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Company/Employee
Handbook as Organisational Improvement Tool
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by:
Stephan
Szugat
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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 precodures. 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.
About the author:
Stephan Szugat is founder of abenetis a web-based service about
Business Management Solutions. 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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