Best Practices in Policies and Procedures (Paperback)

~ Stephen Page (Author, Editor, Illustrator) "This book focuses on the best practices for finding content for policies and procedures through your own efforts and from examples..." (more)
Key Phrases: alignment continuum, detailed subject areas, standard writing format, New York, Standards Associations, Continuous Improvement Tools (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Stephen Page is the author of four books on policies and procedures, each one complementing the other. This set of books is the only work of its kind in the industry. There are other books but they focus primarily on editing and word choice, not on actually showing the reader how to do research, write a draft, get it reviewed and approved, get it published, communicate and train it, measure it, and revise it. These steps are missing in the other books.
This author, Stephen Page, has received hundreds of praises from readers saying how wonderful and easy the books are to read and apply. These books will become a part of your reference library and you will be proud to own them.
Stephen Page has written three other books that complement this book including Achieving 100% Compliance, 7 Steps to Better Written Policies and Procedures, and Establishing a System of Policies and Procedures. Do yourself a favor and read all of his books. You'll never buy another policy or procedure book. --Process Improvement Publishing

The fields of business process reengineering and process mapping need more unselfish pioneers to bring practical advice to procedure writers. -- David F. Rico, IT Consultant, 7/2002

This book is invaluable because it speaks about using best practices to write high-quality policies and procedures. -- Linda Zarate, IT Consultant and Amazon Top 100 Reviewer, 7/2002

This book, combined with his other three books, is a powerful set of tools for developing best-in-class policies and procedures. -- Mike Tarrani, IT Consultant and Amazon Top 100 Reviewer, 6/2002

Product Description

Best Practices in Policies and Procedures focuses on the best methods of writing, researching, team building, and finding content for your policies and procedures. This is the first book of its kind as it shows you how to align the content of your policies and procedures with the vision, mission, and strategic direction of the company.
This book also spends an entire chapter on how to use the Internet to find content for policies and procedures. Additionally, there are tables of contents examples from 15 industries to give you an idea of what content belongs in your policy and procedure manuals. No other book on the market and no sponsored site makes any attempt to show you ways to find content and turn out excellent, consistent, and accurate policies and procedures.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Process Improvement Publishing; 3rd edition (June 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929065078
• ISBN-13: 978-1929065073
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #185,012 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book with a new shift, July 17, 2002

By	"lisacp" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This fourth book of the author's clearly takes a new direction. His first three books covered the framework for setting up a system of policies and procedures as well as how to write each policy or procedure. This kind of detail does not exist in any of his competitors' books. In this book, the author concentrates on the importance of aligning policies and procedures at any level to the corporate vision and strategy. He goes so far as to show the reader how to become involved in setting corporate strategy to ensure that there is clear alignment between the strategy and procedure. Without this direct tie to management support, the policies and procedures department is typically considered overhead and is the first department to be eliminated in reorganizations or mergers.

I particularly appreciated the second half of this book as I have been looking for an author to write information about what really goes into a policy or procedure for many years. Finding this content has been most difficult. While I am a fairly experienced procedures writer, I couldn't help but feel I was reinventing the wheel since someone, somewhere had to have written similar policies and procedures I could reference. The author provides many ways to find actual policies and procedure content on the Internet, and has referenced more than 150 websites which appear to contain thousands of links to real policies and procedures. I am especially excited about this because as a consultant my jobs change frequently and being able to find sample procedures in various industries will help me out a lot. This book is an impressive effort.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Links strategy to policies & procedures + best practices, June 25, 2002

By	Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This book is the latest in Mr. Page's series of books on writing policies and procedures, and it the one that ties together his previous work. In particular this book extends his comprehensive "Achieving 100% Compliance of Policies and Procedures" book by adding both a process and an array of examples that policies and procedures writers will find invaluable.

Where his previous books focused on the process of developing and implementing policies and procedures, this one links corporate vision and strategy to policies and procedures. The process to accomplish this is given in four steps (1) define the vision, (2) define the strategy, (3) define core processes that support the strategy and vision, and (4) align the policies and procedures to the core processes. As someone with extensive experience in developing and implementing policies and procedures I can attest that this method is critical to success.

Approximately the first two thirds of the book is devoted to stepping you through the process and does so clearly. I like the way a graphical depiction of the process starts each chapter in the first half of the book to give you a point of reference and to also indicate what remains to be done. The chapter sequence is (1) Vision and Strategic Directions, (2) Building the TOC, (3) Developing Policies and Procedures, (4) Writing Policies and Procedures, (5)Table of Contents Examples and Policy and Procedure URLs, and (6) Epilogue. A great deal of emphasis is given to critical success factors, such as roles and responsibilities and cross-functional team management. I also like the way each chapter ends with a checklist for understanding and references.

What makes this book unique, however, is the last third of the book (Chapter 5), which is a listing of URLs and descriptive information that point to 56 policies and procedures manuals accessible over the web that reflect best practices. Since URLs frequently change, the book has an associated web site that keeps these up-to-date. The descriptive information for each URL includes topic (type of manual), functional area (industry segment), subject area category (what it covers) and detailed subject areas (a summary of the TOC). The best practices reflect most major functional areas, including accounting, child care, church, e-mail, information technology and software engineering, project management, risk management, purchasing, personnel, and more.

The research and effort that went into this book is both exhaustive and impressive. This book is an ideal companion to any of the author's other books, especially if you choose "Achieving 100% Compliance of Policies and Procedures" book. Combined, his set of four books is powerful set of tools for developing best-in-class policies and procedures.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Source of Policy and Procedure Examples, July 11, 2002

By	Ron Fisher "Procedure Lover" (New York, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an excellent book. The author gives a very clear explanation of how policies and procedures are linked to vision, strategic plan, and core processes. And like the previous reviewer said, he does an excellent job of describing how a team works in conjunction with writing processes and procedures.

The author gives URLs that point to thousands of policy and procedure examples. I am so pleased to have found this book.