Policy & Procedure Best Practices

Training employees and keeping them compliant with regulations is a big challenge. Just about every business is interested in improving organizational performance and with the increased regulations coming down the pike, it is only going to get more difficult to achieve compliance. As we shared in an earlier post, we have been spending time lately talking informally to bank regulators to get their insights on the role policies and procedures play in “keeping the bank out of trouble” and how companies can get a handle on this before the next regulatory tsunami hits. 

What we learned was that the regulators want to see proof that the Bank has thought through all their corporate policies and set guidelines, directions, and exceptions that pertain to their unique situation. One of the biggest challenges is figuring out a system for dealing with all the complex exceptions and conditions involved in daily operations. (This comes up in other industries too. Can you say insurance claims processing?!)

One of the regulators we spoke with drove the point home by sharing a story of a problem he experienced as a Compliance Officer in a multi-location bank.  The audience served by one location was very different than the customers served at another location. This presented many challenges; handling Customer Identification was one. The bank had no formal, written guidelines. Everyone just did what they thought was best which put the bank at risk and caused a lot of employee frustration and upset customers. 

As this regulator put it: “Employees – especially those on the front line – have to know what to do in every weird situation. They need to know what to do when they are outside of the normal stuff.”

“Outside the normal stuff” can vary from bank to bank or even by location. A branch serving Population A may have different issues than a branch location that serves Population B with completely different demographics. So, when writing policies and procedures for your bank you need a system that is  flexible and designed with these exceptions built in.

Through our Operations Mapping approach and Zavanta software, COMPROSE helps our clients design their policy and procedure systems with this flexibility in mind. In the next post, we share 5 specific tips for making sure your content delivers value and is useful. 
 

In our ongoing efforts to research and pass along current trends, we recently met informally with several Federal Bank Regulators to get their thoughts on the good, bad, and ugly regarding policies and procedures in banking and how P&Ps affect bank examinations and standardizing operations in bank branches.  Their insights and stories were enlightening.  We’ll be sharing some of what we learned here and in related posts. 

Even if you’re outside of the banking industry, much of their insight is applicable and just makes good business sense!

Current regulators are not as concerned with the “exact” format for writing policies and procedures or any strict mindset regarding P&Ps. From their perspective, a policy and procedure manual exists first and foremost to ensure that employees know what to do. That's their primary concern. P&P manuals should clearly explain how to handle the various specific situations that come up in actual operations.  Having written policies and procedures that clearly outline “the directions we want employees to take” is the best way of doing that. For example, if your bank is launching a new product, the regulators want to see that you have policies and procedures in place beforehand so that everyone knows who does what, when to complete tasks, and what the exceptions are.

More than one regulator commented that many banks don’t do a very good job of this.  Many buy "pre-written" handbooks or templates but just put them on the shelf thinking that is good enough. They fail to customize their policies and procedures for their own situation, and don't apply them.  As one regulator told us: “A dead giveaway is when the bank pulls out a policy they bought somewhere and didn’t even bother to change the name in it.” 

Besides the obvious “lack of time” excuse, we asked the regulators why they thought so many banks miss the mark here. We’ll share some of their feedback in later posts along with some possible solutions.  So stay tuned.
 

• Acceptable Internet Usage - Policy
• Building a Jeep Wrangler - Process
• Month End Closing (Finance & Accounting Department) - Procedure
• Printing a Report - Work Instruction
• Installing a Printer Driver - Work Instruction
• Filling Customer Orders  - Process
• Credit Terms and Collection Guidelines - Policy
   

When writing policies and procedures, it is critical to understand which content is Policy and which content is Procedure to ensure usability and ongoing maintenance and tracking. Many of our customers have told us they know regulators and auditors hate to see Policy mixed with Procedure in company procedures manuals and corporate training material, but they are unsure about how to separate them.  In an earlier post Avoiding Common Pitfalls: Don’t mix up Policies and Procedure (How tos) , we covered the difference between Process, Procedure, Work Instruction and Policy and why its so important that they be in separate documents. Now, here's a chance to test your knowledge.

We challenge you to take our quiz! 

