Purpose
The purpose of the Management System Manual is to define, describe, and outline the backbone of ECC’s continued efforts to accomplish its mission.
Scope
This Management System Manual is the highest level document contained in the Management System. All of the contents of the Management System are organized under the 5 Elements described herein.
Responsibility
Along with everything else contained in the Management System, all ministry area leaders must ensure the details of this manual are known and understood by all ECC paid staff and ministry area volunteers. The primary responsibility for this manual rests with the Operations Coordinator.
Management System Description
The Management System is the backbone of ECC’s continued development of a strong, capable infrastructure. It enables growth through leveraging and scaling up the talent and expertise of our leaders.
To define the Management System, we must begin with the term Quality. What do we mean when we say something is high quality? Or, what do we mean when we say something is excellent?
The International Standards Organization (ISO) defines Quality as “The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy a defined requirement.” In other words, quality is fitness for purpose.
How does this apply to ECC? What is fitness for purpose? Simply put, Quality is how well we accomplish the purpose. And, of course, our purpose is to honor God by following his teachings. Specifically to be a community that reaches the lost and helps them become “disciples of Jesus.”
So, Quality means getting the job done well. And, getting the job done well is a combination of …
- Knowing the Stakeholder Needs
- Equipping ECC to Meet Those Needs
- Excellent Implementation
- Reliable Inputs
- Clear Instructions
- Efficient, Effective Execution
- Feedback and Continuous Improvement
The main ingredient of the Management System is people. As leaders, we must find staff and volunteers, train and develop them, communicate well with them, and implement systems that help them succeed. The Management System is the framework for getting this done.
The Management System contains the methods we use to analyze stakeholder needs, define processes that meet those needs, and manage these processes to ensure that results are predictable and repeatable.
The Management System also provides the framework for continuous improvement, increasing the likelihood of achieving stakeholder satisfaction. It gives the stakeholders confidence that ECC has the capability to deliver consistently.
Benefits of the Management System
There are many reasons ECC has implemented a Management System.
Consistency – The first is that it brings consistency to routine activities and helps to ensure best practices. What does that mean? One of the biggest challenges in any successful organization is effectively identifying, recruiting, training, and deploying leaders. The senior leader’s ability to constantly communicate and give direction is limited. Even the best leaders can only do so much. Keeping up with an increasing demand for new staff and volunteers requires us to develop and implement systems. These systems, collectively, form the Management System.
Training – The Management System is a training aid that enables quick and efficient training of staff and volunteers. Best practices are established, documented, and made available to everyone needing to know.
Communication – The Management System formalizes our communication infrastructure. Simply put, it provides a vehicle for organizing and disseminating information. Once set up, a “one-stop shopping” simplicity is in place when information is needed to get something done. From how I spend money to how we assess an individual’s spiritual gifts, methods are established and made available, enabling new people to come up to speed quickly.
Improvement – The Management System is a means to manage and facilitate change and improvement. One of the biggest obstacles to flexibility and change for the better is the lack of formal, established methods. It’s very difficult to “rally the troops” around a change or quick tweak to something when nothing is “formally” in place.
Management System Organization
The Management System is organized under 5 different sections or elements, with a manual at the top of the hierarchy.
The Management System Manual defines the “minimum requirements” under each element. For example, under “Management System Administration,” the manual explains that systems are in place to ensure the proper control of data, documents, and records. It refers to a set of procedures that the church follows to ensure the consistent control of data, documents, and records. The Management System Manual also functions as a guide to the system’s organization and hierarchy, helping us navigate and easily find what we need.
The elements of the Management System are listed below, along with a listing of the areas under each element within which ECC has defined minimum requirements:
Management System Administration
- Control of Data, Documents, and Records
- Policy and Procedure Review and Approval
- Access to Information
- Document and Data Distribution
- Version Control
- Record Retention
Leadership Responsibility
- Church Governance
- Organizational Structure
- Responsibility and Authority
- Strategic Planning
- Management System Review
- Environmental Responsibility
Human Resources
- Recruiting
- Position Descriptions
- Training and Development
- Performance Review
- Health and Safety Requirements
Execution
- Ministry Area Operations
- Finance
- Purchasing and Supplier Development
- Office Operations
- Information Technology
- Facilities Management
- Safety and Security
- Project Management
Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement
- Measurement of Results
- Management System Assessment
- Continuous Improvement
- Corrective and Preventive Action