Sections II
Emergency Procedures. This section gives your staff direction on what to do in the event of a natural or man-made emergency.
Internet and e-mails.An important aspect of a modern effective policy and procedure manual includes the use of the Internet.
According to a 2014 survey by Robert Half Management Resources, 32 percent of the more than 2,100 chief financial officers interviewed said non-business-related Internet use is the biggest time-waster at their workplace. Employees chatting with each other came in second at 27 percent.
Your policy and procedure manual can include details on what Internet use is and is not appropriate at the office. It also can include forms and templates on proper e-mail etiquette.
Stationery and forms. By including other templates and forms in your manual, you can be assured that your employee's correspondence conveys the professional look and consistency that you desire for your company.
We will delve more fully into formatting in a later chapter. You will see that there are many more areas your manual can cover. As technology continues to remap the business landscape, be aware that you may have to make frequent updates to keep your manual up to date.
Now it's time to do some research. Are you revising an old outdated manual, or are you starting from scratch?
Either way, you will need a solid understanding of how your business functions before you can develop a policy and procedure manual. Here are a few key steps:
- Make sure that a valid need exists for each new policy. Is that need already addressed elsewhere? For example, do you need an e-mail or texting policy, or can it be part of your communication policy? Perhaps a brief addition to an existing policy will be enough to address a new concern.
- If you are starting from scratch, you can look at policy and procedure templates online, such as templates from Microsoft Word or QuickBooks, as a starting point. Use a template's table of contents as a place to begin, adding and subtracting sections according to your company's needs.
- Write an introduction or "Forward" for your manual. The Forward can be in the form of a letter from your company president, and it should clearly describe the company's philosophy and objectives. This letter should be an encouraging show of support for the policies and procedures that follow and should reveal the importance of the manual as a whole.
During this initial stage and throughout the writing process, you can use your table of contents as a way to organize your manual. You can change the wording of the headings or section titles as you go along. You also may want to add new headings or sections that pertain to your industry.
Depending on the length of your manual, you may find it helpful to include to both a table of contents (in the beginning of the manual) and an index (at the end).
An index is also useful when a manual is large, since your readers can look up topics alphabetically rather than wading through topics on the table of contents. You'll find that Microsoft Word has advanced functions for creating both indexes and tables of contents, for example.
Your next step in beginning your manual is to create a set of objectives that mirror your mission statement. You will use these goals to guide your wording for each section of the manual. Since most companies focus on customer service, let's look at that category as an example.
What are your goals for customer service? In other words, what do you want your employees to focus on when it comes to customer service? Here are a couple of ideas to get you thinking:
- satisfaction
- quick response time
- personal attention
As you consider these points, you will soon see that they reflect your mission statement. How much autonomy do you want your employees to have in dealing with your customers? Your policy and procedure manual can spell things out.
Zappos' CEO Tony Hsieh has related the story of one of his company's customer service representatives who sent flowers to a new widow without consulting a supervisor. The woman was returning boots she had ordered for her husband just before he died in a car accident. At her husband's funeral, the widow related the kindness of Zappos to her friends and family.
That employee felt empowered to live out Zappos' "above and beyond" service credo. Would your employees feel they could do the same thing? Remember, policies do not just provide restrictions; they can offer freedom.
Does your company use a collection of forms as part of your regular day-to-day business dealings? Take the time to review these forms to see if any of them need to be revised, updated, or even abandoned.
Be sure you understand exactly why a form is used. Ask what is the intent of the form and does it require a need for a written policy? You may find that some of your forms are not linked with any existing policy and are, in fact, not needed at all.
Now consider if you have any new aspects of your business that require forms. New products, new services often require new policies and procedures to go with them.
When you look at it this way, the process of developing a policy and procedure manual is a way of streamlining your business.
Whether you are using a boilerplate -- or template – for your manual, or you are starting from scratch, your manual should be seen as a work in progress. Research is a big part of the process of creating a policy and procedure manual.
Your policies will need to be expanded, supplemented, and revised as your business grows, and as business conditions change.
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