Writing Policies and Procedures

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Writing Policies and Procedures

• Pamela Crumpler
• New Mexico Student Loans
• 2004 Regional Training

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Topics

• The top ten reasons to create policies and
  procedures
• Important items to include in your policy and
  procedure manual
• Components, Design, and Layout
• Summary
• Group Project
• Questions
• Resources

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Policies and Procedures
Definition

• Policy
• A plan or course of action, as of a government,
  political party, or business, intended to
  influence and determine decisions, actions, and
  other matters.
• A course of action, guiding principle, or
  procedure considered expedient, prudent, or
  advantageous.

• Procedure
• A particular way of doing something. A series of
  steps taken to accomplish an end.
• A set of established forms or methods for
  conducting the affairs of an organized body such
  as a business, club, or government.

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• Preparing a policy and procedures document is not
  as mysterious or difficult as you might think.
  This presentation is designed to outline the
  policy and procedures framework and to help
  policy and procedure owners organize their
  written documentation.
• You will find the information in this how to
  guide helpful if you are responsible for
  formulating or documenting new or existing
  policies and procedures.

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Top Ten Reasons to have Policies and
Procedures....

• Someone may go on vacation to Jamaica and never
  come back!!
• Regulations
• Accountability
• Ease of Access
• Alien Abduction of staff members..(especially in
  Roswell)

• Responsiveness
• Training and Staff Evaluations
• Auditing Purposes
• Staff members may actually win the lottery.
• Policies Procedures can establish standardized
  processes and improve overall workflow efficiency

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Creating policies and procedures
WHY ???

• Regulations The law requires schools to have
  written policies and procedures related to many
  aspects of administering Title IV programs.
  (General Institutional Responsibilities
  Institutional Policies and Procedures Manual,
  Chapter 2, Section 5, Pages 40-42)
• Accountability. Clearly written, available
  policies and procedures are one of the foundation
  elements of any system in which individuals and
  units are held accountable for adherence to
  policies and procedures.
• Ease of Access. In many offices (not just
  financial aid) there are literally hundreds of
  manuals and loose memos floating around. An
  information overflow! Many users may not know
  the difference between what is important and what
  isnt important. Policy procedure manuals that
  do exist are not always up-to-date and users
  cannot always find the documents they need to
  make informed decisions. Up-to-date, paper or
  on-line systems, permit those who use or are
  directly affected by policies and procedures to
  have the access they need.

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Creating policies and procedures
WHY ???

• Responsiveness. Offices that maintain and make
  available, policies and procedures to those
  directly affected, are more readily able to meet
  the demands of their customers.
• Advantages Staff members generally find that
  creating such documents help them to be more
  effective, efficient, and consistent in managing
  the challenges of the financial aid office.
  Policies and Procedures can establish
  standardized processes and improve overall
  workflow efficiency.
• Training and Staff Evaluations Policies and
  Procedures can provide functionality detail when
  evaluating staff as well as, providing necessary
  information for new personnel.
• Auditing Purposes. The Department of Education,
  the Commission on Higher Education, The
  Guarantor, and Internal Auditing will want to see
  the policies and procedures you have in place.
  PPs can also assist in refuting any audit
  findings.

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Policies and procedure documents

• The overall goal for any policy or procedure
  document is for the design to be simple, concise,
  easy to use, and consistent.
• Remember the K.I.S.S. Rule!
• Keep it simple, sweet-heart

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Important Items To Include In Your Manual

• Introduction to the Financial Aid Office
• Include a statement introducing your schools
  financial aid office to financial aid staff
  members and constituencies that may have reason
  to use or review the information contained in
  your policies and procedures manual (such as
  appeals committees or auditors). You may also
  want to include information such as hours of
  operation, fax and phone numbers, and email and
  website addresses.
• Purpose Philosophy of the Financial Aid Office
• You may want to include the institutions mission
  statement, department goals, and principles of
  the financial aid office to lend perspective to
  the overall operation of the financial aid
  department.

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Important Items To Include In Your Manual

• Policies and Procedures Development
• Include a summary of the policies and procedures
  development process at your school. Specify who
  bears responsibility for policy development. If
  a financial aid committee influences policy
  development, define its role and identify the
  committee members positions within the schools
  organizational chart.
• In areas where other offices and personnel may
  bear shared responsibility in the development and
  implementation of financial aid policies and
  procedures, it is wise to involve personnel from
  those offices in the policies and procedures
  development process. If your institution uses
  this approach, be sure to include positions and
  roles of non-aid office personnel in this
  section.
• Include information about the last update and how
  often policies and procedures are reviewed. You
  may want to include this information in the
  footer of the document.
• Assigning Responsibility
• Add a brief statement about who is responsible
  for ensuring others are aware of any changes to
  existing policies and procedures or the
  development of new ones. You may want to include
  a department name or job title, rather than an
  actual name.

