For regulated organizations
Procedures staff can find, follow and trust, with the record behind them
Regulators expect written policies and procedures that are approved, kept up to date and communicated to the people who follow them. Hazel makes that the everyday way procedures are written, found and kept current, so the record builds itself as people work.
What regulators expect
What regulators expect of written procedures
A summary of published expectations for financial institutions. It is a starting point for a conversation, not legal advice.
| Market | Expectation | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | FINTRAC requires written compliance policies and procedures that are kept up to date and, for entities, approved by a senior officer. OSFI’s Guideline E-13 expects procedures that support day-to-day compliance, with documentation to show it. | FINTRAC compliance program guidance; OSFI Guideline E-13 |
| United States | The BSA/AML compliance program must be written and board-approved, and internal controls should provide for timely updates when regulations change. NCUA requires a written BSA policy approved by the board. | FFIEC BSA/AML Examination Manual; NCUA Examiner’s Guide |
| United Kingdom | Firms must regularly review and update their policies, controls and procedures, keep a written record of them and of any changes, and record the steps taken to communicate them. | Money Laundering Regulations 2017, regulation 19; FCA Handbook SYSC 6.1.1R |
And the procedures that do exist are hard to find
of digital workers struggle to find the information they need to do their jobs effectively.
Gartner, 2023of employees faced situations in the past year where they didn’t know how to comply.
Gartner, 2024of frontline workers say messages from leadership don’t make it to them.
Microsoft Work Trend Index, 2022Sources: Gartner survey of 4,861 digital workers, published 2023; Gartner survey of 1,012 employees, December 2023; Microsoft Work Trend Index frontline worker report, 9,600 frontline workers in eight countries, 2022. The surveys cover general workforces.
How Hazel maps to it
Good procedure management leaves the record behind
Approved
Staged approvals with due dates. Authors can’t approve their own work, and each stage needs a different person. A committee or senior officer can be the final stage.
Current
A review cycle for each content type, with reminders before it’s due. Overdue articles show a warning or are hidden. Owners mark an article reviewed, revise it or retire it through an approval route.
Communicated
Each change reaches the audiences it affects, with a summary of what changed. A quick read confirmation shows it arrived.
On record
The version in effect on any date, with its author, approver and change summary. An audit log of every content, workflow and permission event, exportable to CSV.
The examiner’s question
“Which procedure were staff following on 15 January?”
Without a system of record, compliance rebuilds the answer from email threads, a tracking spreadsheet and file dates. It takes days, and the answer is still “we believe it was this version”. With Hazel it takes four steps.
- Pick the date
Open the article’s version history and enter the date in question.
- See the version
Hazel returns the version in effect, its dates, author, approver and change summary.
- See who approved it
Each stage of the approval, with the approver and the date.
- Export the record
Filter the audit log and export it to CSV for the examiner.
Who Hazel is built for
Organizations that run on written procedures and answer to a regulator or auditor
Typically 200 to 5,000 staff, on Microsoft 365, with SharePoint in daily use.
Credit unions and banks
AML, payments, lending and member-service procedures, with exam-ready version records.
Insurers
Underwriting and claims procedures that change often and must be followed consistently.
Utilities
Operating and safety procedures that crews can find on any shift.
Health organizations
Procedures and guidance with clear owners and review dates.
Public sector
Governed procedures and guidance with a full record of who approved what and when.
Large contact centres
Procedures and job aids agents can find mid-call. Hazel doesn’t script calls inside the agent desktop; dedicated contact-centre tools do that.
No two compliance programs are the same
Your procedures, your routes. The controls are already built in.
Already built
Controls that work the same way every time
- No self-approval, and a different person at each stage
- Approval stages that can’t be skipped
- Version records, read confirmations and an audit log
Built and tested before your project starts, so you can rely on them from the first approval.
Built for you
The way your program actually runs
- Your approval routes, committees and senior officer approval
- Your review cycles and reading rules
- Your audiences for required reading and your restricted content
Built into your package by iomer, so Hazel follows your program rather than asking you to change it.
Alongside your policy tools
Keep what works for board policy
Many institutions use a model-policy or policy management service for board policies. If it works, keep it. Those tools are good at approval and sign-off, but frontline staff rarely find procedures in them.
Hazel is where the procedures and job aids people use every day live, with the same approvals and records. For the policies every employee must formally sign, and the certifications they must keep current, iomer’s Beacon works alongside it.
Hazel supports your compliance program. It doesn’t make an organization compliant on its own, and it doesn’t supply policy content. Your compliance team decides how it fits your program.
Download the datasheet (PDF, 2 pages)
Show us what your examiners ask for
Watch the 30-second tour, or book a walkthrough with a procedure like one of yours and we’ll show where each record comes from.