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Free IT policy templates now available
Free IT policy templates now available
May 06, 2014
IT policies give your business shelter
Do you know what your staff are looking at online? Are you confident you're taking proper care of customer data? Is uncontrolled social media use rife in your company?
When you're running a business, sometimes keeping a grip on technology can feel like a losing battle.
Many business owners already suffer from too-much-to-do-too-little-time syndrome. Throw in tech-savvy employees running wild using their own tablets and software, and it's tempting to just let them get on with it.
Tempting, yes. Wise? No.
Policies to keep IT under control
No matter how much freedom you give your staff, it's important to retain some control over how technology is used in your business. Because when you have control, you can be confident.
You can be confident staff aren't wasting time. You can be confident you comply with data protection laws. And you can be confident you have a proper structure within which your business technology operates.
Your IT policies help establish this structure. They describe how technology should be used in your business, so your employees know what is and isn't allowed.
In short: they protect your company and your staff.
Get started with IT policies
Your IT policies don't need to run to hundreds of pages or contain complicated legalese. They just need to cover the essentials and be easily understood by your employees.
In fact, short and sweet beats long and detailed every time. IT policies should be documents your employees can read, understand and put into practice.
To help you create key IT policies for your business, we've created some free templates. Download them today and use them however you like in your company:
- Data protection policy
- Internet use policy
- Email use policy
- Social media policy
- Website privacy policy
You're welcome to just fill in the gaps, or copy the text to use as the basis for your own policies. Just keep in mind that every business is different, so it's best to get all your IT policies double-checked by a lawyer before you put them into place.
A friendly IT supplier might be willing to help too, especially if they already provide IT support for your company.
Small business technology advice, tools and resources | IT Donut
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Comments
Thanks for making policies like this available - it's a great help for people who don't know where to start! (like me!)
Only issue is, I can't copy the contents like you say, as it is p/w protected!!
Thank you for your comment. We are pleased to hear that you find our advice and resources helpful.
Sections of our sample policies are deliberately protected. Firstly, so that the parts that are required by law remain unchanged. This means that both you and Atom are not giving/enforcing advice/rules that breach any regulations. Secondly, they are protected as the policies are our copyright.
You can open the file in Word and ‘Enable editing’ which will allow you to customise some sections of the policy. If you want to edit parts that are locked, that is fine but you will have to create your own document – which can be based on our template if you wish. However, that will be at your own risk.
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