For each of the examples below, decide if the topic is a Policy, Process, Procedure, or Work Instruction.  HINT: For a couple, the correct answer may depend on the situation or size organization. Stay tuned… in our next post, we’ll give the correct answers. Share with your colleagues and test your knowledge! 

• Acceptable Internet Usage
• Building a Jeep Wrangler
• Month End Closing (Finance & Accounting Department)
• Printing a Report
• Installing a Printer Driver
• Filling Customer Orders
• Credit Terms and Collection Guidelines

If you’d like more help in this area, our web course: “Building Effective Procedures” may be just the thing you need to get everyone on the same page. Click to learn more or download a data sheet.
 

The answer depends on your situation and business need. There are tons of corporate policy and procedure examples on the web as well as many companies that sell pre-written company procedure manuals. However, most are Employee Manuals, not Operations Manuals and there is a difference. (See Previous Post: How are Employee Manuals and Operations Manuals Different  ) Most pre-written content is focused on policy, not procedure. So if you’re looking for a basic Employee Manual focused on HR issues, or you need help identifying the kind of topics you should address as you develop your own policies, these products may be helpful. Most are very affordable.  Boilerplate manuals and standards guides often contain useful subject matter information, but can rarely be used “as is” for running an operation — especially at the tactical level. 

At COMPROSE, we focus on Operations Manuals (Standard Operating Procedures) that provide step by step details on how to complete work. For example, when A happens do B, when C happens do D and so on.  Think about your own organization. How many processes and tasks are unique to your company? Probably most of them — that’s what makes you better than your competitors! Bank Operations is a good example. All Banks have certain basic processes such as Commerical Lending, New Accounts, or Wealth Management. At a high-level there are process commonalities across organizations. But once you get past the big picture, there’s quite a bit of variation from bank to bank.

Boilerplate manuals cannot capture your unique operational flow or how your organization actually “works.”  Boilerplate manuals don’t contain all the tips, tricks, and best practices of your star performers. So, if you’re looking for a “magic bullet” that you can just buy off-the-shelf to run your operation and keep your employees trained on “how to” tasks, you’ll be disappointed. That just doesn’t exist.

Pre-written “boilerplate” material may give you topic ideas or industry-specific policy information.  But, for real operations results we recommend following a systematic approach to identify your processes and begin breaking them down into manageable chunks (procedures and tasks). Our Operations Mapping is a proven, systematic technique. Our Zavanta software is a specialized tool for writing policies and procedures fast and effectively transferring know-how out of your experts’ heads. 

To learn more, watch our short introductory video The Streamlined Business

There’s another reason your project for developing a company procedures manual or for bringing your ancient policies and procedures manuals up to date might be stalled and stuck on the back burner. As we began in our earlier post 5 Ways to Finally Get Your Procedure Manuals Done,  sometimes projects bog down because the task at hand is unfamiliar to you and your team lacks experience and confidence.  

Differences of opinion among team members on how to go about the process of writing policies and procedures can cause gridlock. You can’t get “buy in” to move the project forward because the team lacks consensus on the best way to proceed.

If any of these situations seems familiar, maybe the answer is to seek help from a third party expert who can offer your team best practices, advice and tricks of the trade that will break the gridlock and propel you towards your goals. If you want to jumpstart a stalled project, save yourself time and money, and get yourself or your team moving forward in the right direction, consider signing up for some procedure writing training, individual consulting, or educational webinars.

As hard as it might be to believe, there actually are professionals with many years of experience who know the best ways to go about writing policies and procedures who can help you, as well as books, blogs, and webinars available. [Ahem . . . the Policy and Procedure Pros who write this blog have decades of experience with all types of policies and procedures, work instructions, operations manuals, training guides and more.]

In addition to reading this blog for opinions and tips on writing policies and procedures that deliver more value, check out our webinar series, particularly our How to Create User-friendly Procedures webinar. Just follow the link to download a datasheet.

Is yours one of the many organizations who want to develop better standard operating procedures and operations manuals, and maybe even have started projects to bring your corporate policies and procedures manuals up to date, but—despite your good intentions—the effort always seems to take a back seat to other priorities and nothing ever manages to get done about it?

As we began in our previous post, 5 Ways to Finally Get Your Procedure Manuals Done, sometimes there’s nothing like a deadline to provoke quick action.

