Re-thinking policy and instruction documents

Far too often policy manuals, standard operating procedures, work method statements sit on the shelf and are hardly ever used. They are read by quality system auditors every few years, but they are hardly ever used by people in the business.

This is a problem for two reasons:

1.    Developing these documents is costly in both direct writing costs and the time lost by people diverted from their normal work to provide the content. Manuals are an expensive asset – it is important to get a return on investment.

2.    There is often a mismatch between what is written and what is done. Over time small changes are made to processes that are not reflected in the manual. Whether by laziness or an over cumbersome approval system, the end result is a mismatch between what managers think and what workers do – a very risky situation for any organisation.

There is no magic bullet to solve the problem. However, one thing that can help is to change the way documents are written and formatted.

§         Make sure they are useful.
Manuals must provide relevant information to those who will use them. They must contain information that is important for doing the job without lots of extra fluff.

§         Make sure they are usable.
People must be able to find the information they need quickly. And once they find it, they must be able to extract meaning quickly. So, a few things that can help;
- avoid pages of document control information at the start – the user is not interested.
- keep line lengths short to make them more readable.
- use consistent styles so that users easily recognize information types.
- use photos instead of always relying on text descriptions.
 - try starting all action steps with a verb.

§         Make documents attractive.
Entice people to use manuals by making them pleasing to the eye. There is no reason why work documents should be ugly. Form and function should come together.

Action

Find out which documents are being used and which just sit on the shelf.

Find out who is using them and how they are being used.

Check the written practice against the actual practice.