--- title: Put information governance in the hands of the employee | Exonar description: How do you get your employees to follow your information governance policies in the course of their everyday work? Read this blog to find out. image: https://www.exonar.com/hubfs/the_2020_data_governance_guide_for_beginners_5e05b5b6ea498.jpg --- [![Exonar](https://www.exonar.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Exonar_LogoTag_NOW.png?width=360&height=139&name=Exonar_LogoTag_NOW.png "Exonar")](https://exonar.com) - Product - [Exonar Reveal](https://www.exonar.com/exonar-reveal) - [How it Works](https://www.exonar.com/how-it-works) - [Security](https://www.exonar.com/security) - [Exonar Labs](https://www.exonar.com/exonar-labs) - [Services](https://www.exonar.com/services) - Who it's for - [Information Security](https://www.exonar.com/information-security) - [Governance, Risk & Compliance](https://www.exonar.com/privacy-and-gdpr-compliance) - [Strategic IT & Operations](https://www.exonar.com/strategic-it-and-operations) - [Customers](https://www.exonar.com/case-studies/) - [Partners](https://www.exonar.com/partners) - Resources - [Exonar Blog](https://www.exonar.com/blog) - [Toolkits](https://www.exonar.com/toolkits) - [Guides](https://www.exonar.com/guides) - [Webinars & Demos](https://www.exonar.com/webinars-and-demos) - [About Us](https://www.exonar.com/about-us) - [Careers](https://www.exonar.com/careers) - [Contact](https://www.exonar.com/contact) Sign In [Ready to talk?](https://www.exonar.com/ready-to-talk) # Putting information governance back in the hands of the employee by [Anna Cotton](https://www.exonar.com/blog/author/anna-cotton) On September 20, 2020 Blog Category: [Privacy & Compliance](https://www.exonar.com/blog/tag/privacy-compliance) ![x-icon](https://www.exonar.com/hubfs/x-icon-2.png) Originally published in Computer Weekly The 90% reduction in the fine levied on BA over a 2018 data breach has legal experts talking about the ramifications for the future of data protection. ![](https://www.exonar.com/hubfs/the_2020_data_governance_guide_for_beginners_5e05b5b6ea498.jpg) It’s a common scenario we see all the time… As part of the GDPR regulation, organisations implement information governance and data protection policies. Job done, they think. We’ve followed the rules and are protected. The trouble is, getting your people to follow policies consistently is hard. You can invest in training, so everyone understands the importance of handling data in the correct way. But how confident are you that everyone’s following every information governance policy every day? It is likely that people will cut corners in some way in the course of their working day. They just want to get on with the task in hand, fast. ### The rise of the unintentional terrorist In disregarding the company’s information governance policies, your employees are leaving your organisation vulnerable. But they’re not necessarily being malicious, actively going out of their way to expose your organisation and bring it to its knees. Think about it… Your people are busy doing their jobs. And in doing their job, they’re running reports and exporting data to spreadsheets, then editing it, emailing it to a colleague, and filing it away somewhere, never to be thought about again. They probably know they’ve broken a rule (or two!), but that’s because people inherently try to follow the path of least resistance, which usually means finding a way around the regulation because they want to get their job done. The trouble is, now that data is unstructured. There are multiple copies of it in people’s inboxes, on shared drives, on personal drives… It’s not governed by the rigorous security of the systems it originated from. It’s lying around your data estate, and it’s leaving your organisation vulnerable. When it comes to data security, one of the biggest challenges organisations face is that they don’t have a way to map behaviours in their organisation to what you’ve asked people to do. Therefore, they have no way of tracking when people are not [implementing those information governance and data protection policies.](https://www.exonar.com/guides/turning-data-governance-policy-into-practice-in-2020) ### Reveal what’s hidden in your estate Your policies are probably good enough – if only you could get people to follow them. Which is why we approach the problem from a different angle. Imagine if you could unlock the data that’s been lost and forgotten in your company’s estate with ease and at scale. Not only that, imagine you could run searches in all of your data, structured and unstructured, to reveal where your policies are not being followed by your people. And who is not following them. With this level of transparency, you can identify whether you have a issue with people understanding information governance. Or whether there’s an inherent flaw in your process that needs addressing. In either case, now you have visibility to be certain about all the data that’s in your estate, the peace of mind that your policies are being adhered to, and the ability to continuously improve if/when you see issues arise. #### To find out how you can put information governance back in the hands of your employees, read our Guides: #### [“Six practical steps to transition data protection to business-as-usual”.](https://exonar2.staging.wpengine.com/6-practical-steps-you-can-take-to-transition-data-protection-to-business-as-usual/) #### [“Turning data governance policy into practice in 2020”](https://exonar2.staging.wpengine.com/turning-data-governance-policy-into-practice-in-2020/)   ### Is information governance across your business a challenge? [Talk to us!  ](https://exonar2.staging.wpengine.com/discover-your-data-for-free/)We’ll discuss how to solve your issues, show you a demo or get you onto a free trial if that’s what you’re ready for. - [mailto:?body=https://www.exonar.com/blog/putting-information-governance-back-in-the-hands-of-the-employee](mailto:?body=https://www.exonar.com/blog/putting-information-governance-back-in-the-hands-of-the-employee) ![quote icon-2](https://www.exonar.com/hs-fs/hubfs/quote%20icon-2.png?width=28&name=quote%20icon-2.png) In disregarding the company’s information governance policies, your employees are leaving your organisation vulnerable. But they’re not necessarily being malicious, actively going out of their way to expose your organisation and bring it to its knees. ### Want to try Exonar on your data?  Get a FREE 2-week test drive.   [![DISCOVER MORE](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/6113045/794ac170-0a98-4d4c-bc1a-c94aefae79cb.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/6113045/794ac170-0a98-4d4c-bc1a-c94aefae79cb)   --- ### Subscribe to Our Newsletter Get the latest product updates, company news, and insight delivered right to your inbox. ### Related articles #### Exonar and BSI partner to help clients find & fix their data risk *By [Jamie O'Kelly](https://www.exonar.com/blog/author/jamie-okelly)  On July 27, 2021* Exonar, world leading data discovery providers , has announced a new partnership with BSI, the... [Read More](https://www.exonar.com/blog/exonar-announces-new-partnership-with-bsi) #### Businesses Fear Insider Enabled Data Breaches *By [Anna Cotton](https://www.exonar.com/blog/author/anna-cotton)  On September 9, 2020* Originally published in Infosecurity Magazine Businesses fear suffering insider enabled data... [Read More](https://www.exonar.com/blog/businesses-fear-insider-enabled-data-breaches) #### 94% Of IT Professionals Have Experienced A Data Breach *By [Anna Cotton](https://www.exonar.com/blog/author/anna-cotton)  On September 10, 2020* Originally published in Information Security Buzz A survey of 500 IT professionals by Exonar found... 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