Policies, procedures and operations manuals help businesses to achieve consistent performance across the organisation. Usually businesses find it difficult to document their policies and procedures: staff are so familiar with the organisation's culture and the tasks they perform, they often leave out vital information because "everyone knows that".

Policy documents

A policy document sets out:

• your organisation's goals for each aspect of your operations
• how those goals should be achieved.

A policy document is a high level document that does not contain specific task instructions.

Procedures and operations manuals

A procedures or operations manual is a set of instructions that tells your staff how to perform their tasks. For example, you might have a procedure for repairing machinery, a procedure for dealing with unhappy customers and a procedure for maintaining your petty cash float. A procedures manual may be:

• a printed book or booklet
• an intranet site
• a diagram or picture showing how a task is performed
• a series of posters to be put up in your workplace.

Improve business efficiency

As part of the document development process, our writers work with you to find the most effective and efficient way of performing your daily tasks. That becomes the procedure for that task. You save time and money because all your staff are doing the same tasks the same way - the best way.

Support your staff

Your staff can refer to the manual at any time of the day or night. They don't need to call the manager every time they need help. New staff members can teach themselves about your business by reading the manual, saving you days of supervision and one-to-one training. If one of your staff is absent, or leaves, you can use the manual to train a casual or a replacement.

Reduce risk

Your manual includes relevant safety information for your industry. Your manual will show staff how to perform their tasks safely, as well as efficiently. This reduces the risk of staff injuries and compensation claims.