How to Make a Business Operational Manual
A business operational manual is a roadmap for managers and employees to use as a guide for leading a business along a path to success. Operational manuals place the mission of the company, and the means to achieve that mission, in front of employees for reference and inspiration. A good operational manual is easy to access by all stakeholders and is open to amendment and change as environments and conditions change around and within the business. Even the smallest business enterprise should have an operations manual.
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Instructions
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Be clear about the purpose of the operations manual. The operations manual should describe every aspect of how the company functions to achieve a specific goal or set of goals. This set of processes should then be used by employees as a reference, a decision-making tool and for training purposes. Any newcomer should be able to read the operations manual and understand how the company works and, even more important, why the company does what it does.
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Make the authorship of the operational manual a group process. A good operations manual is never authored by a single person or from "the top down." Instead, an operations manual should be created with plenty of key participation by employees "on the ground." Form a leadership group, but break down company operations into focus groups, each responsible for producing "chapters" for the manual by a specific deadline. Make sure experts or company "all stars" are part of these focus groups.
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Set style guidelines for the focus groups' work. Style guidelines should cover aspects of the manual like "readability," and use of graphic elements like charts and diagrams. Some of the best corporate operational manuals prohibit use of "techno-babble," or "corporate-speak," in describing processes, and instead insist upon the use of ordinary language so the manual remains accessible by all kinds of people within the organization. Likewise, any charts that will become part of the operations manual need to be easy to understand and quick to translate into useful ideas and information.
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Test the chapter drafts along the way. Provide drafts of chapters to persons outside the focus group and ask for feedback, looking for areas in the report where information is confusing, the goal or method isn't obvious, or is where text is too dense in terms of vocabulary. Hone the manual chapters carefully until they become clear, like a polished gem.
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Combine all the chapters into one document, creating "bridge" chapters or introductions as necessary to connect the different operational processes or departments. Edit the final manual so it speaks with one "voice," in terms of simple language.
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Index the operations manual. Employees should be able to quickly extract specific information from the document through use of an exhaustive index.
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Commit the final operations manual to digital form as well as a printed form. This digital version should be available to all employees on their intranet. Add an accessory to the digital version that includes Frequently Asked Questions, or a text Search tool.
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Schedule formal reviews for updates or amendments in the operations manual. The manual should be examined several times a year to make sure it remains current and meaningful.
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