Consigne
Documents that must be signed every year
Renewals, codes of conduct and annexes: what repeats is best repeated by itself.
Some documents are not signed once: they are signed every year. Codes of conduct, internal policies, confidentiality clauses, collaboration terms, authorisations that expire. And because they come round once a year, they always catch someone on holiday.
How to run the annual campaign
- 1
A list of who must sign this year
Not last year's: people change, and that lag is the number one cause of gaps.
- 2
A single send to everyone
The same document to two hundred people counts as one action, not two hundred.
- 3
Automatic, spaced chasing
Most sign within 48 hours; the rest with reminders.
- 4
And a visible list of who is missing
It enables a targeted final push instead of an email to everybody.
Important
Keep each year's signed version, not just the latest. If the document changes — and it usually does — what that person accepted was that year's text, and that is what you must be able to show if it is ever disputed.
The three usual gaps
| Gap | Why it happens | How to close it |
|---|---|---|
| Someone who joined after the campaign | The list was January's and they arrived in March | Include it in onboarding, do not wait a year |
| Someone on leave or holiday | They missed the send and nobody reviewed after | The outstanding list when the campaign closes |
| Someone who changed role | A different document applied to them | Review the list by role, not the whole headcount |
Watch out
The first is the commonest and looks worst in an audit: half the workforce with the policy signed and a cluster of people without it because they joined in the wrong month. If onboarding includes whatever applies, it stops happening.
When to run it in waves
Worth knowing
Scheduling the send for a specific time helps more than it seems: Monday morning gets noticeably better response than Friday afternoon, and that is decided when scheduling, not when sending.
›What about someone who never signs?
By the third reminder it stops being chasing and becomes a company decision.
›Can we tell who read it?
You can see who opened it and who signed, with date and time.
›Does it work for suppliers?
Yes, it is the same mechanism as annual documentation renewal.
A real case
The situation
A company sends its code of conduct every January and gaps always remain.
What you do
- Builds the current year's list, not last year's
- Adds the document to onboarding for later joiners
What you get
The campaign closes at 100% and nobody is left unsigned because of their start month.
The situation
The annual renewal happens whenever somebody remembers.
What you do
- Schedules the send in advance
What you get
It goes out by itself each year.
The situation
It is sent to a hundred people one by one.
What you do
- Launches the same document to everyone at once
What you get
The campaign is prepared in an afternoon.
The situation
It is renewed with somebody who already signed this year.
What you do
- Excludes those with a current signature
What you get
Nobody signs the same thing twice.
The situation
Nobody knows who is still to sign.
What you do
- Checks the campaign's progress
What you get
Only those outstanding are chased.
The situation
The document changes from one year to the next.
What you do
- Keeps each version with its year
What you get
You know what each person signed and when.
This article answers
- signatures that repeat every year
- renewing acceptance of a code of conduct
- sending the same document for signature annually
- annual signature campaign