A Human Resource Policy is essential for any organization as it ensures that every stage of the employment lifecycle is documented and security is considered. A well-structured HR policy not only protects the company but also clarifies the responsibilities of your staff (including employees and management). This blog will focus on the essential components of a Human Resource (HR) policy before delving into how you can edit a free HR policy template through our Policy Manager.
1. Pre-Employment Screening
The pre-employment screening section of your HR policy and your organization’s process should focus on validating the candidate’s suitability for the role for which they are being hired. This can be done through background checks to verify a candidate’s identity, employment history and relevant certifications. While not permitted in some countries, when legally permissible, ensure a criminal background check is performed to protect the company from potential risks and, where possible, contact previous employers (through their official channels) to confirm their qualifications. Finally, for sensitive roles related to handling financial information, a credit check may be a good idea to ensure there is little risk of insider threats (e.g. fund misdirection or theft).
Criminal record checks portal (RCMP) Criminal record Checks (U.S. Department of State)
2. Competence and Performance Assessment
This involves regular evaluations of both technical abilities and job performance, with ongoing feedback and goal-setting to promote continuous improvement and alignment with company objectives. This process helps identify development needs and ensures sustained contribution to the organization’s success.
Performance management program for employees (Government of Canada)
3. Terms and Conditions of Employment
It is essential to review your employment and contractor legal agreements and verify there is a clause for confidentiality that continues to exist after employment (to protect company information) in addition to clearly listing their security and compliance obligations. This is where cybersecurity and HR can overlap as cybersecurity is everyone’s job, and their duties to protect the organization should be documented (e.g. required to complete their security awareness training). Where there isn’t a clause, one should be added.
Security Roles and Responsibilities (Government of British Columbia)
4. Management Responsibilities
t’s important to outline the responsibilities of management in maintaining security and operational integrity. Managers are responsible for overseeing access control, ensuring that employees have the appropriate access rights based on their specific roles and responsibilities. Additionally, they must regularly monitor employee performance to ensure compliance with security protocols and address any security-related issues or incidents involving their team members. Clear documentation of these management responsibilities in your HR policy helps maintain a compliant workspace.
5. Information Security Awareness, Education, and Training
The next big thing in the policy is defining how cybersecurity awareness training is performed and mandating it is performed upon joining and annually after that. Our free WatchDog Security subscription can empower your team with unlimited users and free, recurring security awareness training which can satisfy the requirements. However, this has inherent limitations – it assumes training is a one-glove-fits-all solution, which could not be further from true. The reality is that certain users exhibit riskier behaviors, often being educated about their significance. This is where a paid subscription to WatchDog Security can come in handy. The subscription offers flexibility, allowing us to adapt the training to the specific needs of each user, depending on their day-to-day insecure behaviors. For instance, if they don’t use MFA on SaaS platforms often, we can assign them a course educating them on it automatically as an example.
6. Termination and Offboarding Process
In your policy, document your process for removing access. Ideally, access is removed immediately upon the individual leaving the company to prevent unauthorized access to systems. Document the exit interview process to remind the employee of any confidentiality obligations post-employment, collect any assets provided (e.g., devices, ID cards), and ensure they don’t have any company resources or data when leaving.
7. Post-Employment Obligations
It’s crucial to include in your HR policy the ongoing obligations of former employees. Even after leaving the company, they remain bound by confidentiality agreements, which ensures the continued protection of proprietary information and trade secrets. Additionally, the policy should enforce non-compete agreements where applicable, preventing former employees from engaging in competing activities for a specified period. Clearly documenting these post-employment obligations helps protect the company’s interests and mitigates potential risks.
Editing a Human Resource Policy Template using WatchDog Security’s Free Policy Manager
Using a free subscription to the WatchDog Security platform, you can leverage our policy manager to create and disseminate policies (such as a Human Resource Policy) to your team members and have a centralized hub to manage everything. To get started sign up here. Once you sign up, navigate to Policy Manager and click Create New Policy. Select the Create Using Template option to pre-populate it with various information to help speed up policy development. Edit the highlighted parts of the policy with your organization-accepted parameters and click Publish Policy. Now all the users added via Employee Management will receive the policy to accept in their dashboard.
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Additional Resources
HUMAN RESOURCES’ ROLE IN PREVENTING INSIDER THREATS (CISA.GOV)
