Policies and Procedures 2 of 5: WHY

In this mini-series on policies and procedures I am covering;

1. WHAT is a policy and procedure
2. WHY should you document a policy and procedure
3. WHEN and WHO should document a policy and procedure
4. HOW to document a policy and procedure
5. TEMPLATE for a policy and procedure

This post is on WHY should you document a policy and procedure...

There's a few good reasons. 

1. The obvious reason: so that people have instructions to follow. It's a good reason and certainly makes a lot of sense to document instructions, especially when you have lots of different people involved in making something happen - or when you have lots of people doing the same job and you are looking for consistency. However, just because you wrote it all down doesn't mean people will follow the policy. 

2. The less obvious reason: by writing everything down it becomes clearer what the procedures are, any uncertainties are uncovered and discussed. The act of writing is an act of clarification. You may think you understand everything but until you've written down all the details you won't know for sure. Writing uncovers gaps. 

3. The unspoken reason: to cover your arse. Sometimes a company will publish policies and procedures to show they are compliant with legislation. By asking staff to sign a declaration that they are gong to adhere to published policies and procedures, the liability of the company might be reduced in the event of a rogue employee defying the policy. In this case it was the employees fault m'lud, not us. Don't fine us. We're the good guys. A lot of HR policies seem to have this concern underpinning them. 

4. The most important reason: to improve the process. This for me is the key reason. By writing something down you can start to measure it, observe it and improve it. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it is a failure if policies and procedures do not change. They must change, especially the procedures. A set of procedures that have not changed for years mean only 2 things; either i) that they are perfect and therefore require no changes or ii) that they are imperfect and there is a failure to improve them. I generally have a disbelief in the existence of perfection because the environment in which we exist is continually changing. Perfect would mean a constantly adaptive and predictive system. A written set of policies and procedures can be measured, understood, improved and changed. Unwritten ones cannot. 

Next: WHEN and WHO should document a policy and procedure