Mistakes to avoid when writing business operations manuals or franchise manuals
Learn how to write better business operations manuals and franchise manuals by avoiding the mistakes made by others.
(Or simply ask us to write professional operations manuals or franchise manuals for you in fast, effective and affordable ways – get in touch.)
Common mistakes people make when trying to write manuals alone:
Not setting a clear objective for operations manuals.
Operations manuals can be confusing if their purpose isn’t clear. (E.g. are they to: improve performance; increase the value of the company for sale; inform and integrate with training and other operational tools and signage; improve legal protection and security; all of these?).
Not properly budgeting the project.
A good operations manual takes a lot of time to create. If you’re writing manuals in-house, you must consider the true cost of the staff you’re using and of disruption to your business. It’s often cheaper and quicker just to use a third-party professional in the first place.
Not writing manuals bespoke.
Your managers, franchisees (if you have any) and staff NEED and deserve manuals that are written for YOUR business using YOUR procedures on YOUR equipment, in YOUR premises. Manuals must be written bespoke if they are to communicate well with your team and to drive better performance in your business. Copying any part of another company’s manual means you lose your competitive advantage, miss specific opportunities to improve your own processes and dilute your corporate image (and may also infringe copyright with expensive consequences). The manuals you copy from may also be out of date and pose legal risks.
NB: If you are using a professional writer, get a written commitment from them that they will write bespoke for your business and not base your manual on that of a previous client. Sadly, it is all too common – particularly in franchising – that cheaper and less professional authors or consultants serve up ‘copy-pasted’ re-hashes of out of date manuals they’ve had ‘on their shelves’ for years. (We always spell out the bespoke content in our contracts with clients).
Getting the tone wrong.
It is important to get the right balance of ‘tone’ in your manuals. (I.e. too bright and friendly can seem less official than needed; too simple might seem patronising; too strict might seem aggressive; too complicated might be confusing; etc.). This is particularly important when writing franchisee operations manuals, due to the independent status of the audience.
Using too much legal or academic language.
Good operations manuals should communicate clearly with readers and so be useful. Overly convoluted legal or academic language (or jargon) confuses and alienates readers and really isn’t necessary except in legal documents and statutory policies (and even they benefit from being written in plain English). Use language that’s clear and easy for your audience to understand.
Adding too much technical detail.
In a similar point, too much technical detail also confuses the reader if they don’t need it. Writers sometimes get carried away adding all the detail they know irrespective of whether readers need it or not. (E.g. if a production worker only needs to know to turn one knob before another, there’s no point telling them the machine’s specifications too).
Under or overestimating the audience.
It’s easy for senior managers to take things for granted when writing operations manuals and so assume everyone has a basic level of knowledge and skills that they don’t need to cover. The best operations and franchise manuals are written as if all readers are new to the business and so every step of every process is explained (within reason). Of course, it’s equally important not to underestimate your readers to the degree that manuals appear condescending (particularly when addressing savvy senior staff or independent franchisees).
Not being thorough.
Businesses operate following a ‘chain’ of many processes that all rely on one another to some degree. And that chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So, it’s important to cover ALL your processes in manuals, however trivial some might seem.
Taking a side.
Perhaps unbelievably, we’ve seen manuals that aggressively chastise staff (or franchisees) and that are negatively authoritarian (no doubt those writers had legitimate frustrations to bare!). A good manual is neutral, it doesn’t rant or take sides and isn’t about ‘us versus them’ – it should inform, support and benefit users and use positive language (even when communicating strict rules).
Being too negative.
Try to use positive language to reinforce what readers should do, rather than telling them what not to do. Manuals communicate rules with more impact if they motivate staff (or franchisees) to do things right instead of browbeating them to stop doing things wrong. Positive language makes readers feel supported and thus more likely to use and follow your manuals.
Confusing ‘policies’, ‘procedures’, ‘guidance’ and ‘reference’.
Each serves a different role and should be presented separately and in different ways in your operations manuals:
Policies list rules (essential but dull texts in legal language);
Procedures tell staff how to do each job step-by-step (so use plain English and simple, clear and engaging design formats);
Guidance mentors staff to do things in a better way (so often uses informal language and interesting graphics and callouts);
Reference provides technical detail to back up policies, procedures and guidance (so needs to be presented in ways that allow quick access to information).
If you confuse these, your manual will be impossible to follow.
Using boring or confusing formatting.
Manuals are clearer when they use a consistent set of impactful formats to quickly communicate with readers. Keep long passages of text to a minimum by using clear page formatting, headings and subheadings, colourful graphics, tables, bulleted lists, checklists, quick-reference cards, photos, illustrations, callouts, real-world examples, quotations, points of information, charts etc. to communicate the same things in more engaging ways.
Being inconsistent.
