Introduction

You must comprehend how things will be done whether you are launching a firm or attempting to improve an existing one. What duties do you have to complete? Who is responsible for them? What are the most effective methods for tackling these tasks?

The first step in systemizing your firm is to figure out how to answer these questions. There are no guarantees here, but the establishment of standard procedures and workflows that describe how your day-to-day activities work and can be followed by others in the business is your greatest opportunity for success.

Standard operating procedures is a collection of instructions that defines all of a process or procedure's important phases and activities.

Creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) gives your team the knowledge, methodology, and rules they need to keep building on what you've already accomplished while also helping you to extend your empire.

SOP implementation is viewed by some businesses as a surrender of control. Functional control, on the other hand, is distinct from creative or directing control. Relinquishing functional control simply means focusing on and addressing greater challenges inside your expanding firm rather than the day-to-day mundane job. SOPs, on the other hand, may be viewed as a way to improve your functional control - by creating standard operating procedures for certain parts of your organization, you're effectively educating your staff how to do what you want them to do, leaving little space for errors or system failure.

Objectives & Benefits

Managing the early days of a firm, especially whether it is linked to the manufacture of goods or the providing of services, may be a difficult endeavour for a young entrepreneur. In the lack of a framework, a firm can devolve into a fish market. This is where a well-crafted SOP may save your business by guiding you to attain performance homogeneity.

a) Improving performance

Setting up SOPs allows you to monitor and improve your company's total efficiency, which is the only goal of any entrepreneur. It instructs your personnel on how to follow processes that ensure uniformity and increase the market worth of your brand. Standardizing the technique also improves work productivity by allowing workers to continue working without having to stop and ask questions.

b) Compliance & Quality

By decreasing mistakes, decreasing differences, and even duplicating service, documented processes help you simplify operations and keep an eye on the quality of your products. If you don't have a framework, it'll be difficult to explain your compliance structure to regulating bodies, and your company will appear suspicious.

d) Relationship with the client

A well-written SOP comprises your company's organogram, which explains everything and details every detail. Managing your clientele is an art form, and SOP may aid you in this endeavour. Your clients will enjoy this "self-defined system" and will be more confident in doing business with you in the future if you have a structured document outlining a standard manner of dealing with client engagement, managing enquiries, branding, and follow-ups, to mention a few.

d) Personnel Management

If one of your experienced employees departs abruptly or goes on unforeseen leave, you'll have a difficult time training him for the job, and your production will suffer as a result. A well-written SOP may save your company's life since it allows employees to quickly refer to the documentation and get to work. This can also help you save money on training; however, the intricacy of the duties will determine how much you save.

e) Expansion & Development

Your future success is dependent on the items and services you provide to your customers. In the absence of a standard operating procedure, the quality of your items would undoubtedly vary, perhaps resulting in significant losses. Furthermore, if you want to develop many branches in different locations, you must maintain the quality of your product. Because all operating manuals are the same, having an SOP allows you to reproduce work practices across numerous locations.

Initial Requirements

SOPs don't happen overnight; they need time, effort, and inquiry into your essential business processes. You can't just sit down and begin creating your SOPs on any given day. It would need some preparatory investigation, reflection, and planning. While generating SOPs may appear to be a simple concept, failing to follow a specified procedure and writing a poorly written SOP can have a big impact on your business. As a result, you'd want to make sure everything is in order.

Here's what you need to do before you begin the SOP creation process.

A. Create an organizational chart: This is a must-do first step. You must construct an organizational chart regardless of how tiny your company is. Break down your organization's many functions, determine who will be responsible for what, and make the line of command clear. This is your opportunity to establish responsibility. The whole concept of SOP is that you may delegate important responsibilities to others. It also assists your employees in determining who their immediate boss is and how they fit in with the rest of the team.

B. Make a list of processes that you feel need improvement. SOP Development: To construct a list of prospective SOPs, you must first understand the processes and activities that each function will be responsible for. Remember that only those procedures that have a clear business necessity or need for standardization should be documented. Once the processes for moving ahead have been established, you should continue your evaluation to see if there are any redundancies or if any SOPs need to be connected when departments are doing the same or comparable tasks. This master list, however, may not be your final list. b As you construct SOPs, you'll see that certain processes may be combined, while others will need to be broken out into separate SOPs. This list's main purpose is to provide you with a crucial starting point.