Let’s face it, if your CEO, a government agency, or a key customer demanded to see the Company Procedures Manual by a certain date “or else” everything would kick into high-gear and all the non-essentials, foot dragging, and procrastination would stop. You’d figure out a way to get it done. So since you already know it’s an important task, set a specific goal date to have your operations manuals completed. Make it aggressive! Then assume that “push has come to shove” and there is no more weaseling out of it. It’s do or die time. Brainstorm all the things you could do to meet the challenge including the strategy outlined in our earlier posts.

Now you’ve got a deadline and a game plan. Start implementing those strategies today!

A good place to start is to read (or re-read) our previous post: Divide and Conquer to Complete Your Operations Manual Quickly
 

As we began in our previous post, 5 Ways to Finally Get Your Procedure Manuals Done,  often organizations really want to develop standard operating procedures and improve their operations manuals, but their goal never gets past the “good intentions” stage. There doesn’t seem to be enough time or resources to complete the entire project.

Well, divide and conquer is a tried-and-true strategy for accomplishing almost any big task. You know the saying “many hands make light work.” If you want to get your policies and procedures project off to a fast completion so you can start improving organizational performance and streamlining operations instead of just wishing you could, start by spreading the work around. Recruit Subject Matter Experts throughout your organization and have each of them write up the processes, procedures and work instructions that apply to their individual areas or job functions.  Then have a smaller group of managers and editors review the first drafts and edit them into final form. In this way, the entire project can get completedin less time with less disruption.

For more on this approach see related post: Getting All Employees Involved in Maintaining Good Procedures.
 

Expanding on the points from our previous post, 5 Ways to Finally Get Your Procedure Manuals Done, if you have been wanting to develop standard operating procedures and improved operations manuals for your organization, but keep getting bogged down, maybe you are trying to take on too much at once.

Many organizations want to review all their corporate processes and update all their employee and operations manuals in one giant comprehensive project. However, trying to do everything all at once is overwhelming and quickly leads to analysis paralysis—aka lots of talk and no visible results.

In working with hundreds of companies over many years, one big difference we see between organizations that succeed at streamlining and organizations that get off track is the size of the first step! The most successful organizations focus on taking quick ACTION by starting with one area as a pilot project. 

It might seem counter-intuitive, but one of the best strategies to achieve your big goals of standardizing operations and improving organizational performance is Start small!  

Break the comprehensive project into manageable chunks. Pick one key task or operating process to start. Capture the specific policies, procedures, work instructions and job descriptions that apply to that one area, focusing on writing policies and procedures that employees will actually use. Then publish that subset of content so people can start using it and giving you feedback

When one area is done, tackle the next process on the list until you have covered all areas in the organization. By starting in one contained area you not only get a “quick benefit,” but you also learn as you go, and maintain momentum.

The COMPROSE Operations Mapping approach is designed specifically to help organizations break their operating procedures down into clear, modular systems. To learn more, check out our educational webinars.
 

We’re amazed at the number of people we talk to who really want to develop better standard operating procedures for their organization, who clearly understand the benefits of standardized procedures, who even have management mandates and funded projects to develop or update their corporate policies and procedures manuals, but–despite all that–never manage to actually do anything about it. They have good intentions. They hold meetings. They discuss requirements. Sometimes, they even open up the word processor. But that’s as far as they get. Momentum grinds to a halt. Years can go by with no usable results.

If this sounds familiar, maybe you need some better strategies to get back on track.

Here is a list of 5 Simple Strategies that work to break the logjam and finally get your procedure manuals project off the drawing board and across the finish line.

• Start Small – Don’t try to do everything at once–you'll get overwhelmed. Instead, pick just one key task or operating process. Develop just that content and then publish it and start getting feedback. You'll get a quick win. Then go on to the next area, and the next, piece by piece in bite size chunks.  
   
• Divide and Conquer – Many hands make light work. To cover a lot of ground rapidly, involve a large pool of subject experts to contribute first drafts. Then edit their work. Each person has only a small part to do, but the combined effort gives fast results. For more on this approach see: Getting All Employees Involved in Maintaining Good Procedures      
    
• Set Goals – There’s nothing like a deadline to provoke action. If your CEO demands that the Operations Manual be done by October, you’ll figure out a way to get it done. So, if you’re stalled because there is no external deadline, set one and stick to it.  
    
