The responsibility of designing and developing business documents of Green Heaters Pty Ltd began by consulting with the board to ascertain the organizational requirements in order to develop a guide that will help employees to communicate in a way that meets the expected organizational standards.
The following table shows the types of documents to be produced and the corresponding suitability requirements
As Green Heaters Pty Ltd will continually produce high-quality documents to publicise and market the environmentally friendly heaters I will investigate the types of equipment that can be purchased, this will be either via a contract or outright, depending on the best option, that can produce high-quality documents on recycled paper and with the environment in mind. We would use various software as shown in the table above to design and create the documents internally.
2.0 External IT Expertise
Since the documentation design stage will require the use of specific software application such as word, excel, Adobe Photoshop etc, there will be need of seeking external expertise to help and support the initial document development process and to aid in staff training in the use of the software. The external expertise will include:
- Trainers on software development
- Online tutors and tutorials
- Short courses conducted by external consultants
I believe that “Office Experts” www.accessexperts.com.au would be the ideal firm to use for this as they have a broad range of skills and knowledge.
3.0 Strategies to Ensure Employees Use Standard Documents Productively
- Test templates, obtain feedback and make changes accordingly
In order to ensure that the new standard documents and templates are effectively used, they will be subjected to tests by selected staff to ensure that they meet the staff requirements, well presented and can efficiently be used. Then thereafter, feedbacks from employees will be collected and analyzed to help ascertain the usefulness of the templates and any necessary changes to improve usability (Farooq, and Khan, 2011; Malik, et al., 2013). The feedback will be obtained through verbal feedback, written suggestions through the mail, or suggestion box.
- Provide formalized policies and procedures on effective use of documents
I will provide an outline of instructions and procedures for using the various standard document such as templates, macros etc. to make it easier for the staff to understand and process the instructions effectively (Siponen, Pahnila, and Mahmood, 2010: Forrest, and Sue Love, 2008).
- Provide training services to the staff
Employees that often use the developed standard documents will undergo a serious of routine training on how to effectively use the standard documents. The training will be based on the needs assessment obtained from the test feedback (Cascio, 2018; Cekada, 2010). The IT department will specifically receive training for the software developers to develop and maintain specific software programs used by some templates and macros such as Adobe Photoshop.
- Continuous reviews of the use and effectiveness of the documents
Routine reviews on the use of the standard documents will be conducted to ascertain their effectiveness and to make any necessary changes. The reviews will also assist to identify any training needs amongst the staff.
4.0 Proposed Organisational Policies and Procedures to Govern the Use of Standard Documents
- The standard documents shall only be used by the trained and experienced staff to ensure effectiveness.
- All formal communication and records must be used by the provided standard documents accordingly.
- All documents are to adhere to the suggested requirements for each specific document
- The format and design of the documents shall be subject to change depending on legislation changes. The changes will be handled by the documentation and design team in consultation with the management
- All employees are not allowed to make alterations to the format and design of the standard documents (Dovers, and Hezri, 2010: Shanahan et al., 2011).
5.0 Sample Prototypes of Standard Documents and Instructions
Instructions for petty cash, tax invoice, letterhead, and lave application forms
- Enter correct details in the provided spaces
- If additional space is required, you can use an additional paper which must be indicated and attached
- Please fill in all the mandatory spaces provided
