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Best Potential
Web-Success Quote of the Month "If a man writes a better book, preaches
a better sermon, or makes a better mousetrap than his neighbor, tho' he
builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his
door!" - by Thomas Waldo Emerson.
If I have seen farther than others, it's because I was standing on
the shoulders of giants. - by Albert Einstein
Weekly Thoughts: The only place success comes before work is in the
dictionary! – by Green Bay Packer Hall Of Fame Head Coach Vince Lombardi,
during the heyday of the top-notch Championship winning Green Bay Packer
football teams.
Methods to Improve
Communications at Work
How many times have you asked someone to do something
like “draw up a business plan for a project”? Your employee completes
the plan, but then you say, “That is not what I wanted” or “That is
not how you do it”. And so the employee thinks: you didn’t tell me exactly
how you wanted it done.
If you find yourself having back and forth misunderstandings
with your employees, then you might have a communication problem. And
this could be creating bad feelings, low morale and inefficiencies.
To remedy this, perhaps it’s time you thought about creating a Policies
and Procedures Manual.
Let’s look at 7 methods to strengthen communication and
performance.
1. Implement Effective Policies and Procedures
A Policies and Procedures Manual is a
corporate communications
tool used to provide employers, managers and employees with a consistent
approach to accomplishing their daily work. It provides a set of policies,
plans, reports, forms, and work routines that convey the pulse of the
organization.
A properly developed manual focuses your everyday business
communications between employees and management on what is really important
to get the job done. This focus is the first step in empowering your
employees. Empowerment requires a shared vision, the communication of
necessary information and adequate training.
2. Convey Management Policy and Vision
A manual should be used to communicate both corporate
policies and the appropriate procedures for implementation of the policy
in a combined style format. If employees know the vision, then they
feel confident to make decisions. Keep in mind, though, policies should
not be confused with procedures.
Policy - A definite course or method of action to guide
and determine present and future decisions. A policy is a guide to decision-making
under a given set of circumstances within the framework of corporate
objectives, goals and management philosophies.
Procedure - A particular way of accomplishing something,
or an established way of doing things. A procedure is a series of steps
followed in a definite regular order that ensure the consistent and
repetitive approach to actions.
3. Improve Communications and Efficiently Run Operations
A manual serves to translate the company's business philosophies
and desires into action. A well-designed manual is an invaluable communication
tool for efficiently running operations within departments and bridging
the gap between interrelated departments. If a department has specific
information that it requires to process a task, then this information
is easily captured in a form that accompanies the task. In business
forms are commonplace, acting as a guide for such things as purchase
orders, employment applications or asset requisitions.
4. Reduce Business Process Training Time
A policies and procedures manual is a functional guide
for training new and existing employees. It prevents difficulties in
performing duties due to lack of understanding or inconsistent approaches
from personnel changes. And it will assist you in developing a consistent
method in handling any task.
5. Improve Productivity and Decision Making
Policies and procedures speed up employee decision making
by having a handy, authoritative source for answering questions. Well-developed
and documented manuals can ensure compliance with regulatory agencies
affecting your business, including the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), government
contracting authorities and independent certification organizations
(i.e. ISO).
6. Strengthen Organization and Quality
A comprehensive manual covering all departments within
an organization can become a "quality" manual for the whole company.
This will help ensure optimal operations and consistent delivery of
the finest in product or service from the company.
It will "empower” employees to make decisions independently
without the need or time delays of involving various levels of management.
A well thought out manual will enable just about everyone in the organization
the ability and flexibility to make the right decisions in his or her
job responsibilities.
For example, a customer service representative should
be able to handle a customer's problem and have the authority to resolve
the problem right on the spot. In addition, a production team should
be able to diagnose a quality problem and formulate and resolve the
problem in conjunction with engineering without having to go through
various channels up and down the corporate ladder.
7. Meet Objectives with Policies and Procedures Manual
The goal of the policies and procedures manual is to identify
the ways and means of communicating, as well as getting the service
performed or the product manufactured at the least cost in the minimal
amount of time. Not only will it be used to empower the organization,
but it will have the added benefit of increasing job satisfaction and
good employee morale.
reprint permission goarticles.com
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