Steps involved in Preparation of Office Manual

Preparation of Office Manual

The preparation and/or revision of an office manual are entrusted with an individual executive in a small size organization. A committee is formed in a large size organization to prepare and/or revise the office manual. This committee consists of heads of various departments.

The formation of a committee or assigning an individual is depending on the policy adopted by the enterprise in the matter of manuals preparation. It must be remembered that revision of office manuals is as important as the preparation of the manuals. It is expected that update information and instructions should be given in the office manual. If so, it ensures effective performance of office operation.

The manuals may become obsolete and so discarded by the employees if there is any absence of arrangement with regard to revision of manuals. The qualitative information should be included in the manual. If not so, the preparation and/or revision of office manual are wastage since production of manual is a quite expensive. The preparation and / or revision of office manual is very easier and less expensive if the office manual is prepared as in the form of loose leaf books rather than bound books. The reason is that only the concerned pages are extracted for revision and substituted easily.

Steps involved in preparation of Office Manual

A standard and an orderly procedure should be followed while preparing office manuals. If so, the prepared manual can ensure complete, accurate and comprehensive. The preparation is to be completed within a reasonable period of time. The following steps may be taken while preparing an office manual.

1. Assigning an Individual or Formation of a Committee: An individual is enough to prepare an office manual in small size organization. A committee has to be formed to prepare an office manual in the case of large size organization. So, this formality is carried on according to the size of the organization.

2. Preparing the list of Subjects Covered: The responsible executive(s) prepare the list of subjects to be covered in the preparation of of5ce manual. List of subjects vary according to the type of manual preparation. The subjects and topics to be covered should be classified and arranged into logical headings and sub-headings.

3. Receiving Ideas and Suggestions: Ideas and suggestions have to be received from the office manager, managers of functional departments and supervisors as per the subjects covered. A time schedule is to be fixed for receiving ideas and suggestions.

4. Verification of Ideas and Suggestions: Received ideas and suggestions have to be tabled and verified of the same. Irrelevant and impracticable ideas and suggestions have to be rejected with due care. The responsible executive(s) can contact functional manager(s) if there is any non-receipt of relevant information from the concerned department.

5. Classification and Arrangement of Information: The collected information and data have to be classified and arranged under each subject and write them up subject wise. The information and data included should be accurate and complete in all aspects.

6. Prepare a Draft Manual: A draft manual is prepared by considering the relevance of the concerned manual. A limited number of copies of such draft manual is typed or cyclostyled for circulation. A copy of draft manual is circulated among the office manager, functional manager, union representatives and top management executives for their criticism. Such criticism is used for the betterment of the preparation of office manual.

7. Revision of the Draft manual: Suggestions and criticism have been incorporated in improving the manual by adding new points or deleting some points. The style and standard of language can be improved by the process of revision of the draft manual. As for as possible short sentences and words can be used. The language should be simple and lucid.

8. Submission for approval of Top Management: The revised manual has been placed before the top management for approval. Approval of top management is necessary before the mechanical production of the manual.

9. Mechanical production of the manual: Arrangement for the mechanical production of the manual should be made after the draft is approved by the top management. The type of mechanical production of manual is depending upon the number of copies required. Details regarding size, paper cover and binding should be considered before the actual production of manual. The manual should preferably be in a booklet form.

10. Distribution of office manual: Copies of office manual are distributed among the employees of an organization on need basis. A few copies are maintained as spare copies which will be used for the future reference and further revision of the manual.