What you will read in the next 5 minutes:

• How the size of your company may affect the number of the procedures inside your company;
• Examples of some procedures you should have in place;
• What are the risks of using policies and procedures from another company instead of developing your own ones;
• When you have to review your procedures.

„You know, I have a small company, I don`t need many procedures. “

I hear this all the time.

Well, I have some news for you.

The size of your business does not directly impact the number of your procedures.

Why?

Because:

• If you have one employee or 100 employees performing the same job, they will follow the same procedures.
• If you have one store or 100 stores, the employees will follow the same procedures.
• If you have one car or 100 cars in your parking, the parking lot administration procedure is the same.

What is not the same is the required preparatory work, the necessary resources, the time needed aso but the procedure is the same.

The procedures should cover management, operational area, and the support activities.

Some examples are:

• Vision and Mission;
• Internal Regulation;
• Organization and Functioning Regulation;
• Administration Procedures;
• Access procedure;
• Archiving Procedure;
• Customer Care Policy and Procedure;
• Suppliers Approval Policy and Procedure;
• Acquisition Policy and Procedure;
• Debt Recovery Procedure;
• IT Policies and Procedures;
• Accounting and Reporting Procedures;
• Human Resources Policies and Procedures;
• Risk Policy and Procedure;
• Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Policy and Procedure;
• Compliance Policy;
• Know Your Customer Policy and Procedure;
• Personal Data Protection Policy and Procedure;
• Incident Reporting Procedure;
• Health and Safety Policy and Procedure;
• Customer Safety Procedure (eg health industry, spa and beauty)
• Whistleblower Procedure (if case, risk related);
• Marketing and Sales Policies and Procedures, Marketing Manual;
• Customer Accommodation Policy and Procedure (eg for HORECA)
• Food Handling Safety (eg for HORECA)
• Car Fleet Acquisition and Administration Procedure (if case);
• Other specific business procedures, according to the company activity
• aso

The focus should not be around on how many procedures do you need.

Make as many as needed to cover all activities.

Have into consideration that any activity not regulated by an internal document can lead to faults, mistakes, misconduct up to internal or external fraud.

Sometimes, for small activities, is easier for all employees, to make one Manual containing Policy and Procedure. For more develop businesses and/with more lines of activity is logical to separate them in General Policies and specific procedures and work instructions for easier usage and update.

In the beginning, during preparation and analysis phase, there will be a lot of ideas for gathering data, performing interviews with staff involved in the process, combining information, and designing end to end business flows. Then it will be needed to proceed by writing down the resulted process, including roles and responsibilities, also considering the risk points, and including authorization and control. It sounds complicated and time consuming.

“Can I have them ready?” Seems a normal question.

Well, I would not recommend this, they will be great but unfortunately most probably not used, so I would advice you to develop them in-house.

Can I use procedures from other company?

If you have a friend with a business, maybe you can find some procedures.

Will they work on your company?

Most probably not, if you don’t adapt them on your business. Sometimes getting inspiration is good in order not to miss any important matter but many times can disturb focus on your internal processes.

Operational procedures differ from business to business.

Why?

Due to all things that differ from one organization to the other, even in the same industry. We may have different: organizational structure, business flow, systems used, dependency on other internal or external parties, business strategy and vision, aso.

This is why, copying procedures from others may not really work and you may end up with a procedure that looks good but is not covering the needs, is not clear, logical, or functional.

Best solution, in terms of functionality and efficiency, is to establish a methodology frame including all needed policies, procedures, instructions based on your business and internal processes, adapted for your business.

When to review the procedures afterwards?

It will be time consuming in the beginning, may look overwhelming process, but after you have them settled, you just review and update them as follows:

• at any legislative change with impact over your business;
• at any business decision that impact the activity: increase or decrease of personnel, adding a new business line or closing one, changing the IT systems, changing the business flows, creating new departments, aso
• every 2-3 years, when verifying and making updates over flows, legislation, systems, aso;
• after controls and audit, using recommendation for remedy the faults;
• after KRI`s alarm values – analyzing reports and indicators values;
• when needed based on staff or customer feedback.

Policies and procedures are alive, as your business is, some areas will need fast updates but other will remain the same for long time.

Having a methodology will help you grow your business from inside.

Staff will be better trained, will assume their actions and work, fidelity and trust will increase.

But not only!

Every time you are in front of a business decision, you can immediately understand the impact over your organization.

You can take fast decision for your company.

In case you need help in establishing a sound methodology within your organization, you may contact us.

Keep an eye on the Online training, for specialized training related to company organization and methodology.

If you don’t know from where to start with Company Internal Organization, ask for a 3 hours online training where I will explain you the A to Z regarding all the items you need to consider in this effort, at anamaria@businessprocesses.expert . More about this training you can read HERE. 

We encourage you to make your own in-house policies and procedures, in case you want guidance or an expert advice you may contact us at needed moment.

Don’t be the same, be better! Be successful in all you do!