Whether you are running a small business with a few employees or a large one with thousands of employees, training your employees on a standard set of policies and procedures provides many benefits to the employee, the business, and of course, to your customer. In the absence of stated policies and procedures, employees make their own decisions about various activities and may create confusion within the employee group as well as with your customers. For example, one employee may handle refunds one way, while another does it completely differently!
Policies and procedures should be straightforward to make it easy for everyone to understand and follow. As issues are identified, new approaches may be needed, and your policies and procedures document can be updated. In many cases, it is a living document.
In this post, we will provide more information about what a policy and procedures document is, why using templates can save you time, why they are important, and what the essential elements are. Formulation of quality documents, who benefits from policy and procedures templates, and the difference between policy, procedures, and process are also covered.
What are Policy and Procedures?
Whenever someone new starts working in your company, they will have many questions. A good policy and procedures document will address many of these questions and ensure that all of the employees know and follow the same set of guidelines. They ensure consistency in work processes, treatment of customers and guide day-to-day decisions that are made by everyone in your company.
Policies are typically high-level guidelines that are in place to define the culture of the workplace. They provide a framework or guideline for the workplace.
Procedures are more specific and guide lower-level processes. For example, you may have a “Non-Smoking Policy in the Workplace”, however many employees smoke and may wish to do so while on their breaks or at lunchtime. The “procedures” section of your document will cover where they can smoke, perhaps a smoking room or area, disposal of cigarette butts, and address any safety concerns, as well as other issues that are identified during the formation of the policy and procedures document.
With a clear statement about smoking in the workplace, all employees can follow the rules and avoid any conflict that could arise from smoking in unsafe areas, bother employees that do not smoke, etc.
What Is a Policy and Procedure Template?
Policy and procedure templates can cover many topics and are specific to business activities as well as the size of the business. Typical documents cover human resources, workplace administration, regulations, employee benefits and welfare, and many more. A small business of fewer than 10 people may not need a human resources policy; however, larger employers who are not big enough to have a human resources department may benefit from a human resources policy and procedures template.
Busy employers do not have the time to create their templates and documents. There are many policies and procedures templates available online for various business situations that can be downloaded and then adjusted to fit your particular business area and the specific policy or procedural issue you want to address.
Another common template is the employee code of conduct which helps to ensure a common approach to training your employees about what you expect of them when dealing with each other, dealing with suppliers, and of course, with customers.
Once you have found the right template for your needs and made the specific adjustment required to reflect your business and culture, the template can be shared and discussed with your employees. During the process, you may find that further adjustments are needed to reflect important points identified during the training process with your employees. These documents tend to become living documents in a sense they need to be updated at regular intervals.
Policy and Procedure Templates & Examples
Importance of a Policy and Procedure Template
There are many reasons a well-written policy and procedure template is important to your business, your employees, and your customers. We will cover some of the main ones in this section; however, there may be unique reasons that are specific to your business that is also important.
- Stating the company’s guidelines and goals
- Communicating expected standards of behavior and action for all of your employees
- Describe the company’s best practices
- Set standards for how employees complete their work
- Standardized employee training
- Helps employees deal with unexpected situations
- Protects the company from potential employee fraud or legal action
- Defines disciplinary actions
- Ensure that the company follows state and federal legal requirements
- Helps to make consistent decisions related to employees, suppliers, and customers
- Part of your onboarding training activity providing consistent training for all employee
Essential Elements of Policy and Procedure Template
Essential elements of a policy template include:
- Header – organization name
- Date (s) – date policy came into operation, date it was updated, date it was approved
- Title – reflect the specific content and focus of the policy
- Approval – the name of the person approving the policy
- Policy Statement – Address the questions Who, Why, What, When, and where the policy applies
- Scope of the Policy – who does the policy apply to and what the policy applies to
- Reference Number – identifying the policy reference number for cataloging, including a version number
- Parties and Responsibilities – policy enforcement, names, and contact numbers
- Directive – specific instructions to be enforced
- Page Numbering – number each page
- Definitions – define all words that are not common and acronyms
- References – include any references to other documents used to create this policy
If there are specific procedures that need to be developed as a result of completing a policy statement, the procedures should follow the same format and use the policy as a reference to create specific procedures associated with the policy.
How to Formulate a Good Policy and Procedure Template?
Be ready to spend a great deal of time developing a good policy and procedure template. In addition, several iterations will be needed before you and your team are satisfied that you have captured the essence you what you are trying to accomplish.
You will need to research the area, find out what the current industry standards are and what your management team is truly looking for. Take the time to analyze all of your data before beginning to write the policy for your company. Prepare a draft and then leave it for a few days while you think about what you have written and absorb additional data. Another review and rewrite are often needed before beginning to review the policy with stakeholders to gain their input.
