Policies and procedures
Policies
Policies function as general guidelines. Outline your plan for approaching the topic, be it AML, RG or even Customer Complains. The main goal is to communicate your values and philosophy and show the way.
Effective policies lay the foundation for work culture.
Policies can influence culture, improve communication expectations with employees, and work as a guide for day-to-day operations. Good policy goes beyond just a bullet list of rules. Good policy transmits the purpose behind their work and sets the framework to measure success.
How do you make a good policy?
- Clear, concise, and simple language.
- Explains the rationale of the rule, not how to implement it.
- Readily available for staff at all times.
- Represents a consistent, logical framework.
Procedures
After drafting your organization's policies, procedures are the natural next step. Your policies have set the parameters for decision-making, now you need to make the decisions.
Polices give you the “why” behind an action.
Procedures give you the “how.”
Procedures shall present step-by-step instructions for specific routine tasks. They may even include a checklist or process steps to follow. The procedures' document should outline the following:
- Who is responsible for each task
- What steps need to be taken
- Who does the responsible party report to
Establishing procedures ensures that employees know what to do and keeps your organization running smoothly, even when key employees are out of the office.
How do you get a good procedure?
- Clear, concise, and simple language.
- Addresses how to implement policies.
- Takes user insight into account.
- Provides options when feasible, not unnecessarily restrictive.
Other Documentation
Processes: explain how to achieve a desired outcome, whether that be a product or service. Processes roll up under your organization’s policies and explain how something works at a high level.
Guidelines: are general recommendations. They're not mandatory or required. Whereas policies are more formal documents, and following them is mandatory.
How do we work?
Additional Information
1. Agree on the scope of the work
Although there are a lot of similarities between projects, each client and project is unique. We start by understanding what needs to be done (how much content we’re talking about), the target audience, and other factors that affect the scope of the work. Where possible, we agree on the costs upfront – to avoid any nasty surprises for you. And last but not least, we define what "done" means.
2. Agree on a project start date, and the project begins
We’ll start work on looking at any existing content, developing the content structure, and defining a template. This means the final result will be consistent, and the work will be done efficiently.
3. Interview the Subject Matter Experts
A key objective is to convert the knowledge that’s in people’s heads into policies and procedures. That normally involves talking to the “Subject Matter Experts” and getting a “brain dump” from them in a quick and efficient way. That can often be done via a short Meets or Zoom call. During this stage, our writers are checking to see if it’s clear:
- Who should be doing a task
- How a task is carried out
- What happens next (for example, are there any handover issues)
- How the policy or procedure will be checked for compliance.
4. Write 1st draft
We write the first draft of the policies and procedures, using plain English principles. Plain English is a way of writing clearly, concisely and unambiguously. It means presenting ideas and information in a way that’s easy for your audience to read and understand.
In addition to the writing, we also continue the work on organising the content. This is so that is in the best structure for people to find information when they need it. We’ll send that draft out for review.
5. Second draft
We amend the content in response to the feedback we’ve received.
6. It’s ready for delivery
We hand over the final version for you and your team to use. We can produce the content as online pages. In other cases, we produce the policies and procedures as Word or PDF documents. The result is better, clearer, and more findable guidance for you and your team.
