Even if you don’t know what content governance is, it’s likely that it exists in some form in your day to day. Put simply, content governance refers to how content is managed and maintained across your organisation. Its purpose is to ensure that all your content (regardless of whether it’s internal or external) is correct and adheres to the most up-to-date style guide and legal requirements. Designing content governance refers to the content life cycle, from creation to publication to ongoing maintenance.
This doesn’t just apply to documents, policy and procedures, and presentations. Content governance refers to all content in your systems. The content umbrella is broad, and it all needs to pass through an approval process before it can be shared with others.
This process will look different for every organisation, depending on its size and responsibilities. This is where you should spend some time designing content governance that is specific to your department, company, or industry.
Regardless of whether you’re designing your content process in-house or enlisting the help of an experienced IT partner, a workshop is your first step. Gather all the relevant people in your company, which could be entire teams or just the heads of department. Together you can discuss what your current content governance looks like. Who takes ownership over the creation of new documents/contracts/templates/web pages? When completed, who is responsible for proof-reading and approving them? And then who publishes/files/distributes this content, and where?
Once you know what you’re currently doing, it should be simple to understand where roadblocks and double handling are occurring. Having your team members’ input into this discussion is vital at this stage. Each department has a unique experience creating, approving, and sharing the content they create. Even if your new governance design is rolled out across the organisation, each of these teams may have unique needs according to the type of content they output. For example, your HR department may need to loop in Legal for sign-off on contracts, but Marketing can hit publish after their manager approves.
Ultimately, designing content governance that works for everyone in your company may be a nuanced process, but it will save you time and energy down the road.
Get started on designing content governance that works for you
You may be tempted to delay the redesign of your content governance because … well, we know it’s not an easy task. Not only do you need to rollout a new or improved process for content that’s created tomorrow, but you also need to dive into the archives to update the old stuff.
But when you work with an experienced consultant from Propelle, we take on the heavy lifting so that you can focus on the important things. Our experts take the time to understand your current processes and requirements to help you design a streamlined and productive content governance.
Let’s get the conversation started.
