Writing Policies and Procedures

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.
 

While Flow Charts certainly have proven benefits and many managers and quality experts advocate them, some recent empirical research uncovers some undeniable weaknesses that limit flow charts’ usefulness in practical applications such as corporate training, standardizing daily operations and performance improvement.  

• Several studies described in the Journal of Information Systems Education[1] and the British Journal of Educational Technology [2] found subjects performed faster and more accurately when using concise text instructions and/or pseudo-code compared to flow charted procedures.  Flow charts were found to be particularly ineffective when applied to complicated procedures with much branching.

• Researchers published in the ACM Annual Computer Science Conference put it this way:  “Although studying a “picture” may be more aesthetically appealing than poring through lines of “textual” code . . . empirical studies have indicated that flowcharts may be no more beneficial than source listings. In fact, they may be a hindrance”[3]   According to the same source, another study concluded that procedures written as flowcharts did not increase performance by subjects in identifying procedural faults. 
   
• A 2007 study published in the Journal of Information Systems [4],  cited weaknesses of flow charting and similar systems diagramming techniques finding them “inadequate for complicated processes.”  The study cited weaknesses including employee unfamiliarity with the method and limited usefulness in daily operations. Study authors found that flow charts made it “too easy for the documenter to over-simplify the processes” and found that most flow charts needed “additional narrative” to fully explain the process to users. User feedback stressed the deficiency that flow charts failed to indicate “why something is done”—a critical component in training, compliance and operational settings. 

• A 2009 study published by the American Accounting Association [5] found that although theory suggested flow charts would make it easier for auditors to create mental models of processes and improve their speed and accuracy, their study found that business process flow charts “did not improve auditors’ ability to identify missing internal controls” which was their primary aim, and in fact client prepared flow charts actually hindered the auditors work.

This research clearly indicates that although graphical representations of procedures (aka flow charts) can certainly aid in understanding and communicating process flows and Big Picture views, in many cases a picture is NOT worth a thousand words. Concise, well-crafted text procedures are often the most effective way to convey how-to instructions.

See our next post for the bottom line verdict on using flow charting when writing policies and procedures and company procedures manuals.

Sources:
[1] “Teaching Flowcharting with FlowC,” Journal of Information Systems Education, 15: 1 65-77

[2]  Abstract: “Extracting information from flowcharts and contingency statements: the effects of age and practice” British Journal of Educational Technology 22: (2) 84-98.

[3] “Survey of empirical studies of graphical representations for algorithms” Proceedings  of the 1988 ACM sixteenth annual conference on Computer Science. ACM Annual Computer Science Conference.

[4] Bradford, Marianne et. al., “System Diagramming Techniques: An Analysis of Methods Used in Accounting Education and Practice” Journal of Informations Systems 21: (Spring 2007) 173-212. 

[5] Bierstaker et. al., “Do Client-Prepared Internal Control Documentation and Business Process Flow Charts Help of Hinder and Auditor’s Ability to Identify Missing Controls?” Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory 28: (May 2009) 79-94.

To help resolve the debate on the topic of flow charting effectiveness, the Policy and Procedure Pros surveyed available objective scholarly research. Surprisingly, despite the popularity of flow charting, there has not been a great deal of neutral academic study of its effectiveness compared to text procedures.

Below is a quick summary of the “Pro” side of the debate.

• First popularized in the 1970s, flow charting is a way to graphically depict the steps in a process. Flow charts are now widely used in many industries as a tool to understand and communicate corporate processes.  
   
• Flow charts have undisputed value for task analysis and understanding the “big picture” of task flow. Many people, especially those who learn best from visuals, find flow charts help them create “mental models” of task flow more quickly and accurately than text descriptions can. If they see a multi-step procedure broken into a Flow Chart, they report being able to  see the “Big Picture” faster and remember it better.
   
• Some empirical studies in the 1970s and early 80s showed study subjects understood procedures faster and performed better when looking at flow charts compared to text descriptions.
   
