Office manual

Construction sites will generally require office facilities to provide accommodation for site managers, to provide space for meetings and to provide storage for site documentation. Site offices are often described as ‘site huts’ even if they are large and well fitted out.

An office manual is a guidebook, printed and bound and/or in digital format, which provides information regarding the organisational policies and procedures that adopted within the office.

It contains instructions for standard practices relating to the organisation, the workplace, the work itself, and the workers. It can take the form of a policy and procedure manual, an employee handbook, or a combination of the two. It will be given to each staff member so that they fully understand their responsibilities, procedures and the standards expected .

The typical contents of an office manual might include:

• A description of the organisation, its objectives and policies.
• The organisational structure, decision-making authority, and so on.
• The layout of the facilities.
• Tasks and responsibilities, such as; mailing procedures, use of equipment, and so on.
• Office rules, such as; recruitment practices, office hours, waste management and so on.
• Emergency procedures.

Human resources (HR) will usually be responsible for compiling an office manual, perhaps with contributions from heads of departments. In smaller organisations, the task might be assigned to an individual. Whoever is giving the responsibility, they must be capable of writing clearly and effectively, so that the manual is easy-to-understand.

Individuals may also be given responsibility for a final review before it is distributed round the organisation, or responsibility for updating it.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

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• Construction organisations and strategy.
• Corporate social responsibility in construction.
• Environmental management procedures manual.
• Equal opportunities policy.
• Human resource management in construction.
• Management structure.
• Office.
• Performance management plan.
• Project handbook.
• Record keeping.
• Site administrator.
• Site facilities.
• Site office.
• Succession planning.
• Types of construction organisation.
• Workplace definition.