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Important Items To Include In Your Manual

• Documents Methods
• Indicate what documents and methods are used to
  keep abreast of new regulations and ED policy
  guidance that might impact the financial aid
  offices policies and procedures. Define the
  department or entity that is responsible for
  collecting and disseminating the information.
• Include any electronic methods that are used to
  make schools aware of statutory and regulatory
  changes that may affect policies and procedures
  on your campus. For example, EDs information
  for Financial Aid professionals (IFAP) web site
  has a subscription service that notifies
  financial aid professionals via e-mail of new and
  timely statutory and/or regulatory changes.
• Institutional Divisional Structure
• It is helpful to include organizational charts
  and a summary of responsibilities within the aid
  office. You may also want to include an
  organizational chart of the entire institution
  and point out those areas that the financial aid
  offices interacts with, this may include the
  business and accounting offices.

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• There is an unlimited amount of important items
  you could include in your policy and procedure
  manual.
• It is up to each financial aid office to
  determine what is most necessary and relevant for
  their individual office.
• NASFAA has made available an in depth template
  that you can use as your starting point.

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Components, Design, and Layout

• Documents should use a consistent format applying
  standard language and icons so as to become an
  easy-to-use reference and training tool for the
  financial aid office
• Overview/procedure description Describes the
  overall objectives, functions, or tasks that the
  procedure is designed to accomplish and the
  circumstances under which the procedure should be
  used.
• Area of responsibility List departments, units,
  offices, and individual job titles for those who
  have responsibilities for aspects of daily
  control and coordination of the procedure.

Include
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Components, Design, and Layout

• Details - Use an approach that is customized to
  the subject (i.e., it can be a statement in
  outline format of each step required, a checklist
  of what needs to be done, or an explanation of
  how to complete the necessary forms or screens
  including examples of the forms or screens, or an
  appropriate combination of techniques. Provide
  the reader with the necessary procedural and how
  to information.

• Logging In
• Enter your User ID
• Select your Organization Name from drop down box
• Enter password
• Select the Submit button

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Components, Design, and Layout

• Headings, titles, and sub-titles should be
  consistent in placement on the page and
  formatting style, (i.e., size and typeface).
• All headings may be bold, italics, underlined,
  and set to 20 point
• All titles may be indented and set to 18 point
• All sub-titles may be further indented,
  italicized, and set to 16 pt.

Manual Introduction 1.1 Introduction to the
Financial Aid Office 1.2 Purpose Philosophy
of the Financial Aid Office 1.3 Policies
Procedures Development 1.3.1 Assigning
Responsibility 1.3.2 Documents and Methods
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Components, Design, and Layout

• Use icons to indicate important details on
  specific procedures and highlight information
  that needs to be given consideration when making
  decisions. Be creative and consistent when using
  icons and be sure to identify each of the icons
  in the first few pages of your manual. Following
  are some examples
• Steps icons can be used to quickly identify the
  step by step process necessary to complete a
  specific task.
• Web Resource icon could be used to indicate
  what website to go to for specific information on
  regulations or to get current financial aid
  information.
• Envelope icons may be used to indicate that
  communication needs to be directed to parties
  inside or outside the financial aid office.
  Provide a list of phone numbers, fax numbers,
  physical and email addresses for those that need
  to be notified.

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Components, Design, and Layout

• Be concise, use minimum verbiage
• Be Factual double check for accuracy!
• Include a glossary of terms, or acronyms in the
  case of financial aid.
• Dont include information that may be quickly
  outdated (e.g. names)
• When using acronyms, spell it out the first time
  you use it
• Include detailed, step-by step instructions for
  completing the task at hand
• Remember the K.I.S.S. rule - Make it simple
  enough for a new employee to understand

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Summary

• Be clear and concise.
• Develop a common format.
• Make sure all parties affected are aware of new
  policies and changes to existing policies.
• Assign responsibility for updating and
  disseminating policies and procedures to all
  affected parties.
• Set a standard schedule to review and update
  policies and procedures at a frequency which
  supports your business processes.
• And, when all else fails

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Run Away To Jamaica and swim with the dolphins!
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Group Activity

• Write a policy/procedure page that includes a
  purpose statement, objective statement and step
  by step instructions on the one of the following
• Planning a cruise
• Baking cookies

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Resources

• New Mexico Student Loans Website
• www.nmstudentloans.org
• About Us/For Schools/Training and Program
  Information
• NASFAA Policies Procedures Template
• Email at pubsdesk_at_nasfaa.org

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Questions