• Hundreds of specialty consultants advocate the benefits of flow charting procedures as a way to understand and optimize operational procedures.
   
• Advances in flow charting software have made it easier to do and have also increased its popularity as a management and quality tool. Most business professionals have at least a basic familiarity with how to read a basic flow chart.

That all being said, don’t throw your company procedures manuals out in favor of a series of flow charts just yet. Several more recent empirical studies throw cold water on the enthusiastic endorsement of flow charting. 

See our next post for the “Con” side of the flow chart debate.  See past posts on the role of flow charts as well as other tips and techniques for writing policies and procedures that deliver more value. You might also want to check out our webinar series, particularly our How to Create User-friendly Procedures webinar. Just follow the link to download a data sheet.
 

We get asked often about how, when, and why people should use flow charts when writing policies and procedures and developing corporate training manuals and guides. 

The Policy and Procedure Pros are firmly divided on the overall effectiveness of flow charts as a way to communicate how to perform procedures and work instructions and reduce errors. Some see significant benefits in flow charts. Some see significant drawbacks. We decided to survey the current scholarly research on the topic to settle the debate and found that both sides are right. 

According to current research, the question “To flow chart, or not to flow chart,” is an “it depends” proposition. Some times it helps. Some times it doesn’t.

The following 2 separate Posts look individually at the Benefits and the Problems and Weaknesses of using flow charts for communicating "how to" information in company Procedures Manuals designed to improve employee and operations performance and support corporate training efforts.

With apologies to the Prince of Denmark, “To flow chart, or NOT to flow chart,” that is the question the Policy and Procedure Pros have been debating recently in the coffee room.

When it comes to flow charts, some people love ‘em, some people hate ‘em, and the experts don’t agree on their effectiveness. So we decided to devote the next several posts to this topic.

• How effective are flow charts at actually communicating how to complete procedures and work instructions to employees?
• Is a picture always better than words? Is it ever worse? 
• What role should flow charts play when you are writing policies and procedures for your organization? 

Watch our upcoming posts on the role of flow charts as well as other tips and techniques for writing policies and procedures that deliver more value. You might also want to check out our webinar series, particularly our How to Create User-friendly Procedures webinar. Just follow the link to download a data sheet.

How many times have you or someone who reports to you been in this situation?

You earned a major promotion by being a Star performer. But the promotion came with a dark side! You find yourself suddenly overwhelmed with work. No one knows how to do your old job as well as you do, so you're constantly answering questions and doing your old tasks as well as learning your new job. You practically live in front of your computer. You've been working nights and weekends for weeks, but you just can't get it all done. You're so exhausted your performance is suffering and your boss wonders why she promoted you. If you can't get things under control, you'll end up in the hospital or the unemployment line.  What do you do?

A. Work harder! Sooner or later you'll catch up?
B. Spend more time teaching your staff to take over your job?
C. Take time to create detailed work instructions and an Operations Manual for your staff?

Let's look at the options:

A. Working harder isn't the answer. Working smarter is. You've got to learn to delegate. Don't fall into this career quicksand! Could you be scared of your new job and feel more comfortable doing the work you already know? Get over it!

B. Teaching others to do your old job is the right idea. As long as no one else knows how to do your old tasks, you'll be stuck doing two jobs. That's a classic Star Performer trap. You've got to teach your replacements. Unfortunately, the more time you spend teaching and coaching others one-on-one, the farther behind you'll get in your new duties. And, if it's all word-of-mouth people will naturally forget details so you've got to be available all the time for questions. By making yourself too available, it's easy to still end up doing the work yourself anyway--or obsessing over details and driving everyone crazy. Just teaching isn't the best strategy.

C. Writing down standardized procedures that anyone can follow is the best way to delegate. If you spend just a fraction of your overtime hours in a quiet room writing simple work instructions for how to do your old job, you'll get out of the overworked trap much more quickly. Sure, it takes a little effort now, but it pays off BIG in the long run. With written instructions, not only will other staff members be able to perform new tasks right away, but they won't interrupt you constantly to ask questions because they forgot or weren't paying attention when you explained things verbally. It's all written down. They'll be productive faster, and be empowered in the process. You'll have time to concentrate on your new job and you won't be tempted to break down and just do your old work because no body can do it as well as you. Everybody wins. You might even get promoted again!

