Quality write-ups

Eight Reasons for Documenting Policies and Procedure

1. Every job has constraints surrounding it. Without written policies and procedures, employees would be on their own to discover these constraints by trial and error. The organization would become disorganized and its managers would not have the means to direct and harmonize their staff’s activities.
2. Policies and procedures enable managers and their subordinates to clearly understand the individual and group responsibilities including the boundaries within which they have to work and the demands upon them.
3. Policies and procedures set boundaries for jobs so that each employee knows in advance what response he will get from others when making decisions.
4. Policies and procedures create a baseline to which subsequent change can be referred and through which the way things are done is enabled.
5. Policies and procedures enable managers to decide whether a subordinate’s improper action or decision was due simply to poor judgment or to an infringement of the rules. If no rules exist, the subordinate cannot be criticized for using his judgment, however poorly he may use it. If a rule exists, management has to establish whether it was accidentally or deliberately broken, for the latter is a disciplinary offense. Without written policies and procedures, employees would not know where they stand and any decision may create an unwanted precedent.
6. Policies and procedures provide individuals the freedom to make decisions on the execution of their duties within defined boundaries and to help avoid over-control by managers. If people are uncertain about the limits of their job, they cannot feel free to act.
7. Policies and procedures enable management to exercise control by exception rather than by every action and decision of their subordinates.
8. Policies and procedures enable managers to control events in advance. Before the action begins, employees know the rules and are more likely to produce the right result the first time. Without policies and procedures, management is forced to control events after they happen and the result may cause dissatisfaction. Alternatively, a manager must be on the scene of the event to respond when the situation approaches its limits. This is a costly use of a manager’s time.

Source:  Establishing a System of Policies and Procedures by Stephen B. Page