Writing policies is a common practice for any business that wants to minimize problems and keep the entire workspace functioning properly. Along with policies, it is common for the owners and managers to also create business processes that should be followed by the organization as a whole.

To summarize these policies and procedures and make them easily accessible by anyone in the company, the person responsible usually creates policy and procedure documents. These papers are responsible for compiling all these rules that should be followed to ensure company values and avoid risks and mistakes.

In this article, we will show you how to make the perfect template for policies and procedures. Follow each step carefully to guarantee a positive impact on employee conduct and minimize risks for the company's property.

As the name implies, these documents are responsible for reuniting all company policies that should be followed by the entire organization, including employee behavior and other kinds. The procedures are also included in the same document.

They are created for many reasons, whether for simple process improvement or to ensure the safety of everyone working at the place.

These documents can be created through traditional programs like Microsoft Word or through dedicated policy management software. Each one has its tools for writing processes and tracking if everyone follows them.

Before the writing process, you should understand the difference between the two categories to guarantee that they are correctly classified. Each one has a different purpose and a different impact on how the company is organized.

Here are the main properties and objectives of each one:

Policy Statement

Company policies usually regard principles that everyone should follow to ensure a good relationship in the workspace. They are less likely to change over time, and most organizations create workplace policies to ensure that everyone behaves as expected in a work environment.

Some of the most common types of business policies are:

• Anti-Discrimination Policy

• Dress-Code Policy

• Safety Policies

• Management Policies

• Procedures Policies

Procedure Statement

As for procedures, they usually are attached to the steps necessary to complete a specific task or objective. Unlike policy writing, the procedures tend to change more often and are directly related to other tasks of the organization.

These procedures are similar to step-by-step instructions and are created for several reasons, like ensuring the employee’s safety while doing the task or optimizing the process. Some common examples of procedures are:

• Safety Procedures

• Optimization Procedures

• Development Procedures

Policies and Procedures are part of any company culture, and a well-structured document makes all the difference. But why are they so important?

Here are some of the reasons why organizations of all types create a policies and procedures manual:

Ensures Compliance

The first reason for enforcing policies and procedures at your company is to ensure compliance and show that you have implemented control on the activities' performance. They can serve as proof and illustrate your commitment to guaranteeing the best business environment possible.

Helps Avoid Errors

Accompanying procedures and writing policies regarding the workspace help to drastically reduce the number of errors and mistakes committed by employees. Good policy writing not only prevents mistakes but also helps the team to anticipate them. Especially when talking about procedures, they provide a solid structure for the teams to rely on when doing different tasks.

Increases Responsibility

One of the most common management philosophies is that defining policies and a mission statement for the company helps to increase the responsibility of the employees. When done correctly, policy creation can also help with training the team members, improving their performance even more.

Creating policies and procedures can be a challenging process depending on the type of your business and objectives. To help with this mission, we separated some steps for writing new policies and procedures.

By following them, you ensure that your policies and procedures will actually have an impact on your business and its employees. Here are the main steps for developing quality statements:

Define the Purpose

When creating any kind of policy or procedure, you must have its purpose clear in your mind. You can’t just start making new items for the document for no reason.

Each one must be planned, thinking about the result and their impact on the overall structure of the organization. Especially when developing policies for social causes, you should research the topic to ensure everything is correctly established before suggesting the policy to the HR department.

To understand if your company needs the policy and what problem it solves, you can write a document answering three main questions. They are:

• Why your company needs it

• What is the goal to be accomplished with this

• The company’s situation without this measure

Choose a Template That Fits Your Needs

Your policy or procedure suggestion is more likely to be accepted if done with a good presentation. Choosing the correct template and the right way to communicate your message plays a huge role in the entire process.

Make sure that your communication is clear and without unnecessary information. Also, choose a template that features a good design to make your presentation more catchy and visually attractive.

The actual policy must be highlighted for better identification, and when writing it, think about its result from the perspective of all employees. A policy or procedure that benefits only one group over the others has a lower chance of being accepted.

Get Feedback

Feedback is an important part when trying to implement new policies and procedures for the company. They can generate valuable insights to consider when reviewing the policy and its terms.

