeting's purpose.
  
  
• Have limited and focused activities
  While they can sometimes be fun, don’t overdo the trust-building, ice-breaking activities. Make sure they are well thought out and actually enjoyable. If an employee is an effective salesperson, it doesn’t really matter if he or she can’t climb a rope. Never forget that most people would rather be home with their families or out with friends than playing games with their boss.
  
  
• After the meeting follow-up
  Once the day of the off-site meeting has come and gone, don’t file it away and forget it. Check back in as a group to gauge the benefits of the experience. What has actually changed as a result of the meeting? Have any of the great ideas people came up with that day been implemented? Use the feedback to improve upon next year’s meeting.

Other Individual Policies

---

All of the policies that are provided here are contained within one or more of the templates that are on this site. These policies have been added as individual documents in WORD format (WORD 2003 and WORD 2007) for those clients who just need this particular policy.  All policies are Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and Patriot Act compliant.

---

Record Management, Retention, and Destruction Policy

    

A record is essentially any material that contains information about your company’s plans, results, policies or performance. In other words, anything about your company that can be represented with words or numbers can be considered a business record – and you are now expected to retain and manage every one of those records, for several years or even permanently depending on the nature of the information. The need to manage potentially millions of records each year creates many new challenges for your business, and especially for your IT managers who must come up with rock-solid solutions to securely store and manage all this data.

The Record Management, Retention, and Destruction is a detail policy template which can be utilized on day one to create a records management process.  Included with the policy are forms for establishing the record management retention and destruction schedule and a full job description with responsibilities for the Manager Records Administration.

You areas included with this policy template are:

• Record retention requirements for SOX sections 103a, 302, 404, 409, 801a and 802.
• Policy
• Standard
• Scope
• Responsibilities
• Record Management
• Compliance and Enforcement
• Email Retention and Compliance
• Job Description Manager Record Administrator
• 12 forms for Record Retention and Disposition Schedule

You can download the Table of Contests and selected pages for this policy template.

    

---

Backup and Backup Retention Policy

The Backup and Backup Retention policy is an 11 page sample policy that is a complete policy which can be implemented immediately. 

The document is provided in both Word 2003 and Word 2007 formats and is easily modified.  This policy is included in the Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Template

  

 

Below is a table from the policy.

 

  

---

Internet, E Mail, Mobile Device, Electronic Communication, and Record Retention Policy

This policy is is compliant with all recent legislation (SOX, HIPAA, Patriot Act, and Sensitive information), and covers:

• Appropriate Use of Equipment
• Mobile Devices
• Internet Access
• Electronic Mail
• Retention of Email on Personal
• E-mail and Business Records
• Copyrighted Materials
• Banned Activities
• Ownership of Information
• Security
• Sarbanes-Oxley
• Abuse

Included are these ready to

• Internet & Electronic Communication Employee Acknowledgement
• E-Mail - Employee Acknowledgement
• Internet Use Approval Form
• Internet Access Request Form
• Security Access Application Form

---

Sensitive Information Policy
 

This policy covers the treatment of Credit Card, Social Security, Employee, and Customer Data.  The policy is 15 pages in length. This policy complies with Sarbanes Oxley Section 404.

The policy applies to the entire enterprise, its vendors, its suppliers (including outsourcers) and co-location providers and facilities regardless of the methods used to store and retrieve sensitive information (e.g. online processing, outsourced to a third party, Internet, Intranet or swipe terminals).

---

Outsourcing Policy

This policy is eighteen page in length and defines everything that is needed for a function to be outsourced.  The policy comes as a Microsoft Word document (Word 2003 & Word 2007) that can be modified as needed.  The template has been updated to include a HIPAA audit program definition:

• Outsourcing Management Standard
  • Service Level Agreement
  • Responsibility
• Outsourcing Policy
  • Policy Statement
  • Goal
• Approval Standard
  • Base Case
  • Responsibilities
     

Note: Look at the Practical Guide for Outsourcing over 110 page document for a more extensive process for outsourcing

 

Copyright © 1999 - IT Productivity Center - a division of Janco Associates, Inc. -- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED