You Have To Have This? Policy and Procedure

Yes you do, but it doesn’t have to be all bad. In the past I have worked for and consulted with companies that have been completely chaotic in the daily operation. As a result, they have wasted manpower, supplies, time, and in the end, money. In consultation with company leaders and owners, I have time and time again demonstrated that they have to have policy and procedure in place. That in turn will add to the bottom line, unless of course, they are written and ignored collecting dust upon the shelf and not put to work and enforced.

I have been watching a few shows lately Bar Rescue and Restaurant Impossible for a year or so. During the shows, the consultant comes in, fixes the establishment, redecorates, retrains, evaluates, and most importantly trains the owners how to change to be successful. The help given is more life changing and how to manage more so than changing the establishment.

In both shows the leadership (owners) have failed to see not just the ongoing business failures, but their own personal failures. Not that the show host writes policy and procedure, but the fact is they tell the leadership specifically how to run the business. Each day, week, and month, items needing done, supplies to have, how and when to clean, adjusting manpower, treating employees’ right, customer service, and everything else. But the real issue is that if the owners and leadership had a policy and procedure manual in hand, all of those things would be outlined in the manuals. The hows, whys, whens, would all be addressed, and what is not addressed, could be, as circumstances dictate.

Coming back to those companies I spoke about, how can a company set up a new team, section, department, or whole company without having the “guidelines” in place or at least in the works? One of the companies I worked for had no policy on inventory. No procedure, no running total, no idea where the items were going, how much was lost or gained, or how much of the inventory was needed per job.

There is no way to have a working budget or accurate P&L without knowing about the inventory. Small items missing daily will directly affect the end of year profit (or loss). Another company I consulted on wrote simple policy and procedure, but left out everything except the specific daily tasks to be completed should something happen. There was no procedure how to get started, use the phone system, document tasks completed, or who and how to communicate via email to inside and outside the team. The procedures are the “how” to do each task and the policy is “why” and what consequences can be caused for failure and success.

Let me give this advice. If you do not have a book of policy and procedure to hand an employee that describes almost everything that is expected and done at work and guidelines on what is expected, you are failing or have failed as a leader and personally. Not that I have walked in to a job and had my book ready to go every time. I have had to make it, change it, and update it many times. Sometimes this has taken weeks, other times it has taken years, and it was constantly updated. If you have the policy and procedure, get the book off the shelf and review it. Let everyone know you have it and will be using it, as should they. If you don’t have one, start out getting one. You don’t have to have it done that day, but get going on it.

Next, meet with everyone and ask what they do. You will be surprised how much your line employee does and what is not in the daily procedure. Meet with your supervisors and managers. Give them their parts of the book and have them highlight what is different, wrong, outdated, or needing change. Update constantly until you have a mostly accurate book. Procedures will change with time and technology and will need to be updated. Do youself yourself a favor and update and correct as needed while leaving the change intact and visible for everyone to see. Upon the next update remove the strikeout and color leaving the permanent change. This lets your employees know what changed instead of guessing and looking feverish for the new update.

My next advice is one of the hardest things you will do. Communicate the change to the employees. Update the bottom of the page with the revision date, and in-case you missed it, communicate the changes to your employees.

Policy and procedure is the daily guideline for you and your employees. It will sometimes be used in legal proceedings, hearings, and litigation and employee counseling for both good and bad. Make sure you always consult HR and legal when implementing personnel issues and changes. Give your people a sense of ownership by inviting them to help you by finding out what they do everyday; interview them. Ask them to write a job description of what they are expected to do. You may be surprised what you find out and how things are actually done. This affects your bottom line while streamlining, becoming efficient, and empowering your employees in what they do and how they do it, it will add to the profits.