An online policy and education manual can be an inexpensive and rewarding program for many small businesses. May 2000 Many companies create extensive policy and training manuals only to see them end up collecting dust on a shelf or crammed in file cabinets. Printed manuals are cumbersome and the myriad of updates and additions make them difficult to keep organized. An online manual, however, gives employees instant access to answers and procedures. Updating is as simple as saving a new file to the Web server and sending notification by e-mail.
Online manuals are also inexpensive to produce.
Rather than sinking dollars and time into printing, a business can purchase software to create a Web site and host the employee manual in a secure Web directory or an in-office server. Most Web hosts will set up a secure directory at no charge over the phone. A computer consultant can set up an in-house server as a local Web host with little difficulty. As a case in point, Morningstar Communications Company, an 11-person marketing and public relations agency, recently created an online searchable training and administrative resource called STARworks. STARworks not only provides company policies, but also includes the administrative tasks that employees spend hours learning or asking someone else to teach them.