Begin testing your document with the people involved in its preparation, find an expert to review your document, and test it with someone who knows little about the subject. It is often amazing what even a novice will uncover. Check for grammatical and spelling errors and implement all of the suggestions that make sense and correspond with your overall objective. Test all of the suggestions before adding or making modifications.
If you received a great deal of input, which has now been incorporated, you might want to run it past everyone one more time to test if you have captured their ideas in your policy and procedures document. Make the final changes, and version (1)one is ready for distribution after review and approval with decision-makers within your company.
Several other factors and tips are worth mentioning:
- Keep your policy document short, avoid complexity since long complex documents tend to lose reader interest and understanding.
- Format your document in a structured way – easy to add updates, spell out acronyms, use labels to introduce key points.
- Ensure that no laws are being broken by your policy document. The content should conform to local and state laws.
- Develop an implementation plan which includes testing or confirming that all employees have read and understood the document. Return emails, signatures, and even tests to confirm they have read the policy and understood its intent.
- Implementation can involve several steps depending on the company and the specific policy in question.
- These steps include:
- Distribution to employees
- Training videos or classes or self-review
- Regular reviews and updates to ensure that the policy is up to date based on changes to laws, company operations, and cultural norms.
Preparing a policy and procedures document can involve a great deal of effort; however, high-quality documents can have significant benefits for your employees and your company.
What Not to Include in a Policy and Procedure Template
An overly detailed and complex policy and procedures template may be a difficult read for many people, causing them to only scan it or not read it at all. You cannot accomplish consistency within your organization and avoid breaking laws if no one has read it or understood it.
Statements that contravene local, state, and federal laws should not be included. Both your company and your employees could be at risk from a legal perspective if statements are included that suggest laws can be contravened.
Each policy and procedures template should focus on one concept at a time. You may want to have several documents or many documents, each focused on a particular area of concern.
Avoid naming specific people; instead, mention the title or position that is responsible for a specific aspect of the policy and procedure.
Use words that are understood in your organization vs. industry or government-specific regulations that are not well understood.
Avoid mixing policies, procedures, and processes within the template. Each can have its designated section to be review and utilized by the appropriate team members and employees.
Who Can Benefit from a Policy and Procedure?
Many different companies and internal organizations gain extensive benefits from developing and using policy and procedures templates. They guide consistent – work processes, high-quality delivery, treatment of employees and customers, and operations within your company.
Various organizations within companies as well as the company in general benefit from consistent, well-written documents. These include:
- Education
- Construction
- Healthcare
- Finance and banking
- Emergency services and law enforcement
- Human resources
- Non-profits
- Office management
Policy vs. Procedure vs. Process
It is important to understand the differences between pure policy documents vs. procedures and process documents. In many situations, procedures and process documents are developed before policies simply because people need to know how to do things and figure them out on their own. However, there is no guarantee that they are meeting the high-level guidelines of a company until an approved policy is developed with a corresponding review of procedures and process documents. They are not usually consistent across groups or organizations.
For example, in the absence of a smoking policy, local operations managers may have different procedures for managing employee’s needs for a smoke break across the organization. These differences can lead to organizational conflict if one group perceives a more lenient process in one group or the other. The company can develop a policy on smoking, then have managers review their local processes and procedures to determine if adjustments are needed.
Policies tend to incorporate the following attributes:
- Defines how the company wants something done
- They define how the company will tackle a question or problem
- The policy is always at the top level of the company’s workplace decision making
- They guide detailed decision making
- Policies are aligned with corporate objectives
- They are more rigid and always expressed in general terms
Procedures are all about how you will do something:
- They include a step by step approach to carrying out a task
- Procedures provide a guide to carry out actions
- They are needed to carry out the implementation of a policy
- Procedures are flexible and less rigid
Processes include what we are going to do:
- They include a set of interrelated activities that take inputs and produce outputs
- They describe how a goal or task will be completed
- Processes are the high-level view or mapping of a task
Key-points
Developing a well-thought-out policy and implementing the policy across the company in detailed procedures and processes ensures consistency and application of laws, quality, customer service, and more.
Excellent policy and procedures documents must be written in straightforward language with a minimum of complexity that is easily understood by employees and new hires. Employees will have a clear idea of the goals and objectives of the company.
Implementing policies also protects the company and employees from legal risks of breaking local, state, and federal laws.
Once a policy is developed and approved, implementation and training are required to ensure that all employees understand and will follow the guidelines identified in the policy and procedures template.
Developing a corporate policy along with procedures and processes involves a great deal of effort, as well as buy-in from stakeholders. With high-quality policies and strong buy-in by stakeholders and employees, your company can become much more efficient and productive.
Policies can benefit most organizations and industries, helping employees achieve superior results and ensuring customers are treated in a manner that creates loyalty and strong support.
Each policy document should focus on one area to avoid confusion and misunderstandings.
