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We talk about policies and procedures all the time but you may be wondering what is a policy and how does it differ from a procedure?

What is a Policy?

A policy is a guiding principle used to set direction in an organization. It can be a course of action to guide and influence decisions. It should be used as a guide to decision making under a given set of circumstances within the framework of objectives, goals and management philosophies as determined by senior management. But is it?

What is the right length for your policies and procedures documents?  Most authors don’t write short standard operating procedures (SOP).  But creating very long procedures of 50, 70 or more pages is common.  So how long should your policies, procedures, or work instructions be?

Business dashboards, scorecards, or flash reports may change over time. A typical scoreboard will be revised six or seven times before it is contains the right, meaningful and measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPI) or metrics.   What do your metrics say about your business?

Creating and maintaining a definitive set of policies and procedures represents a significant investment of resources. To make these activities as routine and painless as possible, organizations are wise to establish a repeatable policy and procedure development process.

An important aspect of any quality system is to work according to clear-cut Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). An SOP is a policy and procedure document which describes the regular recurring activities appropriate to quality operations.  If it is Critical To Quality (CTQ) than it is a candidate for a standard operating procedure.  Consistency is the goal or purpose of an SOP, to carry out all operations correctly and always in the same manner.

No it is not a trick question.  Who are the ones managing your business processes? Understanding who uses Business Process Management (BPM) is critical to managing business processes.  Who uses BPM in your organization?

The financial statement is the most important management tool for the CFO and Controller.  It is comprised of the balance sheet and the income statement.  Developing a consistent process for closing your accounting books allows you to compare one period with another.

The PDCA process approach is used for business process planning, Business Process Management (BPM), and for business process auditing as well.  Process auditing is focused on determining process effectiveness and the ability to achieve planned results.  What good is a business process that is unable to deliver the planned result?

The most important elements in employee relations are:

• Ensuring that employees are paid a fair wage for their efforts, combined with a benefits package that compares favorably with standards for businesses similar to yours;
• Respect is important to employees — they need to know their efforts are appreciated;
• Respect for their management team; and
• Having a sense that they will be individually and collectively treated in a fair, lawful manner.

Business process management (BPM) uses the process approach to achieve planned results, objectives, and your strategic vision.  If you manage what you measure, then the process approach to business process management is the method used to determine what to measure, monitor, and take action on as you define your business processes.

Everyone will tell you what their business processes are in their company.  Identifying the top 10 core business processes is the easy part.  Defining, measuring and managing your business processes is the hard part. When I go in to audit a company’s processes, few companies have actually defined their business processes in sufficient detail to demonstrate that they can manage them to achieve real business results.  Why is business process management so hard?