Writing Effective Policies and Procedures Training

This highly engaging and practical training course will fully prepare delegates to skillfully develop and write effective Policies and Procedures. The focus will be on making these effective within their organization by considering issues such as compliance, language, organizational values and culture. This is such an important subject because all work activities are governed by Policies and Procedures. Hence, in order to perform their duties and be highly effective, all practicing professionals must develop these essential skills.

This training course fully prepares delegates to translate Policy into Action by developing the relevant Procedures. Delegates will explore techniques to ensure that Policies and Procedures are welcomed, understood, accepted and fully implemented by all those who need to use them. The training course provides a definitive guide to creating purposeful Policies and Procedures Documents, demonstrates online resources and even provides editable Templates for future use of all delegates. Distribution of the documents on modern devices such as smartphones and tablets will be explored, and publishing resources identified.

This training covers:

• How to create professional Policy and Procedure documents
• How to identify and design the main structure and content
• Many real examples of Policies and Procedures
• Techniques and methods used in drafting effective Policies and Procedures
• How to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty, thus writing clearly and concisely, even if writing doesn’t come naturally.

By the end of this training course, participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate highly effective drafting skills, which will be useful tools in all types of documents
• Analyze the clarity of expression in all documents
• Apply methods to highlight potential problems with existing Policies and Procedures and improve their effectiveness
• Illustrate the impact of non-compliance and build fully compliant procedures
• Demonstrate ability to reduce risk

For Whom?

This training course will benefit all those who are responsible for owning, developing, writing or implementing policies and procedures in both the public and private sector organizations.

This training course is suitable to a wide range of professionals but will greatly benefit:

• Policy and Procedure Owners, Developers and Authors
• All Administration and Secretarial Professionals
• Quality and Document Management Professionals
• Change and Project Managers
• All those tasked with documenting Policies and Procedures

How will this Training Course be Presented?

This training course will utilize a variety of proven adult learning techniques to ensure maximum understanding, comprehension and retention of the information presented.

This includes the latest trends in seminar presentations which are made up of interactive practical exercises, supported by audio visual material and case studies. Participants will be encouraged to relate the principles of policy and procedure writing to the specific needs for their own organization. 

The Course Content

Day One: Introduction to Policy and Procedure Writing

• Introduction to and definition of Policies and Procedures
• Why they are important
• Hierarchy of documents and types of procedures
• The structure and typical contents of Policies and Procedures
• Writing styles and techniques
• The impact of change on Policies and Procedures

Day Two: The Governance and Roles involved in Policy

• The role of Policies and Procedures
• Introducing Standard Operating Procedures
• Practical activities - developing Policies and Procedures
• What needs to be included
• Who needs to be involved
• The review process and approval

Day Three: How to Implement Policy and Procedures

• Case Studies and real examples of policies and procedures
• Considering Workflow and Automation
• Avoiding ambiguity and uncertainty
• Where employees are not fluent in English
• Developing procedures - the systematic approach
• Standards - ISO 

Day Four: Drafting Policy and Procedure

• Drafting guides, online resources and templates
• Exploring Best Practice
• The use of Templates
• Effective writing including the Plain English Guide
• Publication formats, including online and modern portable technology
• Flow diagrams and process maps 

Day Five: Case Studies and Workshops

• Action plan for a new procedure
• Case Studies and drafting activities
• Considering Organizational Culture and Values
• How to ensure complete compliance
• Coordinating and communicating the changes
• Group workshop/exercises