Searching for Policies and Procedures?

I recently had a long conversation with a customer on the topic of polices and procedures. They were a small but growing company (as many of our manual product customers are) and the need for standardization and consistency was becoming apparent.

We got into a discussion about the meaning of the term “policies and procedures,” and the differences between policies and procedures and other business documents like operating or work instructions.

What do you think polices and procedures are? How did you form that definition? What was the source of your information?

Searching for Meaning on the Internet

Have you ever Googled the term policies and procedures? It is interesting what comes up in the 19 million sites it returns. Of course, our company (Bizmanualz) comes up near the top. On this extremely long list, however, we really need to create only a few categories in which to place this long list of web pages.

The most frequently occurring type of item found after the Google search are policy and procedures developed by universities and municipalities. I assume that they have placed them online for easy availability and transparency. If you take to time to delve deep into the Google listings, it is virtually all you will find far down the list.

There are a few companies selling policy and procedure related materials and services, which of course, we are one. Most are selling custom consulting services and document management software. There is also a large category of Human Resources related policy sites. Typically these consider policies as rules for employees to follow, which can be considered slightly different than policies based on strategic management for guiding a business.

A Lack of Useful Content

Some sites try to provide definitions and explanations of the term policies and procedures. It is almost shocking, though, how little useful information these sites actually provide to those trying to learn to develop and use policies and procedures to enhance their business. Even the Wikipedia entry is amazingly sparse.

And then there is the band from Niagara Falls, Canada named Policies and Procedures. Who knows what they were thinking;.

If you modify your search slightly to “writing policies and procedures” you get a somewhat different result. Here you will find a few articles and tips on developing and writing procedures, several of them coming from our own informative blog where we archive these articles. (As regular readers know, we frequently write about policies and procedures.)

Where Do You Go When You Want Information?

We would like to know what places on the web you find useful when it comes to the subject of policies and procedures. You can leave your comments on our archive blog with this article (just enter them in the comments blockk below) or you can email me (click on the email link at the top of our email).

In our next article we will talk about various discussion groups and forums where other professionals are communicating as they face similar challenges in creating and implementing the policy and procedure documentation their company or their department needs.

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Posted on Monday, August 4th, 2008 under Writing Policies and Procedures