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How online software helps gain employee buy-in when implementing ISO 27001

Getting employee buy-in for implementing any management system can be difficult; in general, people don’t like change in their workplace. This quickly becomes apparent if you are trying to implement an Information Security Management System using ISO 27001:2013. So, if you want to successfully make changes in how your employees work, it helps to understand what can cause poor employee buy-in, and to consider tools that can make it easier.

What are the issues that cause poor employee buy-in?

Change can be challenging for your employees, especially if you are implementing new processes that they have never experienced before. This can be stressful for both the employees who will be doing the processes, as well as those who are affected by these new processes. Based on experience, this is what causes poor employee buy-in:

  1. Complexity of new processes
  2. Availability of new process-related information
  3. Unfamiliarity with new processes
  4. Confusion between management systems

An online tool can help people to better understand your processes, and to get used to performing them easily.

How online software helps gain employee buy-in when implementing ISO 27001 - Advisera

How can an online ISO tool help?

Using an online ISO tool can help your ability to gain employee buy-in by providing simple tools to address these employee issues. There are three main benefits to an online tool:

  • Simplicity – Online tools allow you to train your employees more easily:
    • Provide help that an employee needs to work through a new process
    • Step-by-step guide, so that they are more certain about what they are doing (particularly in the beginning)
    • Easier to remember the process through guidance if a software tool helps you through the process steps
  • Access – An online ISO tool will allow your employees access to the information they need to complete the (new) processes from any computer:
    • Any computer onsite
    • For a home-based office
    • For a salesperson at a customer site
    • By logging in from anywhere
  • Consolidation – By having access to all the processes, employees only need to use a single resource:
    • Common processes are handled in one place (such as corrective actions, incidents, risks, nonconformities, and all documents and records)
    • Employees only need to remember one access point to report

Conformio: A powerful online ISO 27001 tool

Conformio is a powerful online tool that provides the support processes you need for implementing ISO 27001 within your company and will support your management systems for years to come. The standard processes you need in your management system, including documentation control, incident investigation, improvement processes, and task management, are all included to help your employees understand what they need to do for each process:

  • Simplicity – Employee buy-in is often linked more to how easy it is to perform a process than it is to understanding why the process is important. By making it easy to perform your processes, Conformio will help employees buy into performing the process they need to perform.
View of an Incident Register in Conformio
Figure 1 – View of an Incident Register in Conformio
  • Accessible – With online access, Conformio becomes easy to use for all employees, no matter where they are located. If a salesperson can log an incident immediately after it occurred, rather than waiting until they return to the office, or an employee can review and update a document from their home office easily, you are more likely to capture all of this information than if your process was less accessible.

 

Employees can easily access all registers and modules in Conformio and provide relevant information
Figure 2 – Employees can easily access all registers and modules in Conformio and provide relevant information
  • Consolidation – By having access to all support processes for your ISMS, Conformio gives you a single place to go to manage all of the necessary activities of your ISO 27001 project. All tasks and activities are accessible from one place, making control of your tasks easy.
View of Responsibility matrix with tasks of all users in Conformio
Figure 3 – View of Responsibility matrix with tasks of all users in Conformio

Online ISO 27001 tools: Making employee buy-in easier

Getting employee buy-in can be difficult, and online software tools can help employees understand how new processes work, as well as why those new processes are needed. The key to successfully gaining employee buy-in for new processes is to simply explain what the process is, and why it is important, and then to make it easy to access and perform so that employees are more able to do what is needed. Using online ISO 27001 tools can help to address these employee needs, making your ISO implementation more successful and easier to perform.

Advisera Rhand Leal

Rhand Leal

Rhand Leal has more than 15 years of experience in information security, and for six years he continuously maintained а certified Information Security Management System based on ISO 27001. Rhand holds an MBA in Business Management from Fundação Getúlio Vargas. Among his certifications are: ISO 27001 Lead Auditor, ISO 9001 Lead Auditor, Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and others. He is a member of the ISACA Brasília Chapter.
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