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Procedures manual template. The Only Office Procedures Manual Template You’ll Ever Need
Sample Policy and Procedure Templates Professional associations and government departments frequently publish policies and procedures as well as sample templates for example, consider these tips for nonprofits and small businesses. IT Policy and Procedure Template. What Is a Policy? What Is a Procedure?
What Is a Process? What Separates Policies and Procedures? How to Write Effective Policies and Procedures Policies and procedures can take a long time to develop and perfect, but you can expedite the experience by following a few developmental and structural steps. Here are the major steps for writing effective policies and procedures: Preparing to Write: You can make your policy and procedure-writing process more efficient by treating the activity as a project and ensuring you get management support.
That way, time and resources will be available to you. Because policies and procedures often involve legal and regulatory consequences, consider having documents reviewed by legal counsel. Having a clear understanding of why a policy is necessary is also vital to keeping the project focused.
Choosing an appropriate template for your field or industry will help you gain a better understanding of what content you need to add, and can also relieve you of the need to design a template. Moreover, if your organization has the means, a document management and tracking system can help you track revisions and publish the document in a place that is accessible to those who need it. Writing Your Documents: To write your documents, begin by reading current policies and procedures, if any exist.
Also, review any compliance or regulatory guidelines that apply. Consulting employees on the creation of documentation is one of the best methods for ensuring their interest in and use of procedures.
After you draft the document, verify its accuracy by walking through the steps. Have those affected by the document evaluate the document. Finally, get approval for and sign off on the document from the highest level of management you can, such as a CTO or CEO.
Implementing Policies and Procedures: To encourage the success of a document, plan its implementation. Publish the document in one central location, such as on a company website. Employees should sign off when they have read the document. Create a training plan to support the new policies and procedures. Then, establish a review cycle so that new regulations and practices can be incorporated into your documents to keep them relevant.
Language and Tone Use language and tone appropriate to your audience. Consider these tips: Use terms and definitions consistently. Explain acronyms. Use plain language rather than jargon.
If you must use jargon, explain it. Use inclusive and gender-neutral language. Provide general information where possible. For example, provide a general departmental phone number, rather than the mobile phone number or office number of an individual who may change jobs.
Be clear about required actions versus optional actions by choosing the correct words. The words must and will indicate compulsory actions. The word may suggests an optional action. Write in short sentences with plain words. Write in active voice rather than passive voice when possible. Tips for Readable Policy and Procedure Templates If your documents are easy to find and read, users will be more inclined to read and reference them.
Consider the following structural tips for your policies and procedures: Linking: Hyperlinks to external reference documents and internal sections make it easier for users to find documents. Naming Documents: Use clear and consistent names for documents. Headings, Numbers, and Bullets: Especially for long documents, consider using clear, short subheadings to describe the topic, using numbering sections and paragraphs, and using bulleted lists.
In general, limit subdivisions to three levels. Resources to Help You Create Policies and Procedures Your company may publish policy and procedure templates on the company website, which can help reduce the need to consider design and formatting, and provide hints about content to include. Types of Content in Policies and Procedures Templates Depending on your industry, certain content may be mandatory in policies and procedures.
Purpose: This explains what the policy is about and the reason for having the policy, such as how it promotes compliance with standards or regulations. Policy Statements: Describe the overall framework for the policy and its intent. Definitions: Define terms in your policy, especially words and phrases with multiple meanings. Definitions make policies clearer and can be important if the organization ever faces litigation. Table of Contents: Whether your document is published online, made into a PDF, or printed, a table of contents aids users in quickly finding information.
Hyperlinked tables of contents are a helpful feature of electronic documents. Policy and Procedures: Details of the policy and procedures may be included in one document. Scope: This describes the individuals, departments, or groups to whom the policy applies.
To increase clarity, describe any employees or others to whom it does not apply. Responsibilities: To ensure compliance, specify which roles are responsible for creating documents and reviewing documentation and activities.
Additional Sections Organization Chart : An organization chart can show how departments and individuals relate to one another.
Dress Code: Discuss what constitutes appropriate dress for your organization. Reporting: A reporting policy describes how you store any documents required by policies and procedures.
Job Descriptions: Define the responsibilities of each position. Smoke, Drug, Alcohol, and Weapons-Free: Organizations can specify that smoking and alcohol consumption are prohibited on their premises. They can also prohibit off-premises drug use through drug testing. In addition, they can ban weapons from organization property. Cell Phone: Cell phone policies limit the use of employee-owned cell phones to business-related activities. Computer and Internet: Computer and internet usage policies describe what activities are permitted on organization-owned assets.
Attendance: This describes the expectations for employee attendance, work hours, and unexpected absences or lateness. Anti-Harassment: Anti-harassment policies help an organization communicate what it deems unacceptable behavior.
These policies also outline the consequences when unacceptable behavior can be proven. An important part of anti-harassment policy is a predefined complaint procedure. Safety: Safety policies and procedures encourage behaviors that prevent or lessen the chance of accidents and injuries.
Employee Evaluation: It is crucial to outline the process for employee evaluations and disciplinary procedures before such actions are necessary. Diagrams and Drawings: Procedures may be best explained through these tools.
Records Management: Describe how and where you will store records pertaining to the maintenance of the policy. Public Non-Discrimination Statement: A non-discrimination policy declares that an organization will not tolerate discriminatory treatment on the basis of race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation. Consider the following structural tips for your policies and procedures:.
Your company may publish policy and procedure templates on the company website, which can help reduce the need to consider design and formatting, and provide hints about content to include.
Certain standards and fields also publish templates online. Your organization may also specify references to keep tone and language accessible and inclusive as well as clear, correct, and concise. For legal questions, you can include a contact email with the policy and procedure templates you post online.
Depending on your industry, certain content may be mandatory in policies and procedures. However, in general, the document should serve your organization, not the other way around.
Customize your content to support your situation. You may have separate policy and procedure documents or one large document. The following are some of the possible policy topics:. Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done.
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Try Smartsheet for free, today. In this article. Sample Policy and Procedure Templates Professional associations and government departments frequently publish policies and procedures as well as sample templates for example, consider these tips for nonprofits and small businesses.
IT Policy and Procedure Template. What Is a Policy? What Is a Procedure? What Is a Process? What Separates Policies and Procedures? How to Write Effective Policies and Procedures Policies and procedures can take a long time to develop and perfect, but you can expedite the experience by following a few developmental and structural steps.
Here are the major steps for writing effective policies and procedures: Preparing to Write: You can make your policy and procedure-writing process more efficient by treating the activity as a project and ensuring you get management support.
That way, time and resources will be available to you. Because policies and procedures often involve legal and regulatory consequences, consider having documents reviewed by legal counsel. Having a clear understanding of why a policy is necessary is also vital to keeping the project focused. Choosing an appropriate template for your field or industry will help you gain a better understanding of what content you need to add, and can also relieve you of the need to design a template.
Moreover, if your organization has the means, a document management and tracking system can help you track revisions and publish the document in a place that is accessible to those who need it. Writing Your Documents: To write your documents, begin by reading current policies and procedures, if any exist. Also, review any compliance or regulatory guidelines that apply.
Consulting employees on the creation of documentation is one of the best methods for ensuring their interest in and use of procedures. After you draft the document, verify its accuracy by walking through the steps.
Have those affected by the document evaluate the document. Finally, get approval for and sign off on the document from the highest level of management you can, such as a CTO or CEO. Implementing Policies and Procedures: To encourage the success of a document, plan its implementation. Publish the document in one central location, such as on a company website.
Employees should sign off when they have read the document. Create a training plan to support the new policies and procedures. Then, establish a review cycle so that new regulations and practices can be incorporated into your documents to keep them relevant. Language and Tone Use language and tone appropriate to your audience. Consider these tips: Use terms and definitions consistently.
Explain acronyms. Use plain language rather than jargon. If you must use jargon, explain it. Use inclusive and gender-neutral language.
Provide general information where possible. For example, provide a general departmental phone number, rather than the mobile phone number or office number of an individual who may change jobs. Be clear about required actions versus optional actions by choosing the correct words. The words must and will indicate compulsory actions. The word may suggests an optional action. Write in short sentences with plain words. Write in active voice rather than passive voice when possible.
Tips for Readable Policy and Procedure Templates If your documents are easy to find and read, users will be more inclined to read and reference them. Consider the following structural tips for your policies and procedures: Linking: Hyperlinks to external reference documents and internal sections make it easier for users to find documents.
Naming Documents: Use clear and consistent names for documents. Headings, Numbers, and Bullets: Especially for long documents, consider using clear, short subheadings to describe the topic, using numbering sections and paragraphs, and using bulleted lists.
In general, limit subdivisions to three levels. Resources to Help You Create Policies and Procedures Your company may publish policy and procedure templates on the company website, which can help reduce the need to consider design and formatting, and provide hints about content to include. Types of Content in Policies and Procedures Templates Depending on your industry, certain content may be mandatory in policies and procedures.
Purpose: This explains what the policy is about and the reason for having the policy, such as how it promotes compliance with standards or regulations. Policy Statements: Describe the overall framework for the policy and its intent. Definitions: Define terms in your policy, especially words and phrases with multiple meanings. Definitions make policies clearer and can be important if the organization ever faces litigation. Table of Contents: Whether your document is published online, made into a PDF, or printed, a table of contents aids users in quickly finding information.
Hyperlinked tables of contents are a helpful feature of electronic documents. Policy and Procedures: Details of the policy and procedures may be included in one document. Scope: This describes the individuals, departments, or groups to whom the policy applies. To increase clarity, describe any employees or others to whom it does not apply. Responsibilities: To ensure compliance, specify which roles are responsible for creating documents and reviewing documentation and activities.
Additional Sections Organization Chart : An organization chart can show how departments and individuals relate to one another. Dress Code: Discuss what constitutes appropriate dress for your organization. Reporting: A reporting policy describes how you store any documents required by policies and procedures.
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