“What you allow is what will continue.” – Author unknown***
When writing policies and procedures remember it applies to more than one or two persons. Policies and procedures are written for the benefit of the organization and to create consistency in how work is done and problems addressed. A policy should not be written for the purposes of benefiting or disciplining one person or a select few. With this in mind it might be a good idea to plan ahead.
What is a Policy?
Though we tend to use the terms jointly, policies are the rules and guidelines set forth in an organization to tackle issues or accomplish tasks. Procedures, which are not necessarily a part of a policy, are the steps one takes in carrying out those rules or guidelines. It may encompass the how and when in addition to the what aspects of the process.
Benefits of Policies and Procedures
Consistency of Behaviors
Every individual has a perspective. That perspective is colored by their history, experiences, culture, education, training and more. We see things through the lenses of those things that color our perspectives. How I see something or interpret something may be very different from how someone else sees it. My lens may be affected by my cultural experience and my history, thus causing me to react to a given situation accordingly. Policies and procedures (P&P’s) can help me frame a circumstance more accurately by prompting me to set my lenses aside and see it through an organizational lens. When there are multiple people performing tasks and making decisions, P&P’s keep everyone on a consistent approach to those tasks and decisions. The purposes of having the right perspective in applying a policy is for the protection and consistent treatment of employees, volunteers and customers. They need protection too.
There are times that individuals may still appear to be acting on the same policy and procedure in different ways. This could be a true difference of opinion and approach but sometimes the differing ways still fall within the guidelines of the policy. The variations might be due to what is referred to as the Letter of the Law vs the Spirit of the Law. Following the Letter of the Law or Policy is strictly adhering to the language or literal interpretation of the law or policy. Following the Spirit of the Law or Policy is recognizing and taking into account, the actual intent of those who wrote the law or policy. Generally speaking, we tend to get into more trouble when we follow the letter of the law without considering the spirit of the law. When dealing with human beings, nothing is really black and white. Most situations are gray areas. The letter of the law is black and white. The spirit of the law covers the gray areas, so keep the intent in mind when writing and when following laws as well as policies and procedures.
I have certainly had my share of battles in getting people to understand the Spirit of the Law when they were not well versed in the intent of those who wrote the law. When we are not familiar with the background and history of laws and policies that have been created, we may need to do additional homework to aide in understanding and thus applying those rules, lest we lose the original intent.
P&P’s Help Avoid Litigation
When an organization has well written policies and procedures and they adhere to them with effective documentation, it is easier to avoid landing in someone’s courtroom trying to explain why and how something took place in a manner that appears to be contrary to organizational policies. While bad precedence or policies can cause problems, it is usually the deviation from policy and procedure that creates a breeding ground for a lawsuit or other legal proceedings. P&P’s also keep organizations compliant with local, state and federal laws. Organizations must make a concerted effort to determine the laws that apply to them and incorporate those requirements into policies and procedures for their P&P manuals. When good policies are applied and followed, it helps keep everyone in line, including leaders.
Training & Development of New People
P&P’s serve as much needed guidelines for behavior. They help inform staff, volunteers and leaders what is expected of them and allows them to access written guidelines or protocols that can help them navigate the organization and customers they serve. When written in advance and people are able to access them early on, they can provide support to training and development of said individuals while they are still learning their way around and trying to understand and memorize important aspects of their new surroundings.
When training new people, use the policies and procedures as part of the training process. In my opinion, it is a good idea to make an assumption that assigned trainers are prone to put their own spin on training new people. If a staff member is a stickler for details they will train new comers with a high amount of detail. If a staff member has a laissez faire attitude, they are likely to provide training in the same manner, believing that things will simply take their own course and they really don’t need to be too concerned about the little things. There’s no point getting upset about this, as a leader, this is how people are. This is also a good plug for why it helps for us to know our team members. When we are asking them to take on important assignments like training others, serving customers, handling important tasks, we need to have a good idea of what that might look like. In knowing the outcome of such requests, based upon our knowledge of people’s personalities and tendencies, we can provide a more stable and predictable outcome by creating policies and structured processes that incorporate those policies to accomplish planned objectives.
Policies Help When No Help is Available
We all know there are times when staff and volunteers are on duty and end up faced with situations and questions that they cannot address without assistance. Having written policies and procedures available that they can refer to can save time, improve service and maintain quality. Instead of telling a customer they will have to get back to them or blowing off the customer’s questions because they cannot answer them, a good team member can go to the binder or computer, go to the right section and quickly research the answer and convey it or perform the action immediately, without delaying the process. There is nothing worse than having to wait for an answer to an important question because the person you are asking has to wait a day or more for someone to get back to them.
As they reference the policies for the answer, they are also reinforcing the process within their own minds, so they are more independent and knowledgeable of organizational protocol and expectation.
There will be individuals, of course, who will not pick up the policy manual but who will call you and ask the question anyway because it is easier for them. This, however, is the difference between that autonomous, diligent worker and that dependent, possibly less conscientious worker. It is worth monitoring.
Policies Alleviate the Need to Hover Over People
Policies and procedures allow people the opportunity to hone their own skills and develop beyond what the leader remembers in a given moment on a given day. Earlier I mentioned the fact that people we assign to train others may be very detailed or more laissez-faire, well leaders fall into those categories as well.
Admittedly, I can be a little over the top on detail oriented training and guidance but I will not apologize for that. People should be trained thoroughly. Once they are thoroughly trained and understand how things work…and this takes longer than a few months… they can then incorporate a few shortcuts as they see fit, provided they don’t forfeit excellence or quality in the process.
When people are properly trained, they don’t need to be monitored constantly. I will also admit, I am not a hoverer. If I have time to hover over someone while they do their work, I must not have any of my own to do. Thus far, no matter what leadership role I have held, that has never been the case. I usually have much more work than time, to get it done. I therefore, do not have excessive amounts of time to hover over others to see what they are or are not doing. I need them to get it, retain and maintain it! One very important part of getting, retaining and maintaining information is reading, understanding and adhering to policies and procedures.
Policies Have No Names
So with all that being said, I have to emphasize this point, “Policies Have No Names.” As I stated, earlier, they should not be written for the purposes of benefiting or disciplining one person or a select few. In small businesses, churches or smaller nonprofit organizations, it is easy to get caught up in the work of the organization and forget about the importance or the need of P&P’s. Unfortunately, what ultimately ends up happening, is that they end up being caught off guard when something happens and they need to reference that non-existent P&P to address an incident or concern. It is often at that time that the owner, leader, Pastor wants to quickly create the policy with the person and problems in mind. Better late than never is one way to look at it, but creating the policy with one person or incident in mind could produce a one-sided document or unfair policy that is specifically written to address the details of this specific situation. Any employee relations representative or even a psychologist can speak to the fact that this can cause problems down the line, either due to the unfairness factor or when the unfairness is recognize and now we suddenly want to do the opposite for the favored individual standing before us in another situation… yes, I have seen that happen as well!
Closing Thoughts
For the most part, most of us have good intentions when we lead others, but we need the right tools. One of those tools is a policy and procedure manual. I have seen organizations create them but not use them. They should be created, well written, referenced often and kept in plain sight for those who need them. Usually P&P’s are for leadership and handbooks are created for staff, volunteers and members. The handbook condenses the details into a more palatable summary of information this group can digest as needed. Make sure you have both for the protection and progression of your vision.