Interpretation or Definition of ‘Once Every 5 Days’

[Sandy Simpson]

In one of my documents, I require that all employees review the documents for their area 'once every 5 days'. The employees are now requesting the definition of 'once every 5 days'. The last time I was asked to clarify what the word 'weekly' meant. Give me some ideas before I pull my hair out!

 

[Miner]

The point of confusion may be the following:

• Review at 5 day intervals
• Review once per work week

The former means every 5 days with no leeway. The latter means you can check on Monday one week and on Thursday the following week. I suspect that they want to know how much leeway they have in meeting the requirement.

 

[howste]

We need to know what you want/need before we can help you to state it clearly to them.

I don't want to complicate things, but what exactly is the purpose of the review and to what depth are they expected to review the documents? What are you trying to accomplish with the reviews?

As far as the timing, what did you intend when you wrote the requirement? Do you want them to review them once each calendar week? Do you want them to review them within 5 (business or calendar) days of the last time they reviewed them? Something different?

 

[Sandy Simpson]

The point of confusion may be the following:

• Review at 5 day intervals
• Review once per work week

The former means every 5 days with no leeway. The latter means you can check on Monday one week and on Thursday the following week. I suspect that they want to know how much leeway they have in meeting the requirement.

The intent of the review is for information flow-down requirements insuring that employees are aware of changes to process' and/or procedures that affect the product they are making. When I originally wrote the requirement, it was stated as 'once per calendar week'. This they took as meaning, "I did it on Monday of this week and Friday of the following week so I'm still in compliance with the phrase 'once a week'. That prompted me to change it to every five days. Now they want clarification of that.

 

[howste]

You could say that in a couple of ways. Assuming you are on a standard five-day work week you could say to "review no more that five work days since the last review." Or you could say to "review no more than seven calendar days since the last review."

 

[Sandy Simpson]

You could say that in a couple of ways. Assuming you are on a standard five-day work week you could say to "review no more that five work days since the last review." Or you could say to "review no more than seven calendar days since the last review."

Great idea!

 

[Miner]

Or, even simpler, say "Review on the first day of the work week." If your work weeks are standard M-F, say "Review every Monday."

 

[Vitalix]

Sorry for my 5 cents, but isn't it an overkill? Of course, depending on the number of documents you have them reviewing weekly, they may only review documents instead of making the product... It's exaggeration, but still something to think about.

I'd make a document controller issue an updated document list every Monday morning with highlights on the procedures updated within the last week, so that employees recognize in 5 seconds whether they need a refresher on the procedure or not. In addition, I would pull the "responsibilities" into that document list so that employees could also recognize the documents they actually need to be trained on.


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