C. Describe the procedure for creating and maintaining SOPs.

i. Choose a format for your Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Once you've compiled your list, you'll need to start thinking about how you'll develop your SOPS; this is the first procedure you'll need to construct. You must first establish the format of the SOPs. The format is the way you'll define your procedure. Will you utilize diagrams or will you conduct a step-by-step narrative? Or will you employ a mix of the two? After you've decided on a format, you may start working on your SOP Template. In certain circumstances, researching SOP forms online and finding an SOP sample that works for your firm might be advantageous.

ii. Create a comprehensive SOP Template: When building a template for your SOPs, keep in mind that the ultimate aim is for all of your SOPs to look and read the same way, for consistency. However, it's critical to distinguish between the many sorts of processes in each department of your company. Writing SOPs might be one of the most difficult components of the job. It's a good idea to evaluate and comment on at least two templates. Those creating SOPs and those enforcing SOPs must agree on the format and SOP Template as a group.

iii. Create a formal review process: Now you need to think about how you'll go about evaluating the SOPs you'll be writing. Create a structured review procedure that specifies who receives the SOP after it is written for approval. Determine who has final approval power and who is responsible for making procedures successful and publishing them in the organization's quality system.

iv. Figure out how you'll get access to SOPs: Finally, consider how the SOPs will be distributed to staff. Will a physical copy be available to everyone? Or will you make the processes available through a document management system? It's also crucial to figure out who will have access to these SOPs at this time. Now that you've defined your SOP Management process, it's time to consider how you'll get the data necessary to construct the Standard Operating Procedures.

D. Create a content plan for your SOP and work on it

i. Information gathering and sorting: You will not have a comprehensive understanding of all business tasks. For example, you might not be familiar with the finance function's various sub-functions. It is usually a good idea to seek outside assistance in areas where you lack expertise. Subject topic experts can be consulted. They may even have documentation for comparable processes on hand.

ii. Decide who will be responsible for the writing: Second, you must decide who will be responsible for writing the SOPs. SOPs that are poorly worded or do not provide clear instructions will negate the objective of the entire process. This task can also be outsourced. An external consultant may have written multiple SOPs for various firms that are similar. It is possible to gain from their experience. Outsiders, on the other hand, cannot be wholly trusted since they do not fully comprehend the complexities of your firm. You, or your chosen people, must be equally involved.

Areas of Coverage

The broad areas for which SOPs would be required to simplify company operations are listed below.

a. Fundamental Operations

This is, without a doubt, the bedrock of your whole enterprise. The process of producing tangible deliverables for your firm is referred to as core operations. Depending on the nature of your organization, it might refer to the manufacture of items, the methodology of giving services, or the process of producing software. In this sector, standard operating procedures (SOPs) would describe the methods to be followed for the creation or rendering of deliverables. They, more than the other support services, must be precise and detailed.

b. Marketing & Business Development

Business development, in general, refers to a set of actions and procedures aimed at identifying and executing growth prospects inside and across firms. This can involve proposal management, such as the creation of a rationale and plan for the project, as well as inputs and outputs, a schedule of activities, and a logical framework. Overall, it is intended to aid the organization's survival and expansion by finding possibilities and picking the most practical and appropriate ones among them while taking into account existing resources. Locating, creating, identifying, negotiating, and concluding commercial agreements are all part of this process.

c. Customer Service & Sales

The sales operations team is a department inside the sales department that is in charge of support activities including sales forecasting, remuneration, automation, and order and quote management. Sales operations are evolving from a tactical support unit to a more strategic function to improve sales force efficiency and performance. Customer service employees assist businesses in building great relationships with their clients and customers by answering inquiries, assisting with issue resolution, processing refunds, and making recommendations for further products and services.

d. Purchasing

The procurement department is critical to the success of a business because it influences every aspect of manufacturing, quality, cost, efficiency, and timely delivery of items to customers. Its job is to find the most cost-effective materials, supplies, services, machinery, and equipment while still retaining an acceptable level of quality.

e. Human Resources

Human resource management is a role in businesses that aims to maximize employee performance to meet the company's strategic goals. The human resources department's principal task is to ensure that the related firm is properly staffed at all times.

HR departments and groups in businesses often perform a variety of tasks. Recruiting people, training them, performance reviews, motivating employees, as well as workplace communication, workplace safety, and much more are all critical duties of the Human Resources Department. Employee recruitment, selection, and retention are the primary areas on which the HR Department's functions and duties are founded. Human resources managers seek to recruit high-quality employees, choose the best candidates for open jobs, and design rules that help excellent people stay on the job.

f. Accounting and Finance

A finance department's responsibilities include anything from bookkeeping to giving information to supporting managers in making strategic choices. The finance department is in charge of the company's day-to-day transactional accounting. This will entail keeping track of all transactions as well as managing any federal reporting. The financial department is also in charge of managing the organization's cash flow and ensuring that sufficient money is available to satisfy day-to-day obligations.

