Get policies signed

Before you start

• A role with the permission to manage employee training. It shows the TrainingPolicy Signatures page in your menu. In the built-in set, administrators have that permission, and so do members of the “HR Managers” group. The “security_analyst” role has it too; no group carries it, so an administrator gives it to a person by hand, as Roles, groups and permissions shows.
• The permission to manage compliance as well, to add, edit and approve policies. In the built-in set, administrators have that permission. The “security_analyst” role has it too; no group carries it, so an administrator gives it to a person by hand, as Roles, groups and permissions shows. Without it you see who has signed, but the “Edit and approve policies” button is not shown and the library reads “A compliance manager adds policies”.
• A second person to approve. Whoever adds or last edits a policy cannot approve it. Only an administrator is excepted.
• Email set up, so the weekly reminders are sent. See Set up email.

Add and approve a policy

1. 1

   Step 1: Open the library

   Go to TrainingPolicy Signatures and click “Library”. It lists ready-made courses and policies together. Click the “Policy to sign” chip to see only the policies people sign.

   The library holds 28 policy templates. Fifteen are marked for signing, among them the Code of Conduct, the Acceptable Use Policy and the Information Security Policy.

2. 2

   Step 2: Add a policy

   Click “Add” on a policy. In “Adopt core policies”, pick the “Policy owner” and a “Next review” date, which must be within a year. Leave “Employees must acknowledge” on. “Preview text” shows the wording. Click “Adopt 1 policy as draft”.

   The policy is added as a draft. Nobody is asked to sign a draft. If you choose yourself as owner you cannot also approve it, so pick the person who will.
3. 3

   Step 3: Make the text yours

   Click “Edit and approve policies” to open the “Policy register”, then the edit button on the policy’s row. Change the “Policy text” to say what your company actually does. It holds up to 40,000 characters, or you can leave it empty and give a “Link (Notion / Drive / SharePoint)” instead.

   Start each section with a heading line such as “## 1. Purpose”. With two or more headings, people confirm every section separately before they sign.

   Five templates (anti-harassment, anti-bribery, whistleblowing, confidentiality and the employee handbook) come with headings only, because the wording depends on local law. Write the text and remove the notice at the top, or the policy cannot be approved.

4. 4

   Step 4: Set who signs and how often

   With “Require every employee to read and sign this policy” on, set:

   • “Sign again every (months)”: 12 to start with, from 0 to 36. 0 means only when the text changes.
   • “Days to sign”: 30 to start with, from 1 to 180. It applies to a new or changed policy, and to each new joiner from their start date. It must be shorter than the renewal period.
   • “Who it applies to”: “Everyone”, or “People who match…” to limit it. People who join or move into the group later are asked too; everyone else is not asked and not counted.

   Click “Save”.

5. 5

   Step 5: Have someone else approve it

   The approver opens the same “Policy register” and clicks “Approve” on the row. From that moment the policy is in force and everyone it applies to has the number of days you set.

What each person does

1. 6

   Step 6: Open it from the to-do list

   The person sees a prompt on their dashboard with a “Review now” button, and the policy under “To do” on My WorkMy to-do, marked “Sign by” with the date. They click “Read and sign”.

   The same steps, written for the person signing, are in Sign a policy.

2. 7

   Step 7: Confirm each section and sign

   They read each section and tick “I have read and agree to this section”. A counter shows how many sections are confirmed. When all are ticked, the “Type your full name to sign” field unlocks. They type their name and click “Sign”.

   A policy with no headings, or only a link, is confirmed once with “I have read and agree to this policy”.

   They can click “Not now” and finish later. The sections already confirmed are saved, on this device or another.
3. 8

   Step 8: Keep a signed copy

   The policy moves to “Done”. The person clicks “Read” to see the text they signed, and “Download my signed copy (PDF)” to keep it.

Follow up

1. 9

   Step 9: See who has and has not signed

   TrainingPolicy Signatures lists one line per person per policy under “Policies to sign”, with the status “Signed”, “Not yet due”, “Overdue” or “Exempt”. It opens on “Everything not signed”; filter by “Policy”, “Department” or “Show”.

2. 10

   Step 10: Send a reminder

   Go to TrainingOverview. Under “Needs attention”, each policy with signatures outstanding has a “Remind all” button. Click it, then “Send reminders”. Each person who has not signed is told in the app and by email.

   You do not have to do this. Once a week, everyone with a policy open is reminded. When a signature is a week late their manager is told, and the people who manage compliance are told when there is no manager.

3. 11

   Step 11: Download the signed roster

   In the “Policy register”, click the download button on the policy’s row. You get a PDF listing every person the policy applies to, their status, the name they typed and when. To see it as it stood on a past day, set “Signature roster as of” first.

   For one person, enter their address under “Person (email)” and click “Evidence record (PDF)”. Both downloads are recorded in the audit log.

4. 12

   Step 12: Excuse someone who cannot sign

   In the “Policy register”, click the exemptions button on an approved policy. Under “Record an exemption”, enter the “Person (email)”, choose a “Reason”, set “Exempt until” and click “Record exemption”.

   An exemption lasts at most a year and cannot be edited: click “End” and record a new one. You cannot record your own. An exempt person is not asked and not counted as overdue.

What you should see

If something goes wrong

"Separation of duties: you drafted this version of the policy, so someone else must approve it."

The person who added or last edited the policy cannot approve it. Ask the policy owner or another person with the permission to manage compliance.

"This policy still has the placeholder text. Write your own text, remove the notice at the top, then approve it."

This is one of the five templates that come without wording. Edit the policy, write each section and delete the notice line.

An approved policy went back to Draft after an edit.

Changing the name, version, text, link or mapped controls returns an approved policy to draft. Nobody is asked while it is a draft. Once it is approved again with different text, everyone signs the new text.

The Sign button stays grey.

Every section must be ticked and a name of at least two characters typed. "Go to next" jumps to the first section still to confirm.

"This policy changed while you were reading it."

The text was approved again while the person had it open. Nothing was signed. They read the current text, confirm it again and sign.

Someone does not see a policy to sign.

Check that the policy is Approved, that Require every employee to read and sign this policy is on, that the person matches Who it applies to, and that they have no exemption.

"Policy signing is not included in this plan."

Policy signing needs Training or the Compliance Hub on your license. It is included from the Team plan.

Still stuck? See When something goes wrong, or Contact Zonitix support.

Where next

• Set up training
• Your to-do list
• Set up email
• Roles, groups and permissions