Policies: accountability, compliance, empowerment, consistency...

My first day on the job a person walks up to me with a question. In my mind the question could have been resolved by following the company's policy and procedure. I asked her, "What does our policy state on that?" Her response was, "I am not sure, what is our policy?" I was shocked!

As I got settled into the job I started to look at the company’s policies and procedures. I asked heads of areas about their policies. Most of the time I was met with a blank stare. After many visits with people it became evident that we were policy poor. We had some but not what we should have to help govern us as an institution of higher learning.

I made a request to have all departments send me their policies. I assured them that we were looking into how we could enhance our policy, procedures and our review process. After receiving the policies I noticed that many had not been reviewed for many years and in some key areas there were no policies.

As I reviewed the policies I came up with a plan. It was a heavy lift for the first round. Here is what we did:

   1. We reviewed all of the policies.

   2. We reviewed all of the Board policies to see if we were out of compliance.

   3. We aligned our college policies with our board policies.

At this point we knew there were state and federal policies that we needed to align with as well. So we aligned our policies with state policies and federal policies and made sure we were in compliance.

Some policies required procedures to accompany them. Years ago I worked with a master mind on policy and procedure building and implementation. He taught me that the policy and procedure should be the same document so they do not become separated and lost from one another. This is a big critical step in the process. So we made our policy and procedure all-inclusive in one document.

Now let me outline how our policy and procedure document looked upon completion. Following is an outline:

BP 1-1: Mission and Strategic Priorities _________________________________________________________________________               BOARD POLICY BP 1-1 

APPROVED:  October 24, 2022 

EFFECTIVE:  October 24, 2022 

REVIEWED:    August 8, 2022 

NEXT REVIEW DATE:  August 2025 

REFERENCES: NWCCU Standards 1.A.1 

RESPONSIBLE DEPARTMENT:  President’s Office __________________________________________________________________________

The president, working with the board, shall develop and approve the College’s mission statement. 

SCOPE This policy applies to Three Peaks Community College. 

PROCEDURES The College President shall promulgate such procedures as may be needed to implement this policy. 

History:  1/4/66; 12/15/80; 9/26/94; 4/24/95; 12/18/01; 3/26/12; 5/21/14; 11/6/2017; 4/23/2018; 10/24/2022

After many years of writing and reviewing policies and procedures this was the result.

Lastly, we implemented a policy and procedure on reviewing. Annually we review a 1/3 of the policies and procedures. So, every three years all the policies and procedures are reviewed and it is documented through a simple annual report.

So in a nutshell, a "policy and procedures review policy" is important because it ensures that an organization's policies and procedures remain current, compliant with laws and regulations, aligned with industry best practices, and effective in addressing changing business needs and technologies, ultimately mitigating risks and promoting efficient operations by regularly assessing and updating them as necessary.

Key reasons to review policies and procedures:

Compliance, risk management, accountability, consistency, compliance, local, state and federal regulatory requirements, empowerment of employees, guiding employees, guiding customers, and guiding suppliers.