In this guide
- Review the actual deliverable
- Pass one and two: evidence and audience
- Pass three: the action implied
- Use an exception log instead of a vague approval
- Pass four: access and comprehension
- Recheck the changed surface
- Pass five: ownership and maintenance
- Make the decision explicit
- Worked example: a poster that is ready to revise
- Reusable work card
- Sources and scope
- Continue with a different task
Review the finished payroll-card handout for evidence, audience, action, accessibility and ownership.
Review the actual deliverable
The final PDF, web page or slide deck can differ from the approved text. A missing footnote, renamed button or clipped caption can change the meaning. Run the review on what employees will receive. The purpose is to find consequential mismatches, not to create a decorative checklist that everyone signs without reading.
Pass one and two: evidence and audience
Check every fee, timing, availability and required-action claim against its source. Confirm that the source applies to the employee group the material addresses. A current brand page does not validate a particular employer’s process. Mark unresolved claims and either obtain the right review or remove them before distribution.
Pass three: the action implied
Read headings and controls without the body text. Ask what an employee would think they must do. Confirm that offered options are presented accurately and that a link to independent information does not look like an official login. Do not ask employees to provide sensitive information to a publication contact.
Use an exception log instead of a vague approval
If the reviewer finds several issues, record each with the claim or asset location, the consequence for readers, the owner and the evidence needed. A general comment such as “looks good after edits” can be misread as approval before the edits are complete. The final decision should identify any remaining conditions. If an unresolved issue affects a required employee action, the responsible owner should decide whether the material can be narrowed or must wait. The checklist should make that decision easier, not replace it with a score whose meaning nobody has defined.
Pass four: access and comprehension
Test readable text size, logical headings, meaningful links and a text equivalent for diagrams. Check the exported file for lost links and unreadable characters. Provide an established route for people who cannot use the digital format. This editorial pass is not a certification of legal accessibility compliance.
Recheck the changed surface
A correction can introduce a new problem elsewhere. Shortening a heading may change the social preview; moving a condition may affect reading order; changing a link may make the printed route obsolete. After edits, recheck the affected surfaces and the original issue. Keep the review proportionate, but do not assume a designer’s confirmation that the file was saved proves the change worked. The final deliverable is what employees will see. A clear record of the last reviewed version also helps prevent an earlier draft from being attached to an email after the correct file has been approved.
Pass five: ownership and maintenance
Confirm the real responsible owner, current contact and version. Record what triggers the next review and where the master is stored. Ensure outdated controlled copies are handled under the organization’s policy. A handout without an owner is likely to remain in circulation after its evidence changes.
Make the decision explicit
The review outcome can be publish, revise or hold. Record why a consequential issue remains unresolved and who can answer it. Do not treat a deadline as evidence that a claim is safe. A smaller accurate notice is often more useful than a polished document containing an unsupported promise about employees’ wages.
Worked example: a poster that is ready to revise
Consider a fictional break-room poster with a heading reading “Your new pay account,” a QR code labelled Continue and a small paragraph saying the material is an independent explanation. The body includes a properly sourced naming statement. A text-only review might approve that sentence while missing the message created by the design.
The evidence pass finds no support for a new account. The audience pass finds that the poster does not identify which employer program it concerns. The action pass finds that Continue looks like the beginning of an account process. Those are three separate problems; increasing the disclaimer font would not fix all of them.
The revised concept uses a task heading: “Where to find current payroll-card information.” It names the employer’s approved material location and provides a readable non-QR route. The independent publication appears as optional explanatory reading, with its role stated clearly. Any employer-specific instruction remains subject to the responsible owner’s approval.
The access pass checks the actual printed size and confirms that the route can be read without scanning. The ownership pass records the document version, master location and replacement owner. If the employer route itself has not been verified, the decision remains hold even though the design problems have been corrected.
This example illustrates why a final review must examine the delivered experience. A source register, an attractive layout and a disclaimer each solve different parts of the problem. The useful output is an explicit decision with outstanding conditions, so a deadline cannot quietly turn “revise” into “approved.”
The final review record can now be specific: unsupported account heading removed; action label replaced; destination still awaiting employer confirmation. The designer can finish the layout while the responsible owner resolves that remaining dependency, but the distribution decision stays on hold. When the destination is confirmed, the reviewer checks the actual exported link and records the approved version. This separates productive parallel work from premature publication and gives the next colleague a decision they can understand without reconstructing the entire review conversation.
Reusable work card
Use these prompts in your organization’s approved process. They request no private account information and do not authorize a payment or account change.
- Check the final exported deliverable rather than relying only on the previously approved source text.
- Verify consequential claims against applicable evidence and remove anything still awaiting an accountable answer.
- Read headings and controls alone to identify actions an employee might infer from the visual hierarchy.
- Review text size, headings, meaningful links and diagram alternatives in the actual delivery format.
- Confirm a real owner, current contact, version and process for retiring outdated controlled copies.
- Record a clear publish, revise or hold decision and the evidence supporting it.