By Shannon Mayerl, President of Top Promotions
Some people think “What could be more boring than developing policies and writing the related procedures/instructions”? Yet developing and documenting procedures (how to do XYZ within your business) is a critical step to having a well-run, profitable, efficient company, especially as your company grows and becomes more than a one-man show. Why listen to me? I have a BA in Political Science, so how does this qualify me to give you advice? My area of focus within my degree field was Public Administration and Policy Development, so there’s that, but more importantly are the 18 years of practical experience I gained working my way up through my company from front line customer service to the Presidency. Along the way I ran point on developing nearly every policy and procedure we use at Top Promotions.
The first step to developing an effective policy and writing the procedure that go with it is to capture a full understanding of the topic/issue at hand. Not only the immediate impact to people and workflow directly related, but looking at 2, 3, 4 steps removed (and more) to know your ripple effect. A decision made in one area can have unintended negative results in another area of your business unless you take the time to really understand the full impact.
Draw on the experiences of your employees and continually ask if we do this, how will that be impacted? Perhaps employee A spending an extra 5 minutes at the start of the process will save Employee D 60 minutes at the end of the process. Pro tip: make sure you look at the sum of the parts (a.k.a. the whole picture) before making any decisions.
Once you know what policy is needed, you need to develop the procedure and convey this by writing instructions.
Break down the policy into small steps. What needs to happen first, second, third, etc? I suggest using flow charts to guide your thought process to ensure you don’t miss a critical component. You should also have someone else in the company review your flow charts to confirm they make sense.
Once the policy is broken down to steps, write out the procedures necessary to accomplish these steps:
- Instructions should not be wordy, they should be a step by step action plan.
- Be clear and concise.
- I strongly suggest an outline format; instructions should not be in paragraphs.
- Don’t make assumptions, document every step.
- The first time (within a single set of instructions) you use an acronym, spell out what it stands for. TBD (to be determined) – this removes any confusion or misunderstanding.
- Do not use names, use position titles. This ensures if someone changes positions or leaves your company, the instructions are still accurate.
- Develop a centrally located file to store all policies, procedures and instructions.
- Use folders and sub-folders for organizing these files.
Determining policies and writing procedures may not be fun, but the more consistent you are with documenting, the greater your potential profitability because you will avoid unnecessary and sometimes costly mis-steps.