Policies, Procedures and People

A recent topic of discussion in my financial management class was that of policies and procedures.  Although our focus was on financial policies and procedures, I couldn't help but think of the number of times I was in a situation where had proper consideration been given to creating policies and procedures for people much confusion could have been avoided.

As I have discussed communication previously I wanted to touch on the fact that taking the step of creating actual documentation of processes to follow and sharing it with the appropriate parties is by far the simplest way to decrease on event confusion.  From my experience an area where this is often over looked is when it comes to people (volunteers specifically) on event.

The best part of policies and procedures is that they do not have to be neither fancy or include high level technical language. Simply answering the following questions gives you a great base to go from:

1. Who will play a role on event? (i.e. staff, volunteers, suppliers, etc.) 
2. What tasks are to be completed? (i.e. set-up, tear down, cleaning, crowd control, supplier management, etc.) 
3. What steps needs to be followed for successful completion of each task?

Once these questions are answered, align the person responsible with the tasks to be completed and assign a time line for completion of specific tasks.  Taking this one step further and identifying for each individual what they should move on to upon completion of their task (if their shift on event is longer than what they were assigned) helps to keep them engaged and focused.  If this document is accessible to everyone, expectations are clear and people can be managed and moved from one task to another as the event demands.  

I recognize this is a very simple way to consider the management of individuals on event, but why make it more difficult than it needs to be? I am still building up my experience of course and would appreciate any input from those with more experience than I on what you have found to be successful in this area.