Drafting an SOP

After you've completed the stages in the SOP development process and created your SOP Template, you're ready to write the SOP by filling in the template with all of the information.

The approach outlined below lays out the components of a SOP in a way that businesses may customize to their own requirements and circumstances.

(0%). The title, document number, and version should all be included in the header. The header should describe the behavior in question and include any keywords that are relevant.

(0.10) The objective should be no more than one or two words lengthy and should define the document's objective. It must be sufficiently thorough so that end users can easily determine what the document covers even if no additional information is provided.

(0.10) The scope of a set of procedures determines who or what it applies to. Many SOPs just address what is in scope without noting what is not in scope, however it is sometimes necessary to specify both.

(3.0) Bibliography and Related Materials: In addition to additional SOPs or government-issued papers that the SOP cites, provide documentation and references needed to comprehend and efficiently execute the processes.

a score of four Definitions: Explain any words that end users might not be acquainted with, as well as any acronyms or abbreviations that are utilized. Keep in mind that though you may be acquainted with a phrase, others may not be. Furthermore, a well-defined SOP might assist regulators in comprehending your system without the need for additional inquiry during an inspection.

(5.0) Responsibilities and Roles: Define the roles responsible for carrying out the procedure's actions. Consider reducing the scope and creating many SOPs to perform the work if there are a lot of roles defined.

(6.0) Procedure: The procedure may be broken down into the following parts.

• Important steps: Only the steps required to achieve the procedure's goal should be included in your SOP.

• Within each major stage, there are individual action steps.

• Notes: These should be presented individually and should contain information that clarifies the procedure and/or duties, as well as any potential cautions.

(7.0) Appendices: These are best used as a flow chart to help clarify processes during an audit for people who learn best visually.

(0.80) Revision History: Keep track of the modifications made to a procedure as well as the rationale (or rationale) for its creation.

Signatures of Approval: These are normally placed on the cover or back page. Some SOPs require several signatures for approval.

Always keep in mind that SOPs should be created from the perspective of people who will utilize them. Here are some simple but crucial rules to remember while writing an SOP that is focused on the end-user.

• Follow a step-by-step framework and write plainly and clearly: Use basic, popular terminology and keep sentences as short as possible. When a simpler, clearer word or phrase expresses the same message, never confuse the meaning of instruction by using highly technical or jargon-filled vocabulary. The simple steps structure may be used to write routine operations that are brief and need few decisions. Long procedures with few options, such as those with more than 10 stages, should be described in a hierarchical steps structure or a visual format. Flowcharts should be used to write procedures that need a lot of decisions.

• Use the active voice and start with the primary idea: Keep in mind both what you write and how you write it. Simple action verbs like "identity," "direct," "assess," and "review" convey the message without the need for interpretation. When framing sentences, avoid using the passive voice if at all feasible, as it has been proved to distract and divert attention away from crucial concepts.

• Avoid ambiguity: When possible, avoid using broad phrases that have no specific meaning. Words like "periodic," "typical," "generic," and "should" do not imply any consistent direction or execution of a command, which is the primary reason for creating an SOP in the first place.

• Use caution when using crucial phrases such as "may," "must," and "should." Remember that depending on the situation, adding the word "may" offers staff decision-making authority and/or flexibility. "Must" is always obligatory, whereas "should" is conditional by definition.

• Make good use of formatting: If your SOPs have a lot of long, thick paragraphs, there's probably a better way to style them. Bulleted items and lists, which focus attention and reduce the reader's speed, are particularly beneficial for specific types of information.

Reviewing the Draft

It's unusual to write a perfect SOP on the first try. As a result, the writer's drafts will need to be approved before being considered final.

Internal Assessment

Every area will not be within your area of competence. If you have a team of employees who are responsible for several responsibilities, such as business development, human resources, finance, and so on, you should have your drafts examined by them first and enable them to make suggestions for improvements. Highly effective managers aggressively involve their people in a never-ending drive to enhance efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and quality.

