Policies and procedures are documents which together with constitutions or other superior documents (e.g. Articles of Association) form the main body of any good organisation’s governing documents. They are called ‘governing documents’ because they help rule, direct or ‘govern’ the organisation. The terms ‘policy’ and ‘procedure’ are sometimes but wrongly, used interchangeably as though they are exactly the same thing. They usually go hand-in-hand, meaning that wherever you see one, you are not too unlikely to see the other, yet although largely similar, there are some key differences between the two. The main difference between policies and procedures is that policies state the basic thinking of the organisation in a particular area and outline as much as possible, what the organisation will do regarding the subject area covered by the policy. Procedures on the other hand, talk about the steps that may be taken to achieve a certain goal. Policies often contain procedures, but procedures cannot contain policies. In other words, procedures are usually part of policies, not the other way round. This makes policies superior to and therefore more powerful than, procedures. There are many advantages of having policies and procedures. Some of these are:

 

Awareness: Policies and procedures help everyone have a better awareness of what the organisation stands for.

 

Boundaries: When there are policies, every person in the organisation is aware of what they can do and what they cannot do. Policies are like boundaries on a piece of land: when you see a boundary-mark you know where your territory or land stops and where someone else’s own begins.

 

Governance: Policies and procedures make it easier to govern an organisation. This is because without such documents, bosses and leaders would have to ‘micro-manage’. In a truly busy environment, micro-managing can be a bad and stressful way of ruling.

 

Integrity: Having policies and procedures in your organisation tells any person who is dealing with you (e.g. donors, funders and beneficiaries) that you can be trusted. Policies and procedures are a kind of assurance to people that they will be treated fairly and that we will not wake up one morning and start to treat them differently. Remember that people can change their minds many times each day, but policies and procedures usually last for months and even years. This gives a good feeling of warmth, safety and trust to those who work with, for or in the organisation.

 

Legal protection: From time to time, people and organisations can get into trouble with the Government or with the Law. For example, if a child gets injured in the organisation’s offices and the parents decide to prosecute or sue. It would help the organisation’s case if the organisation is able to prove (or as the Law says: “demonstrate”) that it did everything within its power to protect the child.

 

Reference-point: Sometimes in organisations, there can be doubt or confusion, debate or disagreement over the way forward (or backward). Policies and procedures help to settle the arguments and in that manner contribute to peace, harmony, cooperation, satisfaction and overall happiness at the workplace. This in turn enables the organisation to prosper.

 

Strength: Organisations that have policies and procedures tend to be better and stronger than those that do not. Most times when things go wrong in an organisation, the problems can be linked to lapses or failures in the implementation of procedure. Although they do not prevent problems or confer perfection, policies and procedures make an organisation very strong indeed.