• Learn from the Experts––sometimes projects bog down because the task is new and your team lacks experience and confidence. Consulting a third-party expert can often jumpstart your momentum. Consider a staff training or enrolling your team in some educational webinars.
       
• Get the Right Tools—if your project is stalled, the problem might be that you lack the right system. Traditional word processors and general-purpose software has proven cumbersome, ineffective and costly for creating and updating effective corporate policy and procedure manuals.  Investigate if there are better tools for your needs.  COMPROSE invented Zavanta software to provide a faster, better way to get high-quality results.    
   

—The Policy and Procedure Pros
 

Deciding how—and when—to repeat information is a common problem that most writers face especially when writing policies and procedures. Obviously, being concise is important. Repeating detailed information throughout your content increases the length of your employee manuals and makes updates more difficult. However, judicious repetition is necessary to emphasize important facts, instructions, and warnings and improve clarity and  results.  It's a dilemma.

How do you know when you should repeat information when writing policies and procedures manuals and when you are just being redundant?
 

Start by asking yourself some basic questions:

•  Is the task dangerous or risky? If so, it is wisest to repeat warnings and repeat  detailed step-by-step instructions where ever they apply to ensure the reader does not miss them.

• What is the main purpose of the procedure or manual—to instruct, to summarize, to describe in detail, for quick‑reference? Most quick‑reference manuals work best by employing cross‑referencing to other sections instead of repeating discussions.
   
• How many different levels of readers will use the procedure? If the procedure is geared toward multiple audiences, then repeating some information may be necessary for each audience. Keep in mind that you may have to cover the same information in different ways for different audience levels. For example, some readers may require more detail while others just need a summary.  Providing “drilldown” access to detail is a good way to serve multiple audience’s needs effectively.

One of the best ways to avoid repetition and still provide the right level of information for multiple audiences is to use hyperlinked cross-referencing that provides “drill down” information access.

Cross-referencing can be very challenging using MS WORD or Web authoring tools like FrontPage. Maintaining document links can become a nightmare.  Zavanta software makes content cross-referencing and maintenance simple. Zavanta's built-in structure helps you get the best of both worlds: content that is concise and easy to maintain as well as clear, and adequately detailed.  Request a Tour to find out more.

When you are writing policies and procedures, job aids, and work instructions, clarity should always be your first consideration. Remember that people in your organization turn to the company procedures manuals and new employee orientation training guides for two main reasons: 1) they have no idea how to perform a task or 2) they are having difficulty with a tricky task and need to confirm the exact steps.

Every word counts and has a precise meaning, even the little ones such as a, an, the, one. These words known as articles mean very specific things.  Notice how the meaning changes in the following sentence depending on which article you use:

There’s a building on the corner.

There’s the building on the corner.

There’s one building on the corner.

Don't leave out articles such as an, a, or the to save space. Leaving them out, can confuse the reader and even lead to errors.

Example: Rotate the compass to center line.

Readers can’t  tell if "center line" is a noun (the center line) or a verb with its object (center the line).  Experienced workers (who often write the procedures for the employee manual) might know from past experience which meaning is correct, but imagine this is a new worker who has just completed new employee orientation training, but has never actually completed the task. That person will be forced to guess the meaning and could make a serious error as a result.

For clarity’s sake, write instead: Rotate the compass to center the line. or Rotate the compass to the center line.

Acronyms are short hand abbreviations for longer terms and phrases. e.g. IRS is the acronym for the Internal Revenue Service. Although there's nothing wrong with using acronyms—they can save time and ink—use acronyms with caution.

Too many acronyms can become confusing alphabet soup. Sometimes it’s clearer and more reader-friendly to write out the longer term. If you use acronyms in your company procedures manuals, be sure to apply these rules: 1) write out terms in full and define them the first time you use them. 2) Remember to capitalize each letter in the acronym.

Also, consider including a list of acronyms with your glossary, and always spell out the acronym in parentheses the first time you introduce it in the document

Examples of acronyms:
 

CD is both jargon and an acronym meaning either compact disk and certificate of deposit 

IRA is jargon for both Individual Retirement Account and Irish Republican Army.

