How to Write Procedures & Policies

The key to writing strong procedures & policies is to make the documents rigid enough to document the rules of the organization but flexible enough to be able to be followed easily, mostly without deviation. You may hear procedures and policies be referred to as SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) in a lot of organizations. These documents form the backbone for an organization so writing them well will help keep the business on path and ensure that standard procedures are being conducted the same way by all staff.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. 
   Procedures & policies are easy to draft from an outline

   ~~Draft an outline of any procedures & policies your organization needs~~
   
   Creating a brief outline of procedures & policies will help you organize your writing. Grouping the policy and procedures by department (ex, HR policies, Safety procedures) may help you organize your thoughts. Organize the outline with the most important tasks at the beginning so you can start to write these documents first. After all, you have to start somewhere and starting with the most important means that at least these will be done!

2. ~~Break the individual procedures and policies down into the separate tasks involved in completing each document~~
   
   In your outline, add sub-tasks for each document so that the steps are clear, logical, and in order. In this fashion, the documents almost write themselves.

3. ~~Interview the staff who perform the tasks~~
   
   Don't overlook the valuable input from the employees currently doing the tasks. The SOPs should be documenting how things are done and these are the folks in the know.

4. ~~Fill in your outline with more detailed procedures for your staff to follow~~
   
   It's best practice to keep it simple when writing policies and procedures. It's also widely accepted practice to write on the 5th grade US level - this means that a 5th grader should be able to read and understand every word.

5. ~~Decide on who will sign off on the procedures & policies~~
   
   Sign off should hold some high level names so that the bosses are aware of how things are being done. Some organization run every policy and procedure through the Human Resources (HR) department or their legal branch (for larger companies) to ensure no laws are being broken.

6. ~~Call a review meeting to gather all signatories in one room to discuss the policy~~
   
   If at all possible, getting all parties together in one room to have a discussion about one specific policy will move the document forward at a much more rapid pace than passing it around and asking for comments. If you really want to speed things up, set a goal of having the SOP signed off at the end of the meeting. A productive meeting! Imagine that!

7. ~~Sign, date, version control and circulate the finalized procedures and policies~~
   
   Consider giving each employee an employee handbook which can be updated with the revised documents as needed. In fact, create a policy and procedure for handling of the notebooks, including auditing the employee handbooks periodically to ensure that all staff should be up to date.

Tips & Warnings

• Standard procedures are often overlooked by small businesses but they are vital in ensuring the health of the business.

Resources

• How to be a data manager
• How to stay current in the job market
• How to conduct yourself at a temporary job

[georgelarson]

on 7/2/2009 Well written and thorough information for writing policies and procedures. Thanks.

[joanhaines]

on 7/2/2009 Having written policies in place is helpful for everyone inside the organization as well as those working with the organization.

[ScarlettOHairy]

on 7/1/2009 Good advice for breaking down how to do things so there is no confusion in the organization.