Creating, organizing, and maintaining the right policies and guides is a core part of every successful compliance program. Whether you're working toward ISO 27001, SOC 2, or any other framework, clear documentation is the foundation for both internal alignment and external audit readiness.
This guide walks you through the process of preparing appropriate compliance documentation and links your efforts to other parts of your compliance project in Humadroid.
Why Policies and Guides Matter
The company's Policies are the backbone of your compliance culture. They shape behavior, formalize expectations, and serve as reliable sources of truth in day-to-day operations, employee awareness and behaviour, and what's really important - audits.
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They prove your intent and establish a formal record that specific requirements and processes are in place.
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Internally, they align teams, making sure employees understand their roles, boundaries, and responsibilities.
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As living documents, they evolve with your organization, responding to changes in regulation, structure, and operations.
A well-maintained policy demonstrates control in action. In fact, an accepted and versioned policy, visible in the employee acknowledgment log, can itself serve as evidence of compliance for many controls.
What Types of Documents to Prepare
The kinds of policies you should create will vary depending on your organization’s size, industry, and the compliance framework you're pursuing. Still, there are foundational documents that most companies, especially those targeting ISO 27001 or SOC 2, are expected to maintain.
Start by thinking of your business areas: how you handle data, how people behave in your company, how you work with vendors, how you respond to risks, and how you protect user privacy. Each of these areas should be covered by specific, clear, and up-to-date policies.
🔐 Security & IT
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Information Security Policy – outlines your general approach to securing information systems.
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Access Control Policy – defines how access is granted, revoked, and audited.
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Encryption Policy – shows your methods for encrypting data at rest and in transit.
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Password Policy – enforces password complexity, rotation, and storage guidelines.
👥 HR & People
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Code of Conduct – sets the tone for ethical behavior and company values.
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Disciplinary Policy – explains how violations of rules or misconduct are handled.
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Background Check Policy – documents your process for pre-employment checks.
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Security Awareness Guide – trains employees on phishing, social engineering, and data handling.
🤝 Vendor & Third-Party Management
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Vendor Risk Management Policy – shows how vendors are selected and monitored.
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Data Processing Agreement Guidelines – defines expectations around data processing and privacy.
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Third-Party Access Policy – explains how external users or systems gain access to your environment.
🚨 Incident & Risk Management
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Risk Management Policy – defines your process for identifying and managing risks.
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Incident Response Plan – outlines how the company detects, escalates, and responds to security incidents.
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Business Continuity Plan – prepares your business for disasters or major disruptions.
🔏 Data Protection & Privacy
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Privacy Policy – documents how you collect, use, and store personal data.
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Data Classification Policy – categorizes information to apply appropriate controls.
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Data Retention Policy – defines how long data is stored and how it’s deleted or archived.
✍️ Best Practices for Creating Compliance Policies
Creating effective policies is about clarity, accountability, and relevance. Instead of overwhelming employees with long, unreadable documents, aim for concise and usable guides. It doesn't have to be written with corporate language. It needs to be unnderstandable for your employees, and relevant to your orgzanization.
Start by making sure each policy has a clear purpose and is practical to implement. Lengthy 60-page policies are rarely read, let alone followed. Use plain language and concrete actions. For example, instead of saying "Users must behave securely," define what "secure behavior" actually means in the context of your organization.
Every policy should also have an owner, someone responsible for its creation, maintenance, and review. This could be your CISO for security policies or your HR Manager for employee guidelines.
Regular reviews are crucial. Schedule annual audits of your policy documents, or update them whenever critical business processes change.
Humadroid helps by tracking versions, allowing you to publish new iterations and prompt fresh employee acknowledgment.
📝 How to Add Policies in Humadroid
To add a policy as part of your compliance project, navigate to the Documents tab. From here, you can create a new document(policy). You’ll be able to:
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Add a clear title and brief description
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Choose the document type (e.g., Policy, Procedure, Guide) for easier management and filtering
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Specify if the document requires employee acknowledgment
Humadroid supports three types of acknowledgments:
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Explicit Acknowledgment Required – Employees must read and accept the policy with their name
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Simple Accept/Reject -
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Read Only – Employees are informed but not required to confirm acceptance
These settings ensure that employees are informed of expectations and can be held accountable. Acknowledged documents become part of your compliance record, allowing you to easily present them to any auditor.
➡️ Once published, documents can be linked to specific controls or compliance sections and used as recurring evidence during assessments.