Managing Forms and Policies and Procedures: Important? You can bet!

Management of forms and policies and procedures: Important? Yes, definitely

Forms are critical to the operations of any organization, whether they are on paper or electronically. Everyone uses forms in their daily life from internet surveys, shopping carts, comment forms, or even a filler email in the contact section of many websites. And paper forms are not dead by any means. Paper forms are still used to apply for driver’s licenses or complete your car registration or to deposit or withdraw money from your checking or savings account. Physical forms are everywhere.

Business forms are management tools that help to draft, transmit, and present business information. There are two ways to view a form: paper and electronic. A printed form is a document that contains instructions with repetitive information preprinted in a fixed position to save typing and reference time. An electronic form is a document stored on an electronic memory device that is available on a computer monitor when needed. Electronic forms can be designed with fields that change in size as text is typed, with drop-down menus, active buttons, and electronic forms can even be linked to a database that collects the information that is completed in the electronic form. However, remember that electronic forms can be exactly the same as paper forms, just as in the case of a printed form saved in editable PDF formats, it is now possible with the right software.

Forms can reveal a lot about an organization

Forms can tell your customers a lot about your organization. For example, appearance alone may imply that the company is outdated or progressive. Ease of completion can mean the difference between a revamped business and the customer going elsewhere. In industries like insurance and banking, this can be a big issue. Since forms are often the lifeblood of an organization, a good forms management department can make a difference in the strategic direction, vision, and mission of your company.

I remember seeing a visitor form in the corporate office of a major motion picture company that was roughly created on a typewriter. The form projected a bad image of the company. If I were a customer of this great company, I would certainly wonder why the company didn’t take the time to create a professional looking form that all potential customers would have to fill out when they entered the building.

Vital importance of forms management for policies and procedures

Managing forms is equally important to the policy and procedure writer. In fact, in many companies, the policies and procedures department manages the forms administration department and / or the policy and procedure writer is also the forms administrator. This relationship is vitally important because most procedures contain references to forms in one way or another. In my experience, forms play an important role in policy and procedure processes. Note that there may also be forms processes, as well as policy and procedure processes. If the writer does a good job, the process systems will be combined or integrated.

You cannot write policies and procedures without first analyzing the forms system

For many years, I used to analyze and design the forms used in a process before interviewing the users of the policy and procedure system. In some cases, you would even order the forms before the policy and procedure review is complete. This method proved invaluable to me because once the forms system had been analyzed and optimized, the policy or procedure was in place.

DO NOT make this big mistake!

The biggest mistake made by many policy and procedure writers is to write the policy or procedure first and then ask the forms management department to adapt the content included in the published policy or procedure document. This is a big mistake and it certainly does not promote acceptance of the systems. The work of forms managers and policy and procedure writers go hand in hand; There should be no exception to this relationship.

Adaptation of forms to a policy or procedure

I am a strong advocate that an image of the form and its instructions should be included as an appendix to the policy or procedure. In the case of electronic forms, a link can be placed in the policy or procedure that opens in a new window with a sample of the form and / or the actual form to download or print.

Unfortunately, many policy and procedure writers know nothing about forms and simply refer to a form by name and number, or worse, just by name; and then they let the reader find the referenced form. I found this practice so wrong for a number of reasons. For instance:

1. The form will never be searched or used
2. The reader will ask a friend for the form and will most likely get an outdated form that could have been in the friend’s desk or drawer for months, if not years.
3. The form may be abbreviated with PR and the user may not be able to discern the origin of the form. For example, it is the abbreviation PR, a purchase requirement, or some kind of public relations document.

Arguments Against the Practice of Incorporating a Form into a Policy or Procedure

While I am a strong advocate of embedding a form image in a policy or procedure, there are a few arguments against this practice, none of which I agree with:

1. THE READER SAYS: If I incorporate the form image into the policy or procedure, then each time the form changes, the policy or procedure will need to be reissued. While this may be a true statement, the policy and procedure writer should want to rewrite the policy or procedure because a form change also suggests a change to one or more processes that constitute the heart of a policy or procedure document.
2. READER SAYS: Why should I embed the form image when I can reference the form in a form catalog? So if the form were to change, the link would remain the same and then you would not have to change the policy or procedure every time the form changed. This argument has two problems: (1) the same argument above applies that when a form changes, then the content of the policy or procedure must also change and (2) I have found that it is rare that a company has the resources to maintain a The forms list how it should be maintained. Therefore, I would agree with this argument if the forms catalog is regularly maintained and if the person maintaining the catalog is in close contact with the policy and procedure writer so that any form changes can be analyzed to determine if there is an effect on the current policies and procedures using that form.

Help sources for finding help understanding the forms

The largest association in the United States is the Business Forms Management Association, BFMA.org. Seminars, conferences, workshops and books are offered to its members. I highly recommend that you check out their website, call them, join them, and attend a conference. A conference or two will open the eyes of any policy and procedure writer. A whole new world will open to you.

Summary:

The policy and procedure writer should learn from this article and take over the forms management department, if one exists. And if there is a department and politics gets in the way of taking on this role, I suggest that the writer develop a good relationship with the forms management department and start working together.

And if there is no forms department, go out there and get the training you need to add this feature to the Policies and Procedures department. The policy and procedure writer should take over and:

1. Think about how to produce attractive and effective forms that enhance the image of the organization and that complement the policies and procedures that it affects and / or supports.
2. Consider how you can work closely with the forms department and / or the form designers to ensure that the forms systems complement the policy and procedure system and vice versa.
3. Think about how you can best serve policy and procedure readers and write effective policies and procedures using effective forms.

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