For more on this topic, see previous post on All Systems GO! blog  Got too much on your plate? Create a delegation system. 
 

In an previous post  Do "Unwritten Rules" Undermine Your Business?, The Good Business Systems squad warned about the dangers of operating your business with "unwritten rules." This question from the May issue of St. Louis Small Business Monthly highlights more of the dangers. What happens when star performers leave and take their "unwritten" knowledge out the door with them?

My biggest all-star employee just left the company to work for a competitor.  He was efficient, virtually mistake-free and energetic.  When he left, he took with him a bunch of unwritten knowledge about how he did his job.  I now have a couple of people that are similar in background and knowledge, but they just can’t match what this person was able to do.  Besides working on my employee retention, how can I get access to the hidden or tribal knowledge that people like this all-star have?  What is a way that I can document the habits that separate all-stars from bench warmers?

- Missing My All-Star, Maryland Heights Business Owner

If you are still relying on word-of-mouth training and tribal knowledge you are putting your business at risk. 

The very best way to retain the knowledge of star performers is to capture that unique knowledge as part of your company's operations manual and standardized procedures.  By writing policies and procedures that clearly explain your unique business system and contain the unique details that only your All Star performers understand you can prevent costly "brain drain" and also improve your corporate training effectiveness.

Don't wait until a star performer leaves and you are left with a big knowledge gap to overcome. COMPROSE Zavanta software is designed specifically to make it easy for your "All Star" Subject Matter Experts to capture their special knowledge and share it with others through effective policies and procedures. It provides all the tools necessary for writing policies and procedures that others will read and use. You can learn how other organizations have successfully implemented this strategy at www.comprose.com.
 

Often the burden of writing policies and procedures, Employee Manuals, and Operations Manuals falls on the shoulders of training or HR departments. But to get the real value of living, breathing systems, the whole organization needs to be involved in creating and maintaining standardized procedures. This can be a challenge, but the results are well worth the effort.

Here are some ways to encourage employee participation in preparing and maintaining effective procedures: 
 

• Use experienced employees as subject matter experts and procedure writers
• Provide support and guidance for subject matter experts in good techniques for writing policies and procedures so they know what to do
• Provide all employees an opportunity to give input on the procedures they use
• Implement a system that encourages any user to raise an issue or recommend improvements to an approved procedure

Two common mistakes people make when writing policies and procedures involve opposite sides of the same coin—including the wrong level of detail. Some policies and procedures fail because they are so vague and generic that people can’t use them. Not enough detail. Other policies and procedures are so long-winded and complex that people can’t follow or understand them. Too much detail.
 

If your goal is writing policies and procedures that get read and used, you need to find the right balance between conciseness and completeness. “Completeness” doesn’t have to do with how long the policy or procedure is. The best test for completeness is how usable the information is. Does the document contain enough information so the reader can perform the task safely and correctly—but no more than the task requires?
 

You can tell that you have included the right level of detail when the least experienced, trained user can safely perform the procedure as written without needing to ask questions.
 

To achieve this balance, writers should focus on the “Need to Know” information and leave out the “Nice to know” information. “Need to know” means just the information required to safely and efficiently perform the task.
 

So, what if one person’s “Nice to Know” information is another person’s “Need to Know” information? What do you do then?
 

You can get the best of all worlds and get the most value from your Operations Manuals, or Policy Manual by designing your content to provide DRILL DOWN access so each reader can access the level of detail he or she needs at a given time. Operations Mapping techniques and Zavanta software are specifically designed to help you achieve the right level of detail in your content and allow easy drill down for maximum effectiveness.

Watch our upcoming posts for more tips and techniques that you can use for writing policies and procedures that deliver more value. You might also want to check out our webinar series, particularly our How to Create User-friendly Procedures webinar. Follow the link to download a data sheet.

