How can I document all of my organization’s policies?
Now that you have created a Manual, and added its Sections, it’s time to fill those with your organization’s Policies. Policies are generally written in paragraph form, but have associated properties to assist with organization and documentation. For example, for each policy you’ll determine an effective date, a title, a policy number, part number, and version number.
What are some examples?
Policies are unique to an organization and are written in paragraph form. Below are examples of policy titles, and their associated sections.
- Section: Attendance
- Overview
- Emergency Personal Time
- Attendance Bonus Program
- Section: Leave Policies: Special Circumstances
- FMLA Leave
- Armed Services Leave Policy
- Parental Leave
- Section: Field Incident Procedures
- Precautions for Prevention
- Procedures for Common Incidents
- List of OSHA Guidelines
How do I set this up?
Step 1: On the left hand Admin toolbar, click Information > Policies and Manuals
Step 2: Click on the Manual to which you’d like to add Policies.
Step 3: You’ll configure each Policy within the left hand window. For ‘Effective Date’, give your Policy and effective date, or the date in which this Policy will be enforced by your organization (can be in the past).
Step 4: For ‘Manual’ confirm or change the Manual this Policy should exist in.
Step 5: For ‘Select a Policy Section’, choose an existing Section this Policy should be housed in. If you haven’t yet created that section, you can use the option to Add New Section directly from this screen. You may need to refresh your page if you just created a Section, but are not yet seeing it in the list.
Step 6: Enter a Policy title. This should be more specific than the name of the Section, but no more than 4-5 words.
Step 7: The system will build your Policy Identification Number using the information you put in these fields:
- Policy Number - the number or letter assigned to this Policy.
- Policy Part Number - the number to describe this as a Policy part. This can be used in instances where 2 policies are entered separately, but are related. If this field is not needed, simply use the same number throughout all Policies for consistency.
- Version Number - the number that represents what version of this Policy your organization is on. This defaults to 1 but you may adjust it if you’d like it to reflect a different Version number. Note that as you update Policies in the system, this number will increase automatically with each new Version.
Step 8: If this policy has an attachment, you can add that in the Policy Attachment field. This can be used if there are forms associated with a particular policy or procedure.
Step 9: Add your Policy in the Policy Content Field. Editing options at this step from left to right are:
- Make this text field Full Screen
- Bold text
- Italicize text
- Underline text
- Change the Font Family
- Change the Font Size
- Change the Font Color (pick a preconfigured color, or add a HEX code)
- Change the Background Color (pick a preconfigured color, or add a HEX code)
NOTE: Editing options are more advanced AFTER you initially create/save a policy. Also, if you are pasting your policy from another location, that formatting should remain in tact for you on this screen.
Step 10: When finished, click the blue Add Policy button at the bottom of the screen.
How do I manage this later?
Edit a Live Policy (within VAIRKKO)
WARNING: This method is not recommended, as editing in Draft Mode is the preferred method for making edits. See below for details.
Step 1: From the Manage Policies area on the screen, click the Actions Button beside the Policy you wish to edit.
Step 2: Select Edit Policy.
Step 3: From the Edit Policy screen, you can adjust the fields used when initially creating the Policy:
- Manual
- Section
- Effective Date
- Title
- Policy Number
- Policy Part Number
- Attachments
- Policy Content
Step 5: When finished, click the blue Save Policy button at the bottom of the screen.
Edit a Live Policy (offline, in Microsoft Word)
Step 1: From the Manage Policies area on the screen, click the Actions Button beside the Policy you wish to edit.
Step 2: Select Word Compatible Version. At that time, a Word document with this Policy will download to your computer. You will be able to access it via the bottom of your screen, or your computer’s Downloads folder.
At that time, a Word document with this Policy will download to your computer. You will be able to access it via the bottom of your screen, or your computer’s Downloads folder.
Step 3: In that document, make changes to the Policy, then follow the steps to Edit a Live or Draft Policy, but now you can paste your changes in the Policy Content box instead of making adjustments within VAIRKKO.
Step 4: Click the blue Save Policy button at the bottom of the screen.
Convert a Live Policy to Draft for Collaboration and Editing
The steps for this process are similar to the steps to edit a live Policy. However, changes to a Draft Policy aren’t visible to Employees until they are Promoted/Signed Off on by an authorized Administrator. THIS IS THE RECOMMENDED EDITING METHOD.
Step 1: From the Manage Policies area on the screen, click the Actions Button beside the Policy you wish to edit.
Step 2: Select Create Draft. You will be taken to the Draft of that Policy, but to access it later, you’ll use the Draft Policies tab from the main Policy screen.
Step 3: Make the necessary edits, and add comments to the discussion board on the right of the screen (if applicable).
Step 4: After changes are made, click the blue Save Policy button at the bottom of the screen. THIS DOES NOT PUBLISH THESE CHANGES TO EMPLOYEES.
Step 5: After all parties have made the appropriate changes, and all are agreed upon, click to the Tools & Actions button in the top right corner of the screen, and click Promote/Sign Off. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO CONVERT THIS DRAFT TO A LIVE POLICY, VISIBLE TO EMPLOYEES.
NOTES:
- You have several more editing options when you’re editing an existing Policy than when you were originally creating the Policy. These include alignment, paragraph style, adding a hyperlink, table, image, etc.
- If there are multiple individuals editing a Policy (Live or Draft), you’ll see the initials of those individuals at the top of the content box.
- To make a comment or share thoughts about this specific policy, you can add a note to the message board on the right hand of the screen.
- From the Tools and Actions button at the top right of the screen, you can select Employee View to see how your employees will see this Policy:
VAIRKKO Best Practices
- It is recommended to always edit a Policy in draft mode. This will ensure that the system updates the Version number of a policy.
- For more control over who can Promote/Sign Off on a draft so that it becomes a live policy, go to Configure in the in-app menu at the top of the screen. Just above the Submit button, you can limit the accounts with Sign-Off permissions by adding them here: