The Writing Jobs

Policies and procedures are written by a variety of people in various capacities including administrative assistant, secretary, manager, director, technical writer, and of course, policies and procedures writers. They were probably asked by their boss to write a policy or procedure document on some subject. So how did they write the policy or procedure? They wrote the document in a variety of formats including but not limited to a style of paragraph after paragraph, an outline style, a numbered list, or a bulleted list. Rarely, and this is unfortunate, do writers think to follow some kind of standard.

Even policies and procedures writers, without the proper training or mentoring from a master policies and procedures writer, write inconsistently without the use of a standard writing format template. And then management wonders why the readers have trouble implementing the written word..

What to Do?

Anyone embarking on a writing assignment or project should first look around the company and see if there is a department that writes policies and procedures and if they use some kind of standard writing style. If one exists, then the writer should conform to the company style guide and be done with it. But if the company does not have such a department, then I would recommend that the writer take charge, be proactive, and develop and/or find their own writing format template.

The Writing Format Template is Critical to Policies and Procedures in all Companies

The writing format template is a document that gives the reader the standard sections to use, with a uniform numbering system. The template typically has five to eight sections arranged in an easy-to-read sequence that should seem logical to the readers. The template is at the heart of all policy and procedure systems because it provides consistency, efficiency, and reliability to the user community, management, and top management of any company, public, private, or not-for-profit.

Summary

Regardless of your writing status or experience, when you are asked to write policies and procedures by your boss, first find out if any department has produced some kind of writing guide. The policy and procedure writer, regardless of status or position, has an important role and obligation to their readers: To write a well-written, consistent, and reliable policy or procedure documents for targeted audiences that are read quickly, understood immediately, and easily applied. If you do all this, you will be a success.