Guidely Policy Search: Help Your Team Play Within the Rules — With Proof You Can Stand Behind
Guidely Policy Search is the Defensible Semantic Policy Search Platform—an agile, defensible policy search tool for organisations. Employees ask questions in everyday language (across 53 languages) and receive clear answers in their preferred language anchored side-by-side to the exact highlighted paragraph in your official policy documents.
- Zero-Gift Rule During Tenders: You may NOT accept any gift from a vendor while an RFP, tender, or contract review is active.
- Standard £50 Exemption Suspended: Although ordinary gifts under £50 are permitted outside tender windows, that allowance is completely suspended during contract reviews.
- Required Next Step: Politely decline/return the gift basket in writing and notify Compliance within 24 hours.
5.2 General Thresholds: Outside of procurement windows, modest promotional gifts under £50 may be retained without prior approval provided they are logged in the Hospitality Register.
During any active RFP, tender evaluation, or contract renewal window:
No gifts, hospitality, or promotional items—regardless of monetary value—may be accepted from participating vendors or their representatives.
5.4 Mandatory Reporting: Any unsolicited gift received during an active tender must be declined in writing and logged with the Compliance Office within 24 hours.
- ✓ DOJ ECCP Aligned
- ✓ EU AI Act Art. 13 & 14 Ready
- ✓ UK Bribery Act §7 Adequate Procedures
- ✓ SEC 17a-4 & FINRA 3110 WORM Ready
- ✓ UK & EU Sovereign Data Residency
What Does “Defensible, Meaning-Based Policy Search” Actually Mean for Your Organisation?
Traditional intranets bury rules inside 100-page PDFs that employees never read, while generic AI tools guess when they are unsure—creating severe legal and regulatory exposure. Guidely bridges this gap by combining meaning-based search (understanding everyday employee questions) with audit-ready proof (highlighting the exact clause in your signed policy and refusing to guess).
1. Understands Everyday Meaning (“Semantic”)
Employees don't know whether a rule is called “Paternity Leave” or “Primary Caregiver Framework.” Guidely understands the meaning behind everyday questions while also matching exact policy numbers and acronyms.
2. Visible Line-by-Line Proof in Your Signed PDF
Every clear answer is locked side-by-side to the original policy document, auto-scrolled and highlighted on both the specific rule and the condition that governs it.
3. Refuses to Guess When Policies Are Silent
In compliance, “Information not found” is infinitely safer than a plausible fabrication. When a policy doesn't cover a topic, Guidely blocks AI synthesis and offers one-click escalation to HR or Compliance.
4. Guidance You Can Stand Behind in an Audit
Every question, active policy version, and highlighted sentence is sealed in a tamper-evident SHA-256 audit trail—giving General Counsels and CCOs court-admissible proof of what guidance was given.
| Governance Requirement | Traditional Intranets (SharePoint / PDFs) | Generic Enterprise AI (Copilot / Chat Tools) | Guidely Policy Search |
|---|---|---|---|
| Risk of Invented Rules (Hallucination) | None, but employees cannot find answers in 90-page PDFs and make unguided assumptions. | High: Blends outdated drafts or guesses plausible rules when policies are silent. | Zero Guesswork: Strictly bound to approved policies; refuses to answer and escalates if uncertain. |
| Handling Policy “Exclusions” Headings | Manual reading required across pages. | Fails: Slices pages into arbitrary blocks, losing the “Exclusions” heading above a bullet point. | Structure-Aware: Locks every bullet point to its section heading and introductory condition. |
| Visual Verification & Proof | Employee must download and Ctrl+F through long PDFs. | Loose file links without showing which sentence supports the claim. | Side-by-Side Dual-Pane Proof: Auto-scrolls the official PDF and highlights the exact clauses in green. |
| Role-Based Access & Confidentiality | Folder permissions, but keyword search is blunt. | Often filters results after searching, risking sensitive context leakage. | Pre-Search Folder Boundaries + 15 Granular Capabilities: Unauthorized policies are invisible before search runs. |
| Evidentiary Audit Trail | Page-view logs only; no proof of what guidance was understood. | Ephemeral chat logs that can be edited or purged. | Tamper-Evident SHA-256 Hash-Chained Ledger with non-erasable WORM export. |
How Does Guidely Find the Exact Detail in a Policy Without Taking Rules Out of Context?
Finding the right answer in a corporate policy requires the same due diligence a careful compliance officer performs manually. Every time an employee asks a question, Guidely executes a rigorous four-stage verification process.
- STEP 01 • PERMISSIONS FIRST
Check Who Is Asking Before Searching
Guidely verifies the employee's Single Sign-On identity and permitted policy folders first. Restricted documents (such as Executive Severance or regional Works Council agreements) are excluded before search even begins.
- STEP 02 • MEANING + EXACT TERMS
Match Everyday Phrasing & Policy Codes
Simultaneously searches by the meaning of the employee's question (across 53 languages) and by exact policy terminology, clause numbers, and regulatory acronyms so nothing is missed.
- STEP 03 • CONTEXT & EXCLUSIONS
Keep Headings & Conditions Attached
Every matched bullet point or table row is evaluated together with its section breadcrumb and governing lead-in sentence—so an exclusion is never misread as an allowance.
- STEP 04 • CERTAINTY GATE & PROOF
Highlight the Proof or Escalate Safely
If certainty meets your organisation's threshold, Guidely highlights the exact sentences side-by-side and logs the SHA-256 audit record. If not, it refuses to guess and routes to HR or Compliance.
Common Questions from Compliance, Legal, Security, and People Teams
What makes Guidely Policy Search “defensible” compared to an ordinary AI assistant?Toggle
Defensibility means you can prove to a regulator, internal auditor, or employment tribunal exactly what policy guidance was shown and why. Guidely enforces four safeguards: (1) it never guesses outside your approved policies, (2) it keeps section headings and exclusions locked to every bullet point, (3) it highlights the exact sentences side-by-side on the original signed PDF, and (4) it records every query and citation in a tamper-evident SHA-256 audit log.
What does “semantic search” mean for employees who don't know legal jargon?Toggle
Semantic search simply means meaning-based search. If an employee searches for “time off when my partner has a baby” in English, Spanish, or Arabic, Guidely understands their intent and locates the official “Parental & Primary Caregiver Policy”—while simultaneously matching exact policy codes, acronyms, and monetary thresholds.
Can we restrict sensitive policies to specific roles or turn off AI summaries for certain groups?Toggle
Yes. Guidely's extensible role-based security lets you combine pre-search folder access controls (so unauthorized documents are completely invisible before search runs) with 15 granular capabilities. You can even assign Citation-Only Employee Mode to specific regions or Works Councils—using meaning-based search to navigate and highlight the official PDF with zero AI summary text generated.
How does the promotional pricing work?Toggle
Every organisation can start with a Free 14-Day Self-Serve Trial (upload up to 5 policies, invite 10 colleagues, easier domain-wide onboarding, no credit card required). Our Growth/Enterprise Edition has no size limits and is offered at £1 per person per month with cancel-anytime flexibility, full customisation, and self-service setup. Organisations with more than 1,000 employees also receive a named support contact and guided onboarding. For custom VPC deployment, HR role sync, and tailored SLAs, our Bespoke Edition is fully negotiable to your requirements.
Stop Guessing. Start Proving.
Replace unread policy shelfware with living, verified guidance your employees can understand in seconds and your compliance team can stand behind in any audit.