Company/Employee Handbook as Organisational Improvement
Tool
by Stephan Szugat
Published on this site: July 6th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
A business is only able to grow as fast as the internal organisation
is able to process higher volumes of sales. But how to get
an optimal internal organisation? Well, you will need to adapt
your internal organisation over and over again. It's a never
ending story. However, a Company/Employee Handbook could assist
you to achieve the best internal business organisation.
This brings up the question, What has to be included in a
Company/Employee Handbook? Everything what has influence to
your business operation. First of all, it has to be outlined
which areas the Company/Employee Handbook will cover. As it
has to do with internal operation, here is a list of items
you should include:
Company Background Information
(Name-Development, Foundation date and place, History-Milestones,
Vision)
- Owner and/or Manager Bios/Profiles
- Listing of Officers and Board of Directors
- Employment Roles (Job Roles, Job Descriptions)
- Description of the main products and services (just use
your marketing material)
- FAQ (about internal subjects only)
- Company timeline (What, when, where)
- Office procedures (Workflow-Information, Working Procedures)
- List of persons to know (Bank Contact, Tax Advisor, Laywer,
Main Suppliers, etc.)
- Overview of agreements (Rental, Leasing, etc.)
- Internal Policies (Dress code, Phone usage and answering,
Voice Mail Procedure, Parking, Business Cards, Drug Policy,
etc.).
The above list shows which information should be included.
The following list shows which departments should be included:
- Distribution
- Inventory/Warehouse
- Marketing (How Follow-up's are handled, Lead-Generation,
etc.)
- Customer Support
- Research and Development
- Accounting
- Human Resources
- Purchase/Procurement.
The above two lists just show, how complex it could be to
setup a Company/Employee Handbook. But it don't have to be
complex, just start partial. Only include the information
which are already available and use the help of your employees.
The benefits of having a Company Handbook are numerous, your
employees will save time, it will be easier to improve procedures,
because the procedures will be broken down into small sections
of the whole procedures. Everything is clearly described,
so nobody needs to ask over and over again. In case of holiday
or illness of an employee, others could jump into the job,
because they could be trained faster.
As employer, you could hire employees with lower education.
And your employees will love it, because they know where to
look, when they have questions and they could improve their
working environment as well. But the most advantage for the
owner is, that the organisation will be able to work properly,
when the business grows and when the owner might sell the
business one day, it might get sold easier, because of the
proper organisation.
When installing a Company Handbook, you will find procedures
you could automate. Automating the operation as much as possible
will also be a big benefit, because employees and employer
are able to focus their workforce on more important topics,
such as improving the sales volume. Furthermore automatization
will reduce to cost of operation as well.
A Company/Employee Handbook is a bit like a Business Plan,
but far more detailed, because it will contain information
on every internal procedure. Only the financial part of the
business plan will not be included, but if you like you might
include some financial information you like to share with
your employees. As you describe your procedures just do it
as a numeration or listing. The description don't have to
be very well formed, it's just important that everyone who
will read it, is able to understand what has to be done.
Remember, a Company Handbook is a living system, if you and
your employees are not updating it regularly, it will be death
one day, because it will only contain old stuff. So keep all
people within your business engaged in improving the Company
Handbook, because it will improve your business internal organisation
as well. While starting to write the content of your Company
Handbook, concentrate on job roles at first, afterwards write
down job descriptions, in case a job role has been given to
employees twice (Accounting Staff, etc.). Job Roles need to
include the duties and the responsebilities of the described
job.
Job Roles, Job Descriptions and Workflow-Descriptions of
sepcial procedures don't have to be the same, but take care
that the information is consistent, that means that it is
written in a stream. This way the entire Company Handbook
will be of benefit for everyone. When rereading something
on your Company Handbook and you still have questions, than
the entry is not finished.
Last but not least, your Company/Employee Handbook should
be available everytime. To do this, think about an Internet
or Intranet Solution, depending on the size of your business.
Keep it simple and slim, and you will have many benefits from
it. Good Luck.
Stephan Szugat is founder of abenetis a web-based service
about Business Management Solutions focusing on the core needs
of business management. This includes Operational and strategic
analysis especially Early-Recognition-Systems, Knowledge-
Management and other Services for small and mid-sized businesses.
He has approx. 15 years experience in the Finance and Accounting
Area from companies of different size and from various industries.
http://www.abenetis.com
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