Policy and Manual Writing by Robyn Ciancia

Policy and manuals are usually implemented to instruct a staff and/or organization on how to run the business/organization. When effective policies and manuals are in place, the time spent needing to manage problems is reduced. For this reason the following three steps will help create an effective policy and/or manual.

Organization - A structured manual is going to be the easiest to read and understand. Using table of contents, headings, subheadings, and highlighted words will create an organized structure.

Thoroughness/Concise - If a manual is too long, employees are going to stop reading or not absorb the information. Being thorough is very important however make sure each topic is concise. Employee Benefits, Payroll, Sexual Harassment Guidelines; all of these are in depth topics but making the information in the manual short, sweet, and to the point is best. Detailed information can always be made available to employees.

Staff input - One of the best things a manual writer can do is talking with the staff. Employees are the ones that will be reading and following these manuals, ask the staff their opinions and take them into consideration. Conducting an anonymous poll is a helpful tool.


Policy and manual writing isn’t an assignment many will come across on a regular basis; or so you may think. When I started my job as a hostess I never thought I would need this skill; however, as I was promoted to Host Trainer I was asked to create the five day training program for the host staff, a type of manual. It was a hard assignment because I had never attempted to write any kind of policy or manual. Following these three steps has helped me revise my training manual and now I have a better quality product.


www.writeexpress.com
http://www.nightcats.com/samples/manual.html