Manual Writers provides honest advice on processes, standards and performance and delivers all the procedures, manuals and training you need - Leaving you free to concentrate on your business,
Manual writing & review FAQ
What’s the best way to write manuals?
The simplest way is to ask us to write them for you. Our services are comprehensive, we do it all for you, we often cost less than writing manuals yourself anyway and you remain free to concentrate on your business. If you still want to do it yourself, our ‘Quick Guide to Writing Manuals’ is full of advice that makes the job simpler and is available in our shop for just £5.99 (or we send it out free to all enquiries here).
In summary, the best way to write manuals is to split the process into manageable steps and to plan the purpose, structure, content, design and format of your manuals BEFORE you start writing. That way you can write a subject at a time, switch between subjects without getting lost, complete pre-designed formats as you go along (saving reworking the whole thing later) and be sure you’ve covered everything.
Who should write manuals?
We’d obviously advise you use professionals, like us, because you’ll get a better result faster with less disruption to your business. But, if you’re doing it yourselves, be aware that your most knowledgeable staff may NOT be the best people to write your manuals because: their time is too valuable to be diverted from operations; very knowledgeable people are prone to add more detail than is needed and so alienate readers; knowledge doesn’t guarantee writing or design talent; and those who ‘live’ your procedures every day won’t be objective in examining them. So, it’s often better to choose a talented writer of plain English that has excellent organisation skills over your senior management or more technical staff.
What should I put in manuals?
You can get an example of some of the topics we would include in manuals here. Our ‘Quick Guide to Writing Manuals’ (free to all enquiries or £5.99 in our shop) also replicates that list and adds topics for franchise manuals. And we’ll soon be adding contents-lists for different sectors to our online shop. What you should include very much depends on the purpose of your manuals, the sector you’re in and current issues or opportunities you face.
What’s more important – policies, procedures or guidance?
Our overriding advice is to focus on simple step-by-step procedures, guidance and mentoring that will help your staff do their jobs better and so drive your performance - and to include but not to focus on boring policies that just impose rules.
How do I cover statutory policies?
All businesses need to be protected by an extensive list of statutory policies that set out rules framed in national laws and regulations (such as health and safety, employment policies, environmental policies, accountancy and taxation, GDPR etc.). A good manual will contain 10-20% policies because these set rules and prescribe behaviour but don’t actually tell your staff how to do their jobs well (so the other 80-90% of your manual needs to focus on the procedures, guidance and mentoring that does). Most businesses already have these policies and we can add or refer to them in our manuals (where we focus on that other more useful 80-90%). If you don’t, we can get them for you, or you can easily find templates for free on government websites or at reasonable prices from online suppliers. Larger organisations and national franchises may also protect themselves using third party HR and Health & Safety providers and insurers.
How long will it take me to write manuals?
The time it takes to write manuals depends on their content and depth. A decent set of good manuals and all associated documents won’t be less than 400 neatly formatted pages for any business – but will often stretch to 1000 pages or more, so can take a long time (a year or more) if written in-house. Professionals, like us, work to agreed deadlines that meet your needs.
What’s the true cost of trying to write manuals ourselves?
There are three things to consider: 1) the cost of disruption to your business by taking staff away from their usual duties to write manuals in-house; 2) the true cost to your payroll and turnover (i.e. if your staffing costs are 25% then every £1,000 of staff time on manuals actually costs your business £4,000 in lost sales or output); and 3) the opportunity cost of delaying the introduction of new manuals and training that would drive improved performance in your business (because in-house teams generally complete manuals much slower than a professional). In most cases, it’s simpler and cheaper just to use a professional in the first place.
What’s the best writing style to use?
Avoid legal and academic styles that tend to alienate readers because they’re too ‘heavy’ and difficult to read (so are better reserved for policies or very technical audiences). It’s better to write in simple plain English using an inclusive ‘mentoring’ or ‘coaching’ style that’s easier to understand. Be careful to write for your target audience and to explain things simply without being patronising. Try to keep each procedure on one page and use clear designs to quickly communicate what readers can expect to learn from pages formatted in a similar way.
What should I integrate with my manuals?
Manuals won’t magically improve your business as soon as they are published. You need to communicate their contents to your Team and integrate them into your business and culture. Ways to do this include: properly introducing new manuals to your Team; developing training, CPD and coaching; creating quick-reference guides, tools and signage using your manuals; creating booklets from manuals for each role; integrating software with manual processes; creating reference linked to manuals on your server and online; etc.
How do I introduce new manuals and get my Team using them?
Your Team is more likely to read and use manuals (and the training, booklets, signage and etc. that’s linked with them) if they understand why you’ve introduced them, how they benefit everybody and believe in them. Develop a schedule of meetings, events and training to launch new manuals and, where appropriate, involve your wider team in the development of new manuals and procedures in the first place.
How do we review manuals?
Manuals only retain their authority if everything in them remains valid and up to date – staff will quickly lose faith in manuals that contain obsolete information or procedures that no longer work. The simplest way to review your manuals and to keep them current is to ask us to do it for you. But however you do it, you must: review manuals annually (at least); ensure all policies and procedures are current; get staff to feedback their experience of your manuals and training and to suggest improvements; test new procedures before they make it into manuals and training; use forums or panels of staff and management; check policies with solicitors and other specialists; consider upcoming threats and opportunities to meet through improved manuals; consider current strengths and weaknesses to work on; get a second opinion from objective professionals; etc.
What’s the best way to publish manuals?
Publish manuals in ways your Team are comfortable using and more likely to access. For some, that might mean putting them online in ‘wiki’ or ‘App’ formats (and there’s plenty of software and online packages to help you do that), which can be easier to keep up to date than printed versions. But don’t choose the electronic route just for the sake of modernity. Giving staff complete printed manuals makes them more difficult to ignore; ensures staff have all your rules and procedures in hand (and so no excuse not to follow them); gives them ownership; and (perhaps counter-intuitively) printed versions are often easier to access and understand than online versions, which only display a topic at a time and need to be scrolled through when pages don’t fit on a single screen. We believe the most effective manner of publishing manuals is to create separate printed sections, booklets or mini-booklets by role and to give those out to all staff – and then use electronic versions to back them up and to support staff who need frequent access to information in the field.
Where can I get help writing manuals?
We can do it all for you without any interruption to your business and often work out less expensive than the true cost of doing it yourselves.
If you do still want to write your own manuals: have a look at our ‘Quick Guide to Writing Manuals’ (free to all enquiries or £5.99 in our shop); seek information about any local advice or funding that’s available from your local Chamber of Commerce and government websites (e.g. https://www.gov.uk/business-finance-support); ask for advice from industry associations (as most are interested in raising standards in their sector); and find reputable suppliers of statutory documents online or by protecting yourselves with HR and Health & Safety providers and insurers. And have a look at our example-contents lists (with completion notes) that we will soon be adding to our online shop.
We suggest you avoid online suppliers that claim to provide full templates of complete operations manuals, franchise manuals or systems in your sector (rather than individual statutory policies or operational procedures), as they are usually overpriced and very poor (and we could start writing bespoke manuals for you at a similar price anyway).