Policies and Acknowledgements How to publish a policy to the right audience, require acknowledgement, and prove who accepted which version.

Policy documents are published to an audience, optionally require acknowledgement, and keep a version history. The point is not storage — it is being able to prove, later, that a specific person accepted a specific version.

A Policy Document

Each carries a title, description, category, the file or an external link, a version, a link to its previous version, an expiry date, whether it requires acknowledgement, and whether it is active.

Versioning is the part that matters. A new version links back to the one it replaces, so the chain is intact. Acknowledgements attach to the version acknowledged, not to the policy in general — which is the difference between "they accepted the expenses policy" and "they accepted the expenses policy as it read in March, before the limit changed."

Expiry suits policies that must be reviewed periodically. Certifications and compliance statements go stale, and an expired policy still displayed as current is worse than none.

Audiences

A policy is published to an audience rather than to everyone by default. Audiences are scoped by:

• Everyone
• Department
• Role
• Hub

Hub scoping is the one that earns its keep in a multi-entity organisation — employment policy is jurisdictional, and a UAE policy shown to a UK employee is wrong in a way that matters.

A document can carry several audiences, so one policy can cover two departments without being published twice.

Acknowledgements

An acknowledgement records the document, the person, the timestamp, signature data and the IP address it came from.

That combination is what makes it evidence rather than a tick. If an acknowledgement is ever challenged, the question is who accepted what, when, and from where.

Publishing A Policy

1. Upload it, or link it if it lives elsewhere.
2. Set the category and version.
3. Link the previous version if it replaces one.
4. Set an expiry if it needs periodic review.
5. Choose the audience — as narrow as is correct.
6. Decide whether acknowledgement is required.
7. Publish, then check the acknowledgement rate after a week.

Chasing

The acknowledgement list is also the outstanding list. Check it rather than assuming — the gap between published and acknowledged is usually larger than expected, and it is the gap that matters if anything is ever tested.

Common Questions

We changed a policy. Re-acknowledge? If the change is material, yes — publish a new version linked to the old. Acknowledgements attach to a version, so the old ones stand for the old text.

Someone will not acknowledge. The record shows they have not. What follows is a management question; the platform's job is to be accurate about it.

Can policies be seen by candidates or contractors? Audiences are employee-scoped. Anything for people outside that belongs elsewhere.

What if a policy expires? It stops being current. Review and republish — an expired policy displayed as live is a liability.