Policy Revision Steps for Policy Owners and Writers

Policy Owners review their policies and procedures at least every 3 years to ensure the information remains current, effective, and still necessary. Coordination with the Policy Office is necessary to ensure proposed revised policies and procedures undergo appropriate consultation and approval processes prior to formal issuance or reissuance. 

Once you have reviewed a policy or procedure and determined that it will be revised, take the following steps.

Preparation

  1. Review the Guide to Writing Policy with close attention to the section on Reviewing and Updating the Policy (pg.17). Learn the difference between substantive and technical revisions and be intentional with your updates.
  2. Inform the Policy Office of your intent to make revisions to the policy. Check with them to ensure that you are starting with the latest version of the policy.
  3. If the existing policy isn’t in the current Policy Template, adapt it prior to making revisions. (Note: do not track the changes while adapting information into a new policy template).

Drafting

As the Policy Owner or Writer, you have both the responsibility and the power to develop an efficient, easy-to-understand policy.

  1. While editing the draft policy or procedure, ensure Track Changes is on. Summarize the types of revisions made for later use in the Revisions section of the policy and related communications.
  2. Once the draft is revised, check the draft for adherence to the template (information is in appropriate sections), readability, clarity, consistency, formatting, and other best practices. 
  3. Once you are satisfied with the draft, send it to the Policy Office for initial review.
  4. Once the Policy Office has returned the draft, review their recommendations and minor changes.
    1. Changes based on policy best practices should typically be accepted.
    2. Recommendations should be considered and incorporated as appropriate. Reach out to the Policy Office for further discussion or ideas on how to incorporate their (or others’) recommendations.
  5. Once Policy Office recommendations have been incorporated,
    1. Technical Revisions may have limited consultations, or go directly to the Approval to Reissue phase, on a case-by-case basis.
    2. Substantively Revised drafts can move forward to the Consultation phase.

Approval to Reissue After Technical Revisions

  1. After incorporating feedback from the Policy Office and other consultation processes, perform a final review of the draft revised policy for formatting and other best practices listed in the Guide to Writing Policy Policy Checklist (pg. 12).
  2. Prepare a summary of revisions made and ensure it is included in the Revision section.
  3. The Policy Office will review the documents and coordinate with you to obtain the Responsible Official’s approval to reissue the Policy.
  4. Once approval to reissue has been provided to the Policy Office, they will post the policy to their official website, replacing the old version.

Consultation for Substantively Revised Policy

Stakeholder Consultation

  1. Identify professionals who have related expertise and/or substantive interest in the proposed policy or its implementation. This typically includes individuals, offices, or committees listed in the Responsibilities section, as well as those otherwise affected by the proposed policy.
  2. Include standard reviewers: Campus Counsel, Internal Audit, and HR-Employee/Labor Relations.
  3. Invite the stakeholders to review the draft. A sample message is available in the Guide to Writing Policy (pg. 14). Provide stakeholders with 2-4 weeks, depending on the proposed policy's complexity and urgency, and taking into account other factors such as busy seasons.
  4. Once feedback is received, ensure it is understood, considered, and appropriately incorporated into the proposed revised policy. See the Addressing Feedback section below.
  5. Provide a clean draft to the Policy Office for the next step of consultation.

Campus and Academic Senate Consultations

The Policy Office will coordinate the Campus and Academic Senate Consultations and provide you with their comments. Ensure the comments are understood, considered, and appropriately incorporated into the proposed policy. See Addressing Feedback for more information.

Approval and Issuance for Substantively Revised Policy

  1. Prepare the Draft Issuance Letter (sample on page 15 of the Guide to Writing Policy) and the Summary of Feedback and provide them with the most recent version of the proposed policy to the Policy Office for a final review.
  2. The Policy Office will review the documents and coordinate with you to obtain the Responsible Official’s approval to issue the policy.
  3. Once approval to issue has been provided to the Policy Office, they will post the policy to their official website and send the issuance letter to Cabinet on behalf of the Responsible Official. (Note: Issuance of certain procedure types with limited scope/impact may not be sent to Cabinet.)
  4. Implement your communication and/or training plan. A few examples include:
    1. Forwarding the issuance to interested parties, such as the stakeholders consulted earlier.
    2. Working with Communications to announce the issuance in Monday Memo or another platform.
    3. Offering workshops or training sessions to explain and answer questions about the policy.

Additional Resources

Questions or comments may be sent to the Policy Office.