The more people hear about it and share their opinion, the better it will be for constructing concrete measures that generate impact. All the feedback shared must be considered, whether positive or negative.

You can also feature this feedback on your template to build an even more solid defense of your project when presenting it. This way, you also increase the chances of getting it approved.

Review the Documented Policies and Procedures

The policy and procedure review process is another vital part of approving your project. In this part, you will analyze all the feedback gathered previously and see how it can help the policy or procedure become even better and more purposeful for the company.

In this part you’ll also work on the main flaws pointed out by others to ensure the project benefits the largest number of people possible. You can also invite a second opinion to help review it. Having a different opinion reflecting on the same project is always a good experience that not only makes the process more optimized but also helps generate new insights.

Policies and Procedures Implementation

Next is the implementation process. Here you’ll tell the entire company and its employees about the new policy or procedure they need to follow and what it is. The implementation is usually a slow process, so don’t expect everything to happen perfectly on the first day.

Especially when dealing with new procedures, it is common for employees to forget them in the first few days. Adding graphic elements to the workspace to help them remember it is also common in companies.

It is essential to know that after implementing the new policy or procedure, it will still constantly generate feedback. It actually happens more after implementation since writing a policy and seeing it in action is entirely different.

Keep Improving It

As mentioned, new projects will always generate feedback. Both policies and procedures are mutable and won’t stay the same forever.

The company constantly reviews new policies, and the period between each review will depend on how much feedback you’re gathering. Reviewing and editing details is common, especially in the current procedures of a company, since they tend to change quicker than policies.

Giving and receiving feedback should be an easy process, so choose a suitable platform for this. The feedback can be given directly to the person responsible for implementing the project or the HR department of your organization.

If you want to write effective policies and procedures that have more chances of getting approved, here are some quick tips for you. Make sure to apply them when writing your policies and procedures to achieve the best results possible.

Use Clear Communication

The chosen language plays an important role when it comes to the presentation of your project and the approval of it. Be as clear as possible when defending your policy or procedure.

Avoid unnecessary information and terms that don’t contribute directly to the understanding and defense of the project. The clearer you get, the higher the chances of it getting approved.

Include Feedback and Testimony

Another practice that can give more power to your document is including feedback and testimony from other employees. Adding their opinion on the project and why it’s a good idea can help convince the company to accept and implement the policy or procedure.

This helps especially when dealing with policies regarding social causes. Adding testimony from employees that belong to the target group is a common and effective practice.

You can find multiple tools when it comes to the creation of policies and procedures templates. From known software to specialized programs, each one has its own features and tool sets.

Among all the options available, we highly recommend using Microsoft Word for this task. Word not only has the best tools available, but it is also an industry standard, meaning that you won’t need extra programs to do business tasks.

If you don’t have a Microsoft Office activation key, you can find one at RoyalCDKeys for a considerably lower price. This way, you have access to all features and still save money.

If you don’t want to create the entire policies and procedures template from scratch, there is no problem. Here are some free examples you can download and edit using MS Word to better fit your needs.

Don’t forget to choose a template that truly reflects what you want. The more complete and well-structured it gets, the higher your chances of accomplishing your objective.

Here are some templates you can use:

Template #1

IT policy template. Document focused on IT policies and procedures featuring the main necessary categories and space for a company logo.

Get this template

Template #2

Template for implementation of policies and procedures in small businesses. Document dedicated to small organizations, featuring categories and particularities of this type of company.

Get this template

Template #3

Simple template for policies and procedures. Document that features a minimalistic look containing all necessary categories for making policies and procedures defenses.

Get this template

Creating policies and procedures is a common practice in all types of business. They are designed for the employees to follow specific conduct and ensure everyone’s safety inside the organization.

For a policy or procedure to be accepted, its defense must be well-structured and feature a clear communication so everyone understands why it is necessary. Don’t forget always to review the project before and after implementation. Collecting feedback is also crucial for a good project.

Now that you know everything you need, it is time to start writing policies and procedures for your company. Follow all the steps and tips above to ensure your documents meet all the necessary criteria and achieve the desired results.