How many times a day do you and your colleagues stop and interrupt a co-worker or supervisor to ask a question or get help in performing a basic task? 

According to a report in Time Magazine, on a typical day, workers are interrupted about 7 times an hour! That’s 56 interruptions a day, and 80% of them are considered trivial.  According to a study by Basex Research, interruptions cost the U.S. economy $588 billion a year.

In our own research performing operations consulting to organizations across industries, we have found employees in typical organizations spend an average of 10% of their days consulting with co-workers and supervisors for help performing routine tasks. That amounts to 45 minutes a day spread across a 7.5 hour workday. If you have a 300 employee company with an average composite wage of $20/hr, that time rapidly adds up to a labor cost of $1,080,000 a year! 

Organizations who have a clear system of standardized procedures available to employees in easy to access operations manuals can dramatically reduce the cost of interruptions, work stoppages, and lost productivity throughout their companies. When employees can simply look up the answer quickly and reliably, they complete their work more efficiently without interrupting others and that saves the entire organization.

For more ideas on how streamlining your business systems can reduce costs and improve organizational performance, download a copy of COMPROSE’s free e-book, How to Be an Operations SuperHero: 3 Frequently Overlooked Ways to Improve People Performance and Help the Bottom line. 
 

Whether you have an official Operations Manual or not, the people in your organization apply policies and procedures everyday to guide decisions and complete their work. You might ask, Why bother to write down standard operating procedures and policies and make them "official"?  Many organizations don't. They operate by "unwritten rules," informal policies and procedures that get passed on—or NOT—by word-of- mouth from employee to employee.

Well you've heard the old joke, an oral contract isn't worth the paper it's written on. Unwritten rules are the same. There's no accountability. There's always somebody who "didn't get the memo." When nothing is written down and standardized, your organization will quickly develop inconsistent and inefficient operations practices that can lead to big problems over time.

How do you keep from undermining your business with unwritten rules? Capture your unique "system" in tangible form that everyone can look at, refer to, and correct when necessary.

This is the very core of COMPROSE's Operations Mapping approach. By writing policies and procedures that clearly explain your unique business system you can guarantee that your employees make better choices on a day-to-day basis to prevent errors, streamline business processes, and succeed at improving organizational performance.

For more, see 5 Common Mistakes Executives Make that Derail Operations Excellence.
 

What’s the most important factor in reducing task errors? Employee Skills? Training Methods? or the “System” itself  (aka steps used to perform the task)? 

An interesting research study carried out by Michael Byrne of Rice University and Elizabeth Davis of the University of Texas overturns many common assumptions about employee training methods and performance improvement. They were interested specifically in why “post-completion” errors are so prevalent. In a post-completion error, a person correctly completes a series of actions but then fails—or forgets—to complete an essential final step. Running a complicated photocopying job but then walking off and leaving the original documents behind in the copier is an example of a post-completion error most of us can relate to.

To investigate this, Byrne and Davis created controlled laboratory studies and compared performance results using two distinct step sequences for completing the same task.   They also, examined the relative effectiveness of employee training methods (reprimand, reinstruction, and praise) on correcting post-completion errors. We found the results, published in the journal Human Factors, “Task Structure and Post-completion Error in the Execution of a Routine Procedure”  fascinating. They surprised even the researchers.

None of the “motivational manipulations (reprimand, reinstruction, and praise) had a reliable effect on altering task performance (for either task completion time or task accuracy)." The only group that consistently outperformed the others was the one that followed the better procedure in the first place.

When the standard procedure that test subjects followed included the “post completion” step within the logical sequence of the task (rather than as a separate “after task” activity), errors were drastically reduced.  The only difference between the test groups was the ORDER of the steps given in the written procedure test subjects followed.  Yet, the performance results showed a significant difference in error rate.

The implication for organizations wanting to improve organizational performance and reduce errors is to the most effective technique is to streamline systems and procedures. Changing corporate training methods and varying strategic management processes, such as reward versus reprimand, did not achieve the results that simply defining a clear, efficient procedure did.

