4 Ways Businesses Can Practice Effective Data Governance

No matter your age, background or job, you almost certainly use data daily. You might access a database to get the information necessary to run a report for your boss.

Perhaps data from a mapping app helped you find your way to a new restaurant last weekend. Data also defines many interactions with professionals, from doctors to bank employees.

However, a related principle called data governance underpins all those engagements. It encompasses:

Who can access the data?

What are the valid access reasons?

How long will an organization hold the data?

What does a company do with the data?

Will an organization share the data with others?

What are a company’s obligations for securing the data?

Regardless of how your company uses data and for what reasons, it’s essential to put data governance into practice. How can you do that? 

1. Identify Your Data Usage Norms

Begin by clarifying your company’s relationship with data. For example, what kind of data does the organization collect and from whom? Does the content come from internal sources, external ones, or both?

Is the current data volume manageable or starting to get out of control? How much do you see that changing over the next few years?

The quality and sensitivity of the data are two other things to consider. Is your data cleansed and in a format you could immediately use, or does it require preparation first?

Do you hold data related to someone’s finances, health, or other personal matter? If so, the information likely requires particular processing measures to remain compliant.

The sooner you know how your business uses data, the easier it’ll be to establish data governance rules.

However, assessing whether growth, a new product, or another change could soon alter how your company works with data is essential. If so, account for that now rather than when it might be too late.

2. Establish Access Control Measures

Another vital part of data governance is ensuring people can seamlessly access the information and data-based programs necessary for their work. However, far too few companies take that approach.

A 2021 Varonis study of manufacturers showed four in 10 businesses allowed every employee to access at least 1,000 sensitive files.

Another astounding takeaway was that employees could access an average of six million files from their first days at work.

Consider options like role-based access, taking into account that some people will rightfully access files from multiple places, especially during company-mandated travel.

A related data governance strategy is to specify an employee’s obligations when using business data. Doing that keeps the information safer, especially when the content is intellectual property or confidential.

3. Create a Data Governance Team

Data governance is a collective effort, so everyone is responsible for making it work. However, you’re most likely to succeed by appointing specific people to lead your business’s aims.

A manager could oversee individuals tasked with particular data governance milestones.

That supervisor must also clearly communicate a person’s data governance role and its associated responsibilities.

Fostering an open-communication strategy is an excellent way to keep everyone motivated and on the same page.

Team members should also realize data governance goals may change over time. That’s especially likely if the company begins using data differently or collecting another type.

Data governance leaders should encourage people to be open to change while making it clear they’re available to hear feedback about team members’ concerns.

4. Connect Your Data Governance Practices to Company Needs

Some business leaders make the mistake of thinking they should use data in specific ways, primarily because they’ve seen peers doing it.

However, a better approach is to tie all data governance strategies to overarching company goals.

A surprising find from a 2023 Gartner study was only 44% of data and analytics leaders believe their teams effectively provide value to their organizations.

However, another statistic indicated 44% of the best-performing leaders in that group devoted time to personal development.

Those who oversee data governance must determine the most practical and responsible ways to use data throughout an organization.

Personal development might factor into that, such as if a data governance leader needs to learn more about new technologies.

Data Governance Matters

Creating and upholding a data governance plan that works for your business could take months or years — and that’s okay. The vital thing to do now is to set a firm intention of getting to that point.

This is a time when consumers freely provide their data to companies for various reasons. However, they also expect the organizations to handle that information responsibly.

These data governance suggestions can help you do that.

Then, your business will gradually earn and maintain a reputation for handling information responsibly, which could promote growth and customer respect.

Sources:

https://dataconomy.com/2023/03/how-to-create-a-data-governance-strategy/?utm_content=cmp-true

https://www.varonis.com/blog/manufacturing-data-risk-report-reveals-files-open-to-all-employees

https://www.humanresourcesonline.net/safeguarding-a-company-s-proprietary-information-amidst-employee-exits

https://www.codescan.io/blog/salesforce-data-governance-vs.-data-management/

https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/03-21-2023-gartner-survey-reveals-less-than-half-of-data-and-analytics-teams-effectively-provide-value-to-the-organization

https://www.analyticsinsight.net/top-10-data-governance-tools-to-know-in-the-year-2023/