How to Organize Materials to Write a Procedure Manual

Procedure manuals can help make training new employees more efficient.

A procedure manual is a broad term used to describe any type of reference document which details the steps that should be taken by an employee to accomplish one or more tasks in his job role. Procedure manuals could exist for handling of hazardous equipments, filing legal documents, or even basic office duties depending on your industry. Creating a procedure manual when your company does not have one can help make training of new employees more efficient as well as prevent future procedural errors from current employees. Prior to writing a procedure manual, it will be necessary to gather the relevant documents and materials that will be needed. Organizing these materials effectively can help make writing the manual more efficient.

Things You'll Need

• Binders
• Paper
• Binder Dividing Pages

Instructions

1. Perform a needs assessment within your company or department that will allow you to determine what procedures need to be included in the manual. This will help you focus the scope of your manual so that it is neither too broad nor too focused. Performing a needs assessment will also then determine what materials you will need to gather for the manual. Needs assessments can be done through paper survey, verbal communication with co-workers, email chain or online survey system.

2. Review the needs assessment responses, and draw conclusions about the major sections and procedures that need to be covered in the manual.

3. Create a list of all useful materials that may be helpful for each section that you determined in Step 2. These could be paper documents like previous instruction manuals, checklists, or forms. They could also be extra items you know might be helpful but have not been created or used before, such as photo illustrations.

4. Create a second list of all the items you will need to put your physical manual together. This could include three-ring binders, copiers, or paper.

5. Gather each of the items on your list, keeping track of which ones you have by placing a check mark next to each retrieved item on the list. Utilize your coworkers and supervisors in obtaining documents.

6. Keep the documents that you gather separated by section or procedure that you created in Step 2. Keeping the documents organized by section will help you when it is finally time to compile the manual. Consider keeping the documents in a binder with each section separated and labeled by a dividing page.

Tips & Warnings

• Divide project into easy-to-manage objectives.

• Get approval from your boss to begin.

• Do not plagiarize user manuals from software or hardware companies or any other manual. Use them as guide to format your manual.

References

• Government of Alberta: Developing A Policy And Procedures Manual
• HACCP Europa: Procedure Manual -- How to write a procedure
• Chiff.com: How to Get Started Writing Policies & Procedures
• University of California, Santa Cruz: Guide to Writing Policy and Procedure Documents
• Alaska School Library Handbook: Procedures Manuals

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish