Policy & Procedure Components You Need For Your Organization’s Success

In case you haven’t heard, Atrómitos is growing!

And as I have been onboarding the newest addition to the team, Marketing Coordinator Liz Hait, I am reminded of just how important written, organized, and accessible policies and procedures are to an organization and its employees. And not just new employees, but existing employees and contractors working within your organization. Policies and procedures lay the foundation upon which organizations are built, reflecting your values, and guiding your employees.

Establishing clear and accessible policies and procedures can assist an organization from any industry in achieving increased transparency, accountability, uniformity, and stability. But as organizational leaders, we cannot rely solely on words on paper to get us there. We must educate and train our employees on said policies and procedures and monitor their adherence to them. And as our organization and/or market changes, so too must our policies and procedures.

My goal today is to get you thinking about your organizational policies and procedures and whether your organization has a strong framework upon which it can achieve its vision, mission, and values. And if you do not, what you should consider as the next steps to either develop/enhance your policies and procedures or implement training and monitoring activities to facilitate their consistent application.

Finally, we at Atrómitos are never ones to point out a problem without also providing a solution. So, we have put together some simple resources and templates that you can use to improve your organization’s policy and procedure development and deployment processes.

EVERY ORGANIZATION NEEDS POLICIES AND PROCEDURES!

Whether big or small, for-profit or non-profit, policies provide an organization and its employees with a roadmap for day-to-day operations. Without these roadmaps, we risk falling out of compliance with laws and regulations. But more than just keeping us on the straight and narrow, policies provide managers and employees with guidance for decision-making and ensure consistency across internal processes. Without these guardrails for organizations, operating effectively and efficiently becomes challenging.

What is a policy versus a procedure?

A policy is a set of general guidelines that outline the organization’s plan for tackling an issue. Policies communicate the connection between the organization’s vision and values and its day-to-day operations. Policies set some parameters for decision-making but leave room for flexibility. They show the “why” behind an action.

A procedure explains a specific action plan for carrying out a policy. Procedures provide step-by-step instructions for specific routines. They tell employees “how” to deal with a situation and “when.”

Beyond providing important checks and balances, using policies and procedures together gives employees a well-rounded view of their workplace. They can help communicate to employees the type of culture that the organization is striving for, expected behavior of the employees, and how to achieve both.

This is not to say that every organization needs to have a voluminous policy manual that dictates every aspect of how the organization operates. Instead, an organization should reflect upon the internal and external forces that are critical to its operations and identify areas that are key to its industry and business goals. For example, some industries –like health care– are highly regulated and will require extensive policies to ensure compliance. While other organizations may have less external policy requirements to address but benefit from establishing a policy library that ensures internal controls are in place to manage human resources and financial operations. The key is making your policies work for you and not the other way around.

ESTABLISHING WRITTEN POLICIES AND PROCEDURES IS ONLY THE FIRST STEP.

Policies and procedures won’t do your organization any good if your employees don’t follow them. FULL STOP.

While this may seem like an obvious statement— it is a necessary one—because in many organizations policy manuals either sit collecting dust in drawers after being filed away by new employees (we have all been there) or become obsolete on a rarely accessed server drive.

This may be the case for multiple reasons:

1. Employees don’t like the idea of having to follow rules and / or think their way is the best way
2. Managers don’t like the idea of policing employees day-to-day activities and / or simply assume that everyone is following the rules out of convenience

While we may understand and maybe even identify with these perspectives, they are both shortsighted.

Because policy implementation is not just a matter of arbitrarily forcing employees to do things they don’t want to do–following policies and procedures is good for employees and your organization.

When an organization’s policies are clearly communicated and accessible, employees understand them, and managers hold people accountable, the policy and procedure manual shoulders the burden. Meaning both employees and managers will be able to spend more time actually doing their jobs than worrying about how to do their jobs.

SO HOW DO WE ACHIEVE THIS POLICY NIRVANA?

1. Make policies accessible—while utilizing a policy management system would be ideal, the investment may not be feasible or necessary. Making your policy library easily accessible and keeping it organized is a key step to ensuring compliance.
2. Implement training courses—this includes onboarding for new and existing employees annually. Monitor and track the completion of courses and set up reminders for ongoing compliance.
3. Test employee comprehension—checking a completion box is not enough here. Be sure the employee can demonstrate a working understanding of the policy.
4. Encourage accountability—it starts with managers and leadership exemplifying compliant behaviors. And while monitoring is key, it doesn’t have to be conducted through micromanaging. Checklists and reporting mechanisms can keep employees on track.
5. Involve employees in the policy development process—front-line workers often know the challenges and specific steps of processes better than anyone else. Empower them to contribute suggestions and feedback and apply their personal experiences of what works and what doesn’t. 
6. Review and update policies annually—policies need to grow with your company and reflect the ever-changing regulatory environment in which you operate. Create a policy committee with cross-departmental participation to effectively manage this process.

Atrómitos has created some free resources to help you get started.

Suppose the process of documenting your organization’s daily policy and operational procedures sounds daunting to you as a busy non-profit executive director or the owner of a small business. In that case, we’re here to help bring the building blocks you need. We created these templates with you in mind.

And if templates are not enough, Atrómitos is ready to step in to support your organization at any stage of the policy development and deployment process. Whether it’s assessing your policy needs and developing a plan, drafting policies, or devising an education and training process—we have the expertise and experience to help you establish a strong policy framework for your organization.

You can sign up for a consultation here!

In short, when you have policies and procedures for your managers and employees, and they don’t have to panic about how they will get through the day, it’s one step forward to achieving #PolicyNirvana.