Writing Effective Policies And Procedures

Course details

Concise, well-drafted policies and procedures can be a valuable tool to help organizations avoid "strategic drift" and make clear decisions to meet operational objectives. Does your organization have an effective policies and procedures manual? Do you understand the benefits of having this in place? During this course, you will learn how to write clear and effective policies and procedures.

What You Will Learn:

• How to set clear guidelines for writing effective and accurate policies and procedures
• To identify why policies and procedures are needed, who should write them, when they should be written, and how long they should be
• To identify the sequence of policies and procedures, and learn how to write them appropriately

Who should attend:

• People who are responsible for writing/developing/implementing policies and procedures

Daily Outlines:

Day 1

Understanding policy and procedure

• Clarify when a situation requires a policy or a procedure, and when neither is appropriate
• Understand the sections of a typical policy and a typical procedure
• Comparing policies and procedures
• Differentiate between a board policy and a management policy

Preparing - who should do what

• Determine the functions and skills of a policy/procedures writer
• Collecting and/or soliciting ideas for draft policies and procedures
• Developing and integrating forms with workable policies and procedures
• Writing the first draft and deciding what goes into each section
• Publishing and distributing policies and procedures
• Training and mentoring users of written policies and procedures
• Maintaining and revising policies and procedures
• Creating policies and procedures that can be easily measured and improved
• Achieving acceptance of your policies and procedures through clear communication, training, mentoring, auditing, and improvement programs
• Improving the process of writing policies and procedures

Day 2

Writing

• Analyze a communication task, identifying the message, purpose and audience, and develop a production plan
• Write and edit at a professional level using the principles of plain language and readability
• Gather and, as required, paraphrase, summarize, analyze, or interpret complex information from print and electronic sources
• Describe complex policies and procedures in a style and form appropriate to the audience

Day 3

• Continuation of “Writing”
• Apply the principles of document structure and design, using headings effectively, chunking information, adding visuals, and choosing a form and design appropriate to the purpose and audience
• Ensure your policies are "user-friendly"
• Encourage others to "buy-in" to your policies and procedures

Day 4

• Resources
• Checklist to determine need for a policy or a procedure
• Simple writing techniques
• How to do mind-mapping
• Steps for creating a policy or procedure
• Practice writing - policy tone
• Sample formats for procedures
• Sample formats for policies
• Sample table of contents

Day 5

• Case Study/Workshop
• Case Study/workshop
• Review of workshop objectives and group discussion
• Course wrap-up