Let’s be honest, security policies can be bad.
They’re long. They’re boring. They’re buried in a SharePoint folder no one can find.
And the worst part? No one actually follows them.
It’s not because your employees are lazy or don’t care about security. It’s because most security policies aren’t designed to be used, they’re designed to check a compliance box.
If your security policy is a 40-page PDF written like a legal contract, it’s already failed. So, let’s fix it.
1. Cut the Corporate Jargon
Your security policy isn’t a Supreme Court ruling. It doesn’t need to sound like one.
Your employees are not security experts. Write policies like a human so they actually make sense.
2. Shorter is Better
If your policy requires a meeting to explain the policy, it’s too long.
Employees do not have time to sift through 30+ pages to find out whether they can use their personal phone for work.
Fix it:
Keep policies to a single page when possible.
Break long policies into smaller, focused sections (e.g., “Remote Work Security” instead of “Acceptable Use” buried in a 50-page doc).
Use bullet points, not walls of text.
The clearer and shorter the policy, the more likely people are to follow it.
3. Put It Where People Will Actually See It
A policy no one can find might as well not exist.
The worst places to store policies:
❌ A buried folder on SharePoint labeled “FINAL_v3.2_Approved”
❌ A PDF emailed once and never mentioned again
❌ Inside an onboarding handbook no one reads
Better alternatives:
✅ Pinned in Slack or Teams so employees can access it in seconds
✅ Linked directly in apps where the policy applies (e.g., password policy linked inside the SSO dashboard)
✅ Intranet with a simple search function so employees can actually find answers
Make security policies as easy to access, and people might actually read them.
4. Train, Don’t Just Document
A policy does not equal training.
You can write the best security policy in the world, but if employees don’t understand it, it’s useless.
How to fix it:
Turn policies into quick videos → 60-second explainers > PDFs
Use real-world examples → “Here’s what happens when you reuse passwords”
Make them interactive → Gamified training > “Sign here to acknowledge”
If policies don’t make sense in practice, employees won’t follow them.
5. Review and Update (Because 2015 Policies Don’t Work in 2025)
If your security policy still references BlackBerry devices or Internet Explorer, we have a problem.
Security threats evolve. So should your policies.
✅ Review policies annually.
✅ Get feedback from employees. If they find it confusing, rewrite it.
✅ Update based on real incidents. If someone falls for a new phishing attack, update the security awareness section.
A policy that doesn’t evolve is a policy that fails.
Final Thought
If your security policy is written for auditors instead of employees, no one is going to follow it.
Make it simple.
Make it easy to find.
Make it actually useful.
Because a one-page policy that people follow is better than a 50-page one they ignore.
Now, go clean up those policies.