Policies & Procedures: First Things First

By Rick Cox

• You need to be sure you are following your Policies and Procedures. If your financial aid office is doing something different from what is in your P&P manual, you need to update it as soon as possible to be consistent with the processes you are currently using.
• As a reminder, you will be held to your written Policies and Procedures.
• The P&P manual should be a team effort. You should have one person ultimately responsible, and you should limit who can edit the manual. However, input should be from your entire team.
• Make sure you notate the date of implementation, as well as the date a policy or procedure was updated.
• Keep it simple.
• Write the policy as if you are not a financial aid expert. This will help to ensure all staff members understand the written policy or procedure. Consider providing it to someone in another department to see if it makes sense to them.
• At a minimum, the P&P manual should be reviewed annually to determine if updates are needed.

Rick Cox is Global’s Executive Director of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance