How to Develop an Operations Manual

At the core of many successful businesses is an operations manual that contains vital company information and processing methods. A good, working operations manual should contain the following:

• Company Vision (Strategic Objective)
• Company Story
• Products and Services
• Policies
• Systems
• Position Specific Information

Operations manuals are also the individual ‘owner’s manual’ for every employee’s position. They are the guidebooks for how things are done in your company and serve as an effective way of communicating all the info your employees need to know about the company. Building your company’s operations manual can feel like a daunting task and is often put off completely or put together is a haphazard manner. If the manual is not up to date with relevant info it can become a dust collector in an employee’s workspace. Using this article as a guide you can develop great operations manuals that provide value to you and your employees.

The first step in creating your operations manual is to gather and/or create the documents that will be available for everyone, including items on the list above as well as any additional pertinent company information. Because these documents will be available in every employees operations manual each document should be carefully proof read and updated as needed before distribution.

It is likely that the most challenging and time consuming component of this project is creating position specific documents. To get started you will want to list out all the positions in your organization and create a file to store all the current documents you have regarding those positions. Once you have a reliable document inventory you can identify any missing information that will need to be developed.

The basic position specific documentation that is necessary for every position is a Position Agreement; a document that describes how your employees fit into the organization, the business systems they'll be accountable for, and the results they will produce. Each Position Agreement includes a list of work that must be completed, a description of the standards that have to be met, and a statement of the results the position is expected to achieve.

Additionally, if there are systems that relate specifically to that position, they should be included as well. For example, in the Sales Manager position, information about your Sales Tracking and Sales Quota Rewards system would be included.

Two important factors to consider when creating and using operations manuals in your business are:

• How will updates be made?
• How will the manuals be distributed?

To keep the materials up-to-date you should set up review sessions on a regular basis, such as annually or bi-annually. At these sessions you will gather your managers or administrative support team and do a quick review of the contents, make updates, and plan any changes. When a new system is created, you will need to deliver the updated materials to your team members, and remove any documents that are now out of date.

For non office based companies like construction, landscaping, auto repair and others, it makes the most sense to use binders and printed copies of all the content. If employees work from an office you need to decide if you want to create both physical and electronic versions of the manual. If you decide to use only electronic documents you will need to set up a secure location and simple navigation tool for employees to access the information quickly and easily. Intranets and secure online collaboration sites are excellent options for storing and sharing electronic documents.

While it would be impossible to cover all the ins-and-outs of the operations manual in a single article, the information presented here should give you a basic plan for developing these important resources. While the contents of every company’s operations manual will vary, the outline covered here represents a basic starting point. Operations manuals benefit the company and its employees by providing a single point of reference for all important company info.

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