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RE: Convincing management of the value of documentation?
Subject:RE: Convincing management of the value of documentation? From:"Margaret Cekis" <Margaret -dot- Cekis -at- comcast -dot- net> To:<keithpurtell -at- keithpurtell -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:24:47 -0400
Keith Purtell asked about "Convincing management of the value of
documentation?"
"...the production manager took me aside and said...every time someone new
is hired, an existing employee has to drop what he's doing and spend more
than a week training the new
person. The production manager asked me to start work on some of our core
procedures and said this would give me a chance to be promoted.... Are there
references I can use to illustrate for him why a documentation manager is
worth the investment?"
_______________________________
Keith:
I think you may have to rely on help from the production manager. If the
production employees who work for him are being kept from doing their jobs
when they have to train new employees, he is the one whose budget and
schedules are most impacted. Maybe he will help you quantify what a week of
such training costs: What is the average weekly salary cost of the employees
doing the training? And how much time would be freed up if new employees
could be given a procedure guide to follow, and only ask questions of the
other employees when needed? 80 or 90%? How often are there new employees to
train? (If salaries are lower than other companies around you, turnover may
be high.) If having written procedures would save 3 or 4 weeks salary cost,
that may be enough to get the CEO's attention. Or maybe the production
manager could get the CFO's attention with the numbers. How many weeks of
your salary would it cost to produce the procedures? The difference would be
your ROI.
Margaret Cekis, Johns Creek GA
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