How To Write a Policy: A Guide To Turn Beginners Into Experts

Well-written policies lay the groundwork for company success by establishing norms for consistency, clarity and accountability. They set crucial expectations for employee behavior and help your team adhere to legal regulations.

Learn how to write a policy that's easy to understand and implement, and use these best practices to maintain high productivity levels.

What’s a Policy?

A policy is a formal document that explains your company's rules and guidelines for daily operations. Policies are a reference point for employees, helping them understand company expectations regarding proper conduct in various scenarios.

Whether related to employee behavior, data security or workplace safety, policies define the procedures the entire team must follow so that everyone respects the same goals and principles. Clear policies create a healthy working environment by maintaining order, promoting fairness and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

For example, a company’s policy on remote work might permit eligible employees to work from home or another location. The aim might be to offer flexibility while maintaining collaboration and productivity. The policy document can outline the requirements an employee must meet for eligibility, such as a minimum number of months working with the company, as well as expectations of conduct while working remotely, like regular communication and meeting normal work performance metrics. A policy like this makes it clear to all team members what the rules are and what they must do to participate in a remote work environment.

Why Policies Are Important

Policies give employees a structured approach to managing operations and personal behavior. Here are a few benefits of having policies in place:

• Risk mitigation: Policies help companies and teams identify and manage potential risks before serious problems arise. These documents outline clear stances on a variety of different situations, reducing errors and protecting the company's best interests.
• Consistency in daily operations: Thorough policies keep everyone on the same page, helping employees follow the same guidelines for decision-making and general actions. Consistent operational standards guide teams so they uphold expectations and deliver reliable results, no matter their department or function.
• Organizational efficiency: Straightforward policies reduce confusion and delays as employees know exactly what the company expects from them regarding work ethic, behavior and productivity.
• Accountability: Clear expectations for employee behavior and performance make it easier to hold individuals accountable for their actions, leading to more responsible teams.
• Legal and regulatory compliance: Policies help companies ensure they’re following relevant laws and regulations. Compliance prevents legal issues, builds trust with stakeholders and improves the company's reputation by showing a commitment to ethical practices.
• Adaptability to change: Setting policies establishes direction for the present with an eye to the future as the company evolves. A flexible policy framework helps teams adapt to internal and external changes, regardless of personnel.

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How To Create a Policy in 5 Steps

Follow these critical five steps to draft an effective policy that suits your company's needs.

1. Identify Objectives

Before you start writing, determine a goal you hope to achieve. This might include complying with certain legal regulations or promoting specific behaviors within the company.

For example, if you're writing a data protection policy, your overall objective might be to make sure all employees protect company data. The policy can support that aim by setting standards for compliance with privacy laws like GDPR to protect sensitive customer information. 

2. Investigate Existing Processes

Observe current workflows and standards related to the policy you're drafting. This will help you understand what's already in place and where things need to improve. Talk to employees and managers who closely follow these processes daily, as they can offer valuable insights.

Say you’re refining your company’s remote work policy. Currently, any employee is allowed to work remotely full-time if they receive approval. But as you gather relevant information from managers, you notice a trend—newer hires who are fully remote are struggling to keep up with the demands of their roles. When writing the new policy, you might use this insight to inform regulations, requiring all new employees to work onsite for six months before going remote.

3. Determine a Format

Creating a standard policy format simplifies the drafting process for current documents and keeps future policies consistent. Here are some formatting elements to consider when making your policy:

• Use a professional font: You’re creating a formal document, so avoid using overly casual fonts. Instead, easy-to-read typefaces like Arial, Times New Roman and Calibri are suitable and common for policies.
• Keep the font size in mind: A consistent text size for each section improves readability. For example, a size 16 font is generally ideal for headings to separate sections, while size 12 works well for the main body.
• Avoid bright colors: To maintain a professional appearance, avoid vibrant colors and stick to neutral ones like black and white. If appropriate, though, you can use colors strategically to differentiate sections or highlight important points.
• Use simple language: Everyone who reads your policy should quickly understand it. Use straightforward language and concise sentences, and avoid jargon that might confuse readers.

4. Include Key Sections

When writing a policy, add critical sections that make the document clear and actionable for employees. Together, these sections define the policy's intent, who it applies to and the steps to comply.

• Purpose: This section explains why the policy exists and the issues it intends to solve. A well-defined purpose helps employees understand the policy's importance and how it fits into the company's operations.
• Scope: The scope outlines who the policy applies to and under what circumstances, including which departments, roles and situations it covers.
• Roles and responsibilities: This section lists the employees and managers responsible for implementing, enforcing and adhering to the policy.
• Procedures: This section links out to all relevant standard operating procedures that offer detailed guides on processes related to the policy.

Including these sections makes a policy comprehensive and easily understandable. To streamline the creation process, you can also rely on a policy template. Check out Scribe’s ready-made company policy template so you don’t have to start from scratch.

5. Review, Finalize and Publish

Carefully review the drafted policy to check its accuracy. Ask stakeholders like team leads, the HR department and legal teams for input. Once it’s approved, publish the policy and make it easily accessible to all employees via internal email or a company resource hub.

Tips To Write Better Policies

Here are some practical tips to help you write better company policies:

• Identify the audience: Tailor your policy to the specific team or department and clearly define the audience-relevant goals you want to achieve.
• Review related policies: Review existing policies before drafting new ones to maintain consistency and avoid contradictions.
• Use the active voice: Write policies in the active voice to make instructions concise and direct. Unlike the passive voice, the active voice mimics how people speak naturally, making comprehension easier.
• Write in the third person: Use third-person language with pronouns like "they" and "them" to maintain a formal tone and ensure your policies apply universally to all employees and managers.
• Use titles and positions: Refer to roles or job titles instead of individual names so the policy remains relevant even as personnel change.
• Be gender inclusive: Use gender-neutral language, such as “chairperson” instead of “chairman” or “spokesperson” instead of “spokeswoman,” so the policy applies equally and fairly to all employees.
• Provide links to additional resources: Include hyperlinks to relevant documentation, web pages and resources that offer further context or detailed instructions related to your policy and its specific clauses.
• Use command words carefully: Be precise when using command words like "must," "will," "should," "might" and "may" to communicate which actions are obligatory, recommended or optional.
• Use visual cues: Add visual aids like flowcharts, diagrams and icons to make the policy easier to follow, but keep them simple so the graphics don't become overwhelming.
• Expand acronyms upon first mention: Write out terms in full the first time you state them, followed by the acronym in parentheses, and then use just the acronym for every mention after. Also, use abbreviations and acronyms sparingly to reduce confusion, especially if employees unfamiliar with the terms are reading the policy for the first time.
• Test before implementing policies: Run pilot tests of new policies with a small group to identify any issues and ambiguities before rolling them out to the rest of the workforce.
• Regularly update policies: Regularly review and update your policies to align them with changes in laws, regulations and company practices.

Scribe can simplify the testing and updating phases. Scribe's process documentation features let you quickly revisit and revise existing policies, which you can distribute across your company so everyone is on the same page.

Create Practical Policies With Scribe

A crucial part of a successfully run company is making and following good policies. While it might seem challenging at first, the process becomes easier to manage when you follow an organized plan. 

But policies only work if people know exactly how to follow them. With Scribe, you can be sure all the relevant protocols are easy to understand. Just open the Scribe browser extension or desktop app, and the tool will capture each step of your workflow, adding screenshots and annotations to create a complete guide in minutes. Then, link to these guides from your policy documents so every employee can easily access the information they need. Scribe also offers plenty of policy and procedure templates to streamline creation.

Sign up for Scribe today and make policies that drive accountability.