10
Ways Great Documentation Can Help
Make Your Business More Resourceful
1.
Are your primary business processes
documented?
It’s
easy to remember how to do what you do every day, but how long does it
take to get up to speed on quarterly or annual processes? Good
documentation supports all levels of personnel and reduces the need for
retraining.
2.
Are your employees’ job procedures
documented? Are they being reviewed and updated at least annually?
If an extended health leave or vacancy left your current staff
covering others’ work, step-by-step procedures go a long way to seamless
client satisfaction.
3.
Is your documentation organized and
accessible to those who need it? And protected from those who don’t?
Even the best-written documentation isn’t helpful if you
don’t have an effective way of storing and retrieving the information.
4.
Have your disaster recovery procedures
been updated since your Y2K initiatives?
Business
interruptions can occur at any time for any reason. Up-to-date recovery
and emergency procedures are key to minimizing business disruption.
5.
Is your new employee training documented
and up to date?
Human Resources might handle overall orientation, but a well
thought out checklist or a basic overview of department operations will
ensure that your new employee will feel settled and get productive in your
area as quickly as possible.
6.
Is your staff spread too thin to handle
new development projects as well as maintain documentation on existing
systems?
Some prioritizing of workloads is always necessary, but bringing
in an experienced professional to fill in the gaps is often much more cost
effective than letting things slide when resources are tight. Out-of-date
documentation isn’t any more helpful than no documentation at all.
7.
Do you need assistance establishing or
implementing documentation standards?
Sometimes knowing where to start is the most difficult part of
the process. Once guidelines, standards, and templates are set up, it’s
easier for staff who may not be keen writers to “fill in the blanks”
and keep your knowledge assets documented and at hand.
8.
Is your message being communicated
clearly to your staff, your colleagues, and your customers?
Developing
a central portal for communicating policies, procedures, forms, and other
department records will aid everyone in disseminating the same message.
Those coming to you for information won’t get a different answer
depending on who’s responding.
9.
Are inadequate training materials putting
a burden on your help desk resources?
Good reference materials and quick help guides are key to
reducing the number of repeat questions to help desk personnel. Talking a
caller through a sticky situation might help them once, but being able to
forward written material will allow them to help themselves the next time.
10.
Are you finding it difficult to hire a
competent technical writing assistance?
Contact iWrite Publications Inc.! With over twenty years of
experience, we know writing. We can assist you with your projects or help
you find the “write” resource.
We
are committed to providing our clients with high-quality results at
reasonable rates.
Copyright © 2001–2009 iWrite Publications Inc. All rights reserved.