For more on how streamlining your business systems can reduce errors and improve performance, download a copy of COMPROSE’s free e-book, How to Be an Operations SuperHero: 3 Frequently Overlooked Ways to Improve People Performance and Help the Bottom line. 

The Good Business Systems Squad shared a study with us that we found really thought provoking. Researchers Michael Byrne of Rice University and Elizabeth Davis of the University of Texas created controlled laboratory studies to examine the relative effectiveness of employee training methods on correcting post-completion errors. Published in Human Factors, their study, “Task Structure and Post-completion Error in the Execution of a Routine Procedure” compared the effectiveness of four common training practices for improving performance and reducing errors.

Sometimes referred to as “Blame and Train,”  the four training techniques were:

1.      Reprimand: When testers made errors they were reported for poor performance and advised to improve.
 

2.      Reinstruction: When testers made errors they were reported for poor performance and advised to re-read the manual and take a test to demonstrate proficiency.

 

3.      Praise: Testers were praised for good performance and advised to keep up the good work.

 

4.      Redesign: When testers made errors, they were trained on a different procedure and re-tested.

The results surprised even the researchers! They showed that none of the “motivational manipulations (reprimand, reinstruction, and praise) had a reliable effect on altering task performance (for either task completion time or task accuracy)." The only group that consistently outperformed the others was the one that followed the better procedure in the first place.

The system or step sequence the tester followed had a much greater impact on performance than any other factor!

Wow! This research has some significant implications for corporate training departments to reflect on. Are we investing our resources in the areas that can have the biggest impact on ROI? Before we invest in training, blaming, or even rewarding, do we start with clear, effective “procedures” that support good performance?

Is it the employee or the “system” that needs improvement?
 

If you want one simple, easy to remember rule for writing policies and procedures, work instructions, and employee manuals that get good results, this is it!

Start each step with an Action Verb.

It takes a little discipline to apply this but you'll be amazed at how effective it is at keeping your instructions clear, concise, and easy to understand. 

Use the command form. Make the first word of each step a VERB that captures the ACTION. 

Examples:

Watch for more tips and techniques that you can use for writing policies and procedures that deliver more value. You might also want to check out our webinar series, particularly our How to Create User-friendly Procedures webinar.  Follow the link to download a data sheet.
 

Here's another tip for writing policies and procedures and employee manuals that get good results. 

Provide the RESULT as well as the Action in your steps.

This is an simple but powerful way to keep people from taking a wrong turn and getting confused, or worse still making a costly error! Unless you tell your readers what to look for, they will not know if the result they get is correct or not. Try to provide a verifiable outcome for each step.

Example:

If correct result of mixing 2 chemicals is that the solution turns BLUE, then be sure to tell the reader that. If the solution does not turn blue, something is WRONG.

Similarly, if after selecting ENTER in a software step, a specific screen should display, then show the correct result. If something else displays, the reader will know something is wrong.

See related tip: Be SPECIFIC when Writing Step-by-Step Instructions

If your goal is writing policies and procedures that get read and used pay special attention to how you write step instructions. Tell the reader exactly what to do when you give instructions. Do not assume that your readers will know what you mean. Chances are they won't. Vague instructions only confuse and frustrate people.  For best results, provide a verifiable outcome right in the step instruction.

Example:

Poor: Stir the solution until thoroughly mixed.   (What does "thoroughly mixed" mean?)

Instead be specific: Stir the solution for 2 or 3 minutes. Or, Stir the solution until no powder remains at the bottom of the flask.

Also, be sure to include quantities and measurements in the instructions. 

For example, don't just say "Cut a long piece of rope."  Say, "Cut a 12 foot piece of rope."  Don't say "Add sugar." Say "Add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar."

Watch for more tips and techniques that you can use for writing policies and procedures that deliver more value. You might also want to check out our webinar series, particularly our How to Create User-friendly Procedures webinar.  Follow the link to download a data sheet.