Operations manuals are easier to follow if they are consistent in tone, style, presentation, formatting and level of detail. E.g. if readers expect procedures to be presented as colourful quick-reference cards (because that’s how most appear in the manual) they might ignore procedures that are just in plain text.
Using too many authors and different voices.
In a similar point, better manuals are written in one ‘voice’ throughout. If you use too many writers with different styles, your readers will become confused.
Not explaining the reason for things.
It’s difficult to get staff to follow instructions they don’t believe in or don’t find important. Manuals should contain a degree of explanation that tells your Team why you’re asking them to do things, why those things are important and how they benefit everyone. (This doesn’t mean you need to justify every process, just give readers enough background to motivate them).
Detailing procedures that are untested.
Operations and franchise manuals should be authoritative and incontrovertible blueprints of how to do things right in your business. If a manual is peppered with procedures that sound good in theory but haven’t been tested ‘on the shop floor’ – and any of those fail – the authority of the entire manual will be jeopardised.
Losing steam.
It’s quite common for operations manuals to be full of wonderful detail and design at the beginning but much less towards the end because the writer has ‘run out of steam’. You can avoid this problem by planning your manual carefully, so it’s easier to switch between working on different parts when you get bored - or by getting a professional (like us) to do it all for you.
Not getting advice from specialists, when necessary.
It really is a false economy not to get advice from specialists, like us (such as health & safety experts, employment law consultants, manual-writers and solicitors, etc.), when you need it because: the risks you expose your business to without qualified advice can be far more costly than their fees; and specialists will often advise you how to do things in better, quicker or less expensive ways.
Poor structure.
Operations manuals and franchise manuals are easier to follow if they are structured in a logical way that makes sense to readers (usually in the same order your operation flows from opening, through delivering your products or services, to closing each day). You should also take care to root each role in one clear place within your manual (or provide each role with its own separate booklet), so readers don’t have to search the entire volume for random pages mentioning their job.
Not separating sections or roles.
Manuals work better if they’re separated into several smaller sections or booklets detailing one role or department. Senior managers (or franchisees) may need access to everything, but other staff (or a franchisee’s team) only need instruction in their own jobs – and any more would just be confusing. It’s better to give EVERY team member a booklet for their specific role (that they’re more likely to read) instead of sharing a ‘heavy’ departmental manual.
Not distributing enough copies.
Some organisations just give full volumes of manuals to senior managers (or franchisees) and expect them to disseminate the information to their staff. Those departmental manuals tend to gather dust because the frontline staff they’d benefit can’t easily access them. If you want to improve the performance of your team, it’s better to put relevant sections or booklets directly into the hands of every team member.
Poor indexing and reference.
However you publish your operations manuals, readers must be able to find what they’re looking for quickly. Include detailed contents-lists and indexes in your manuals and ensure online versions are searchable and hyperlinked.
Not integrating manuals with training and other tools.
Operating manuals need to become ingrained in your Team and corporate culture. Most people can NOT absorb a detailed manual just by reading it. This means building a set of tools that integrate manuals with everything you do. These tools might include separating sections for managers, booklets for supervisors and mini-booklets for line staff; quick-reference cards; operational signage; culture signage; AND (most importantly) training.
Not updating manuals often enough.
An operations manual can only remain an authoritative and incontrovertible blueprint for your success if it’s kept up to date. Anything that’s obsolete will undermine the authority of the entire manual and will filter through to the tools (training etc.) based on that manual and undermine them too. You should review and update manuals at least annually.
Detailing very changeable things in the main body.
Operations manuals that contain lots of changeable information go out of date sooner. Separate the most variable elements of your operation (e.g. prices or product specifications) from the main body of manuals using appendices, individual reference documents and separate booklets etc. You can still point to and regulate the use of those external resources in the main body of the manual, but the main text won’t then be affected if external resources slip out of date.
Not launching new operating manuals or procedures in a considered way.
Even if new manuals underwrite major changes and enhancements to your organisation, you won’t magically improve anything just by handing them to managers. Staff at all levels in all businesses resist change to a degree. You need to introduce new operating manuals and procedures in ways that motivate staff to use them because they believe in what you’re trying to achieve and feel they’ll benefit too.
Launching manuals that are already out of date.
Believe it or not, some organisations launch ‘new’ operations manuals or franchise manuals that are already out of date because they’ve taken so long to write (or because they’ve been copy-pasted from other companies’ manuals – which is sadly an all too common practice of less professional authors and franchise consultants). If your manuals do take much longer than expected (which is common when trying to write them in-house), take extra time to review and update them before launch.
Not measuring the performance of manuals.
It’s important to keep checking and testing that your manuals work as well as you intended them to. Assuming the bulk of your manual was right when it was published and remains so, it’s still good to refine a few things as you go along. Just be careful not to constantly change so much that your manual loses its authority.
