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Craig Cardimon, asked about including justifications in a: Policies &
Procedures Manual: ns
"I have been asked to include some justifications, which I will be given,
for said procedures.
My questions involve *how* to include them:
1. Should I put the justification for the procedure directly after the
procedure? This is what I'm planning to do right now.
2. Should I put all justifications in a separate section?
3. Should I put all justifications in a separate document?
4. If the justifications go into the same document, should the name of the
document be changed to Policies, Procedures, & Justifications? I'm thinking
no.
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Craig:
I always assumed that the policies were the justification, or should include
them. People pay attention to policies that make sense to them. If a new
policy is instituted because the company had been sued because a customer
had misused a product, then I think the new policy should include the
justification for having it and having the concomitant procedure(s) that go
along with it. Therefore, I'd include the justifications in the relevant
policies. Depending on how critical the procedures were, I'd include a
reference to the appropriate policy in the procedure. For example, if a
policy says "The company complies with all relevant customer privacy
regulations, including a list of them, if applicable). In keeping with this
policy, we have instituted specific procedures for handling customers'
financial information. Employees not following the required privacy
protection procedures will be fired." In the procedure intro, I'd put
something like "This procedure is part of the Company's customer financial
privacy protection policy. (Policy No .XXXX-2015)". YMMV
Margaret Cekis, Johns Creek GA
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