1. Governance and Leadership Structure
Maintaining compliance requires clear ownership and support across the organization.
Designated Compliance Leader | Cross-Functional Involvement | Executive |
Assign a dedicated compliance lead with strong knowledge of your control environment. This person should act as the main point of contact for auditors and internal stakeholders and be able to explain technical matters clearly. | Create a compliance committee with members from key departments: IT, security, HR, legal, and operations. This ensures controls are effective across the entire organization. | Ensure top leadership actively supports compliance efforts. Executive backing helps secure resources, prioritize security initiatives, and support timely decisions. |
2. Continuous Monitoring and Evidence Collection
Strike Graph’s GRC platform includes real-time monitoring and evidence management to help detect issues early and maintain audit readiness.
Proactive Monitoring
Your Strike Graph GRC provides real-time monitoring of control statuses with evidence expiration emails coming straight to your inbox. Evidence expiration notification emails are sent every two weeks, and you should receive an email notification for items starting one month from their expiration date.
Systematic Evidence Collection
Encourage team members to update expiring or expired evidence throughout the year. Keeping documentation current:
Reduces last-minute audit stress
Improves evidence accuracy
Demonstrates ongoing control effectiveness
Set clear expectations for evidence upkeep across departments.
3. Self-Assessment and Gap Management
Don’t wait for your audit to discover gaps.
Conduct internal reviews of your control descriptions and expiring evidence using Strike Graph’s Control Library and Evidence Repository.
Identify areas where control operations may have drifted or weakened and ensure the control descriptions are updated to match current practices.
Use these insights to adjust and remediate promptly.
This proactive approach prevents audit findings and builds a stronger control environment.
4. Policy Management and Training
Well-maintained policies and ongoing training are essential to demonstrate control awareness and consistency.
Scheduled Reviews
Review all policies at least once a year—or after any major operational or technological changes—to keep them current and aligned with your environment.
Version Control
Track all updates with:
Change logs
Modification dates
Approvals
Summary of changes
This ensures transparency and auditability.
Ongoing Training
Provide security training for all employees, including:
Onboarding sessions
Annual refresher courses
Role-specific training for those with direct compliance responsibilities
Verification
Confirm understanding through:
Quizzes
Hands-on exercises
Auditors want to see that training leads to real behavior change.
5. Incident and Change Management
Being prepared for disruptions shows auditors that you maintain control even under pressure.
Robust Incident Response
Build and document a complete incident response process, covering:
Detection and classification
Containment and recovery
Post-incident analysis
For every incident, record:
Timeline and scope
Impact and systems affected
Steps taken to fix the issue
Lessons learned and control improvements
Disciplined Change Management
Use a formal process for system or control changes to avoid introducing new risks. Document:
Business case and change request
Risk and impact analysis
Approvals from stakeholders
Implementation and rollback plans
Post-change testing results
6. Foster a Security-First Culture
Sustainable compliance depends on your people.
Appoint security champions in each department
Celebrate good security practices
Make compliance progress visible across the company
Building awareness and recognition helps make security part of everyday decisions.