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We talk about policies and procedures all the time but what
really is a policy and how does it differ from a procedure?
What’s a Policy?
A policy is a guiding principle used to set direction in an
organization. It can be a course of action to guide and influence decisions. It
should be used as a guide to decision making under a given set of circumstances
within the framework of objectives, goals and management philosophies as
determined by senior management. But is it?
There are really two types of policies. The first are rules
frequently used as employee policies. The second are mini-mission statements
frequently associated with procedures. Think rules versus missions.
Employee Policies
An employee policy is a business rule you put in your
Employee Handbook. This includes things like no smoking, no drinking, and other
business practices like dress codes, vacation policy, or your company's codes
of conduct. Clearly, employee policies are human resource policies about your
office rules used to support your management philosophies.
Employee policies are used to set a standard for projecting
your company image or to communicate regulations that apply to all personnel. What
kind of image are you projecting as a company? They typically come from top
management as a result of interpreting the company mission and vision
statements, laws and regulations, or industry standards and practices.
Procedure Policies
Think of your procedure policy as a mini-mission statement. A
mission statement contains the target user, the stated purpose, and some type
of effectiveness measure to communicate how users know the procedure is working.
An example Inventory Counting Procedure Policy:
Warehouse personnel shall count physical inventory on a
frequent basis to ensure the accuracy of the general ledger balance.
In the inventory counting policy you see the target user is
the warehouse personnel. The stated purpose is to count inventory and the
effectiveness measures are frequency and accuracy. The procedures will need to
define the actual frequency and accuracy amounts. In fact, the amounts could be
objectives for process improvement if there are inventory issues.
What’s a Procedure?
A procedure is a particular way of accomplishing something. It
should be designed as a series of steps to be followed as a consistent and
repetitive approach or cycle to accomplish an end result. Once complete, you
will have a set of established methods for conducting the affairs of your
organization, which will come in handy for training, process auditing, process
improvement, or compliance initiatives.
You can view free sample procedures at our samples section.
Procedures provide a platform for implementing the
consistency needed to decrease process variation, which increases procedure
control. Decreasing process variation is how we eliminate waste and increase
performance.
The Difference between Policies and Procedure
A policy is a guiding principle used to set direction in an
organization. A procedure is a series of steps to be followed as a consistent
and repetitive approach to accomplish an end result. Together, policies and procedures are used to
empower a process with the direction and consistency necessary for successful
process improvement.
More questions? Learn how to improve your organization by
attending the next How to Create Well-defined Processes or the New 4-Day ISO 9000
QMS Lead Auditor Training class.
Bizmanualz Policies and Procedures -
Simplifying Consistent Results
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