LCD is an acronym for Liquid Crystal Display.

LED is an acronym for Light Emitting Diode.

Jargon are words and phrases that are common to specific jobs and industries, but that many people won’t understand—also known as “Geek speak”.

Examples of jargon are everywhere. For a fun list check out The Original Hacker’s Dictionary.   Here’s our favorite new term from that list:

“BOGOSITY n. The degree to which something is BOGUS (q.v.). At CMU, bogosity is measured with a bogometer; typical use: in a seminar, when a speaker says something bogus, a listener might raise his or her hand and say, "My bogometer just triggered." The agreed-upon unit of bogosity is the microLenat (uL).”

It’s good advice to avoid using jargon and “shoptalk” when writing policies and procedures unless you are certain your entire audience is technically knowledgeable and comfortable with these terms. Abusing jargon in company procedures manuals will confuse, distract and often alienate nonspecialists so that they miss your message.  It's also a major reason so many people HATE to read policy and procedure manuals.

To make sure your message gets through, write out technical and specialized terms in full the first time you use them and include a clear definition. It’s also a good idea to create a glossary if your procedures require you to use many technical or specialized terms.

Zavanta software makes it easy for you to store terms and definitions for commonly used and important technical terms. Using the Pick List feature you can rapidly insert terms and definitions into any policy or procedure. You can also create and maintain Master Glossary files for your whole organization that everyone can access. To learn more, visit www.comprose.com.
 

Clichés are those tired overused phrases you hear a lot but don’t communicate much anymore. Cliches are often just verbal clutter and can make your writing boring or annoying which won’t help the readability or credibility of your company procedures manuals and training guides.

It’s good advice any time, but especially when writing policies and procedures, try to prune out the time-worn phrases and confusing jargon that creeps into everyday speech in business. The BBC has a great list of the 50 office-speak phrases you love to hate

Here are just a few of the common clichés the Policy and Procedure Pros would like to banish.

• In today's society
• At the end of the day
• Take it to the next level
• Incentivize
• Think outside the box

Nominate your favorite cliches, by commenting on this post. 

Here’s another tip to make your company procedure manuals clear and reader-friendly. When writing policies and procedures, avoid using weak modifiers such as very, long, little, slowly.

These weak words don’t provide useful information and can be confusing and open to interpretation.  Don’t ask your readers to guess what you mean. Be specific.

If your goal is to have your organization’s employee manuals and training guides read and used, keep this tip in mind when writing policies and procedures. Don’t be vague!

Abstract terms are harder to understand and frequently boring and lifeless. When you use vague generalized words, you'll either bore or frustrate your reader.  Vow to use specific and accurate nouns to make an immediate impression and draw a picture in the reader's mind.

Here are a Few examples:

COMPROSE Policy & Procedure Pros
 

The current scholarly research, backed up by our own field experience, indicates that flow charting your processes and procedures has definite proven value as an analytical tool for understanding high-level workflow and grasping the Big Picture. As well,  by providing a Flow Chart or System Diagram when writing policies and procedures and employee manuals you can often help readers create “mental models” of procedure steps more easily. 

However, while  flow charts can provide a good process overview, large complicated flow charts can be very counter-productive—only confusing and intimidating employees. Except for very simple processes, flow charts can rarely stand alone.  In practical settings such as training and daily operations, concise, detailed text procedures do a better job at providing the levels of detailed information employees actually need to carry out work tasks.

The Policy and Procedure Pros agree that the optimal solution is to utilize flow charts for what they do best—giving the "Big Picture"—and to utilize clear, concise written procedures and work instructions for what they do best—supporting task learning, reference and performance improvement.

The COMPROSE Operations Mapping approach helps you analyze your operating procedures and break them out into modular tasks, processes, procedures, and work instructions that you can easily link to relevant policies. Zavanta software creates reader-friendly “drill down” websites and company procedure manuals that give you high level process descriptions including flow charts for management views as well as increasingly detailed step by step instructions for task performers. This integrated approach delivers optimal results.

For additional information, check out our Educational Webinars: Operations Mapping: Achieving Performance Outcomes with Good Systems and How to create User-friendly Procedures.