By Dana P Skopal, PhD

Organisations have policies in written documents, with many linked to procedures. An organisation’s objective is to make their policies and procedures clear, which means they are easy to locate and understand. However, from our experience, workers do not want to write them or read them.  Did you read the recent updates of privacy policies for all the apps that you use?

Policies exist so workers can know what needs to be done and how to do the work safely, while complying  with regulations.  Staff can read a clear one or two page document that explains the rationale for the systems and procedures, so a writer needs to plan what is the most relevant information to get across.

When writing policies and procedures, think about adopting information design techniques when setting out the information. Place information into logical sections, and provide summary formats so that staff can easily understand the big picture. It can be more practical for workers to understand one page of key points and to know where to access more details if they need them. By layering the details behind each main section or key heading, staff can locate the finer points when necessary.

This layering approach is also referred to by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner when explaining steps to make the audience aware of a privacy policy (https://www.oaic.gov.au/agencies-and-organisations/guides/guide-to-developing-an-app-privacy-policy). As a writer, aim to not get stuck in the technical details and plan to get the key information across to your staff and users.

Remember, when writing a policy, understand your readers’ requirements and make the documents easy to navigate and understand. To check if your document is clear, usability testing (before final release/ publication) with a few workers can help too.

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