Template for a procedure and policy manual

And to avoid the users nudging you, sketch out the procedure based on your understanding before meeting with the users. This process will shape your understanding through flipped learning.

Before you begin writing, ensure that you picture your understanding of the users and leverage that to write for them. Start with an interesting introduction that will likely keep the users reading.

Know the gap you want to fill by creating the procedure. Answer the question as appropriate and remember to include tools, passwords, keycodes, technology, physical items such as pen, paper, and anything else that might be required. Combine your knowledge, experience in the field, and the notes you took from your meeting with the users, then explain each process in a list. Break complex procedures into simple tasks where each item stands as a single detailed and clear instruction.

Adding other types of media to your procedure will let you explain the concept properly and keep the readers glued to the content. So instead of writing pages full of texts, you can put a page of text into a second multimedia format that paints the situation rather than texts. Adding supporting documents, such as videos, images, audio notes, or forms that need to be completed, will make the content sticky to the readers, and they will follow each procedure to the letter. For those knowledge-thirsty users who always want to do a deep dive, consider including links to relevant resources to improve their skills.

Check that the procedure solves the problem you created it for. Look through it to make sure everything is correct. This will help you save time as it will be less likely that anyone will spot errors. Testing your procedure in a controlled environment does two things. First, it helps you check that, once more, all the steps are correctly captured. Second, it points out whether the procedure needs some rework instead of forcing people to adopt it.

Using all the key performance indices, examine the inputs, outputs, and goals, then ensure that the right mix will produce the required success.

After your test, you should know if your procedure needs improvement or not. Whichever way, ensure that you do whatever is necessary and test again before you deploy the procedure.

Ensure that all the users stick to the procedure, and every challenge is carefully worked on as they surface. With constant use and adaptation, practice makes perfect. Make sure that the policy and procedure number and page number appear on all subsequent pages; the footer of each page should repeat the issuing date and the policy.

You should also let your policy and procedure have a title to avoid mix-up. From the introduction, every user should know what the policy will do. There should be a concise statement that explains the purpose of the policy.

Mention who the policy and procedure apply to and the consequences for non-compliance, if applicable. The policy and procedure document should have a help contact that anyone can reach should they need help to understand the policy and procedure document. This is the highest body authorizing the policy and procedure. You could possibly include the date for the next required review date. By giving these resources, you have identified with the curious users to learn more.

Aside from crafting the policy and procedure document to communicate your vision carefully and explicitly, a good policy and procedure template must:. Every defined step in the policy and procedure template should exist for the sole purpose of achieving the aim. Your policy and procedure must be made available and accessible to the users and those who have the authority. It could be kept in the filing cabinet, binder, or online. As you upgrade your machine or any other part of your working process, it is important to update your policy and procedure document so that it stays current at all times.

That means you should create your policy and procedure document with the flexibility to accommodate new and emerging decisions. A good policy and procedure document must also be actionable. It should represent a consistent and logical framework to implement a particular task. It should be easily adaptable and useful for the targeted user. Instead, use the position.

Use words that the document user will understand but ensure that you maintain compliance with the law. They are different types of documents that work together to guide your employee on their responsibilities. Different organizations can benefit from a policy and procedure template irrespective of what the company does, the size, and worth. A policy and procedure document always guides the work process and ensures quality delivery. Formatting your policy and procedure document entails the way the document is laid out on the page, the way it looks, and visually appeals to the user.

Formatting always addresses things like font selection, font size and presentation like bold or italics , spacing, margins, alignment, columns, indentation, and lists. The visual appeal of your policy and procedure document will affect the reader and how they digest the information.

The information will be more accessible to the user by creating and labeling sections headings , highlighting keywords or ideas bold, italics, or lists , and making a good impression professional look and feel, appropriate font choice for the document type. The right way to format a policy and procedure document is to ensure that you leave a lot of white space. This will make information easy to locate and psychologically affords the user with ease of assimilation. It is also important that you use a flexible, modular outline as this will make the document seamless to modify for new updates.

And your use of labels while introducing key points should be consistent across the entire document. That said, ensure that you carefully spell out your use of acronyms to avoid ambiguity. Also, make sure that your use of words is not too technical—it should be simple enough for a new employee to understand.

However, policy, procedure, and process differ greatly in many ways. Depending on the size of your organization, you'll need a team to help you write your policies and procedures. It also helps you get more buy-in from stakeholders around the organization.

Plus, it ensures you don't forget important information. Since your policies will affect everyone across the organization, bring in people from different departments to help. Tap into the subject matter experts in how a particular department or role functions. Include the people who understand and can help you adhere to any local, state, and federal laws that affect how everyone functions. Chron recommends defining an owner or admin to be responsible for managing the entire policy writing process , coordinating reviews, revisions, and distribution of the new policies.

Now that you have management buy-in, your team is assembled, and you have a structure and a technology solution, you're ready to actually start writing. Here's how that should work. You can't write every policy at once and some are more important than others, so create a list of policies that need to be done first. Prioritize your new policies and revisions in order of importance and create an order and a timeline when they each need to be completed.

Meet with your policy team and decide what you need to address. Keep your end goal in mind when you're defining these priorities, as that will help you stay on track. You will also want to investigate any compliance issues that may have prompted your policy review.

Writing policies or procedures is not a one-and-done effort. The initial draft will require a few revisions. It makes sense to get feedback from stakeholders and coworkers, and you'll want to revise your draft based on everything you hear back from them. This could also help simplify the language and remove technical jargon that would clutter your document. Don't use a lot of industry-specific terms, especially as your organization may cross several different licensing groups, functions, and even industries.

The same acronyms and terms could mean different things to different employee groups, so you'll want to avoid confusion. Limiting technical jargon will also make it easier for new hires, who may be new to the industry, to understand your policies and procedures. Remember, this only applies to the procedures portion of your manual, not the policies and prohibited actions.

If a non-expert wrote the initial draft, you'll want to ask an actual expert to review it. This is key to your policy's success. You'll have to walk a fine line between your subject matter experts' need for thoroughness and your non-experts' need for clarity and simplicity. You can streamline the process by using policy management software, like PowerDMS, with audit trail features and version control.

You'll be able to access each document's history so you can pinpoint any changes. This way, you can collaborate on revisions, ensuring none of your material gets lost or accidentally deleted. Typically, you need someone on the executive team to sign off on each new policy. They are ultimately accountable for the policy, which means they need to officially approve the final draft.

This should always be done by the highest level of leadership that makes sense for each policy. For example, you don't need the CEO to sign off on new policies for cleaning up spills, but you do for workplace harassment or management of proprietary information. Once you've written your new policies and procedures, you need to create a plan to ensure compliance. This has a link to a Download Page from where you can save the templates,.

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