Writing- the Foundation of Good Policies and Procedures

I spent a lot of time thinking about writing. I spend a lot of time reading about writing. And yes, I also write about writing. It is a baseline for most of my client conversations, because without writing you can’t get to the sharing and managing part of SOPs. You need content to share and manage, so you have to write.

Learning to create clear policies and procedures is not hard. In many cases and for many clients it is taking a step back and recognizing SOPs for what they truly are- rules and instructions.

It may take a draft or two, but I have yet to meet a client who could not write SOPs. I have worked with a range of clients from CEOs to receptionists. I have worked with people for whom English was a second language. Lawyers, mechanics, accountants, shipping and receiving clerks, the list goes on and on.

 The Zavanta Database system is designed to help authors think through whatever they happen to be documenting. Often times the quickest way to get your SOPs up and running is by tapping into a wider range of authors. Let people write what they know.

This is not to say that you should open the floodgates and yell, “ready, set, write.” Actually quite the opposite, I am a big believer in strategy, having a project manager and a clear plan on what needs to be written is essential. Authoring should be a well-managed process. Authors should be clear on what they should be writing and they should be writing what they know.

The writing part of SOPs is essential, but it easy to learn and do well. After all they are simply instructions and rules. By front-loading planning, trying out a starter project and clearly defining your documentation process you can create a system that makes sense for your organization. A well-managed SOP system allows you to tap into a greater number of authors and ultimately generate useable content all the faster. For More Information about Policies and Procedures visit our website. 

All You Need to Know About Policy and Procedure Management Software

Many organizations generally struggle to keep their policies and procedures updated, organized, and easy to find. Still many of us are not aware about the term policy and procedure software.

What do you mean by a policy and procedure software?

Policies are different from procedures as these are the rules and regulations that are used by an organization to carry out business and achieve long term goals.

Whereas procedures can provide you the details to achieve the policies. In other words, they can provide you a step-by-step process of tasks that are required for each policy. They are responsible for implementing policy that makes use of procedures to ensure agreement with strategic direction, points of governance or statutory requirements.

Here we will discuss about the 6 key components of policy and procedure software:

1. Create: Various types of documents should easily load into the software.
2. Approve: The software should automate the Review and Approval cycle and there should not be any need to chase the opinion of subject matter experts.
3. Notify: When published, end users should receive notifications hence directing them towards the document.
4. Test: End users should be able to view, take a questionnaire and acknowledge document online, anywhere, anytime. All this can be done using an internet connection helping an end user to act on a document and then leave an authenticated electronic signature.
5. Reminders: The software should send or schedule automated reminders to those who have not yet acted on a document.
6. Reports: Managers should be able to check all the metrics that are related to their documents. They should be able to check who has worked on a document and posted any test score or acknowledgment comment. Last but not the least, you need to track every action within the system. 

Why do companies need policies and procedure management? Here are the four reasons:

• It encourages a true culture of continuous improvement and internal communication.
• It provides evidence of an internal control system that follows regulations and standards.
• It ensures fundamental operational processes are executed in an effective and consistent manner.
• It controls and manages risks and threats to the organization.

Organizations that integrate policy and procedure communication into their system achieve improved quality, reduced training / turnover cost and more empowered workforce. Zavanta is an all-in-one solution that is used to capture, manage and share knowledge. Employees have 24/7 access to whatever they need to do their jobs in a better manner by using high-level of policy and procedure management software.

Zavanta Software Principles Highlighted in New Book “Secrets of Success with Procedures

In his new book Secrets of Success With Procedures, Jack Nicholas, Jr., BS, MBA, P.E., CMRP, CRL, internationally recognized expert in business operations and maintenance reliability and a decorated US Navy veteran and naval engineer, shares his experiences on the importance of written procedures to operations success. Jack describes and discusses many management attributes centered on written procedures and includes a sample procedure found in Zavanta software.

Secrets of Success with Procedures is a quick, must-read for anyone involved in Policy, Process, Plans and Procedure management or for leaders wanting to make long-lasting improvements in their organization.  Jack’s extensive experience validates yet again that ‘Good Procedures = Success.’ He shows that with clearly communicated standard operating procedures, organizations can drive the outcomes they want. 

If you have thought of standard operating procedures as nice-to-have non-essentials or a “necessary evil,” see if you still think so AFTER you read Chapter 7, ‘How to Investigate Procedure Not Followed’ and the included case study entitled ’The Matchbox and the Nuclear Reactor.’ The concepts Jack presents are based on principles of human behavior supported by case studies showing just how effective and essential they are.

Source: https://goo.gl/8zgwsH

Know Why Do Organizations Need Policy and Procedure Management Software

In this ever growing, regulated, business world, the use of paper and file have become archaic as dial up modems. Organizations who take time to adopt the recent changes suffer as it becomes tough for them to adapt to the significant, increased efficiency, improved process, and reduced risk from the proper implementation of a policy and procedure software solution. Not all the policy and procedure management solutions are made equal, there are various important characteristics that any solution needs to possess so that users can stay ahead.

If your organization is not in a mood to currently employ the cloud software solution, then you need to ask yourself:

• It is getting tough to manage your important policies and procedures and as an organization you often get stuck in the review and approval process 
• Do you find it easy to track and manage the employee compliance on your important documents? 
• Do you think it is easy for you to update, replace, and distribute the newer versions of your existing policies and procedures? 

 If not, then it is the time to go for an effective policy and procedure management software solution:

1. It helps employees to retrieve their policies or procedures 
2. It will show only the most current version that is available to the end user. Also, it allows the policy and procedure managers to update and replace older versions of the policy. 
3. It helps to automate the review and the approval cycle so that the policies and procedures can be reviewed and approved by the subject matter experts before they publish it. It helps the organizations to set up groups of subject matter experts to give advice on business-critical documents. 
4. To utilize different versions of important policies and procedures. The solution should be able to automatically update the versioning and can be used by the end user, to help with the document retrieval. 
5. To establish a distribution mechanism to ensure the right people get the right policies. It helps to create groups to differentiate the members of your organization and they receive the policies, procedures and all other business critical documents. 

A proper policy and procedure management software system helps to easily use, easily scalable, contain the online repository of various business critical documents to automate the document lifestyle. of business-critical documents. Lastly, all actions on the system should be easily tracked and reported on, to provide insulation against potential litigation. Those that implement these best practices would never get