Workplace Solutions - Policies and Procedures

IS THIS JUST MORE PAPER?

It is not unusual for companies to build their policies and procedures like someone putting together a jigsaw puzzle. As the piece necessary for continuing toward the completion of the puzzle is needed, they find just one that works this time, not worrying about how or if it will fit in the overall picture. The same thing happens in many lending operations. While the basic parts of the process are known by the staff, how individual activities are handled many times reside with members of the department. When personnel changes occur, that knowledge is lost. Likewise it is not uncommon to find that how things are done is the result of inheriting policies and practices from individuals that join the organization from another company. Either way, these policies and procedures were not designed to fit in your organization.

Do you want to find out if that?s what happening to your organization today? Just ask a processor, loan officer, collector or other member of your staff why they do something the way they do. If their answer is Because that's the way we always do it, OR Because that's the way I was taught to do it, your organization is a puzzle with pieces that don?t fit. Where pieces don?t fit, there is RISK.

Developing policies and procedures should be more like building a house. You know what you want, but in order to build it that way, there must be a cohesive process to bring all the pieces together. The outside structure, how the space is organized into rooms, the electric and plumbing, paint and wallpaper must be designed ahead of the actual construction. If not, you could end up with no plumbing in the bathrooms, or a shower in the kitchen. If that happens, you not only pay for the construction, but the cost of the mistakes.

Policies and procedures provide guidance to your staff; just as blueprints provide guidance to builders. They tells your staff how you want to produce or service YOUR loans. Well developed policies and procedures can help prevent the costly mistakes. Furthermore, once in place, they can help identify how the process can be streamlined so that the actual cost per file can be reduced. That's how you TURN RISK INTO REWARD.