Review by an outside party

People are increasingly turning to trustworthy consultants outside their business for help, and this is frequently a good idea. They can provide you with guidance based on their technical expertise and experience. Give a copy of the SOP draft to your advisers. Request that they make any adjustments that may improve the clarity and effectiveness of the document. In many circumstances, the procedure drafting process boosts contact with advisers to previously unheard-of levels. As needed, revise the approach to include feedback from your technical advisers.

Implementing the SOP

Implementation planning

You've completed the last draft of your SOPs. Before you begin the real implementation, you must first complete a few tasks.

A. Analyze any potential issues that may arise during the procedure.

Once you've written down your procedure, consider whether anything may go wrong. And, if things go wrong, where would the failure most likely occur? You can do the calculations if you're utilizing standard operating procedures to regulate a manufacturing process that can be readily accounted for with figures. Perhaps your process produces a high volume of output but puts pressure on distribution? You have a better understanding of your company and can make such evaluations. The simplest improvements to a process may sometimes be the most successful.

B. Establish metrics by which the SOPs will be evaluated.

To determine if your process is operating well or poorly, you'll need metrics to compare it to. It's not enough to assume the process is running smoothly. We need to know how it is functioning to improve it. When creating SOPs for a sales process, you could consider KPIs like:

• Every week, how many leads are generated?

• How long does a typical sales call last?

• How many conversions do we obtain weekly?

• What are our weekly sales totals?

You may start acting on your queries after you've figured out what they are. You may evaluate the process's success as well as the company's overall goals.

C. Put the procedure to the test

You may put your standard operating procedures into action now that you've outlined them. It is up to you how you implement them, and it is dependent on the resources you have available. Before final deployment, you may wish to do a risk assessment, particularly for your key activities. If you own a software company, this will be a lot easier. If you work in manufacturing, transportation, or a variety of other industries, risk assessment is frequently even more critical, with employee health and safety being a priority.

Putting it into action

Your updated standard operating procedures are now complete. They should have been tested by now, with optimization algorithms incorporated in, and you've double-checked that they're secure.

SOPs must be delivered and published to all staff when they have been approved. If you can afford it, investing in an automated SOP Management system that maintains document control may substantially simplify this phase of the process. SOPs can be delivered online, and receipts of who reads them and when can be automatically recorded.

SOP Implementation: You may provide a date by which your SOPs will be fully operational. Employees should be required to go through the processes and determine their duties before this. A designated person or individuals who will assist the staff with the interpretation should be identified. If necessary, they may be offered training to carry out their obligations following SOPs.

Monitoring: During the first stages of SOP implementation, it is critical to keep a tight eye on the situation. We can only get a true picture of the challenges in implementation and potential solutions if a procedure is followed to the letter. It's possible that some fallacies won't be able to be addressed, and the SOP will need to be revised.

Maintenance and Review

As your company expands, it's necessary to establish some standards for reviewing the SOP for relevance and correctness regularly. Documenting this procedure is the best method to verify that it is standardized and executed correctly. Yes, you were correct. This is an SOP for SOPs.

• Keep your standard operating procedures (SOPs) up to date. Keeping SOPs up to date is the most effective approach to make them useful. The necessity of maintenance cannot be overstated. Keep in mind that your company has just invested a lot of time, effort, and money on these documents. SOPs may soon become out-of-date if they aren't reviewed and updated regularly, which would be a complete waste of your and your team's time, energy, and money. To avoid this, we propose that most SOPs be revised every two years at the very least. Some SOPs may require more regular review, particularly if the process they describe is updated or altered.

• Assist with the process of periodic evaluation. Your list of successful SOPs may increase dramatically over time if your business is large or engaged in a range of process-driven activities. It may be tough to maintain and manage the periodic review dates of each SOP if you're handling SOPs in the double or triple digits (which isn't unusual). Most SOP management solutions have functionality that automatically records and alerts you of each of your managed SOPs' periodic review dates. Even if you just manage a few operations, this "set and forget" ability may save you a lot of time in the long run.

• Optimising the SOPs: Optimising the process over time is an important part of the process creation process. The method should be seen as a dynamic document. There is no such thing as a flawless procedure, and none can ever be. The procedures, on the other hand, maybe as excellent as we make them. It's crucial to remember that we operate as a team, and the processes' strengths and flaws may be discovered by those who observe them daily. During the optimization phase, the team must work together. Your important KPIs may - and should - determine where you attempt to optimize. If you use them to gauge performance, they'll almost certainly aid you in your quest for the ideal procedure. Consider adding other tools and automated components into your workflow as one of the first steps toward enhancing it.

DO’s And DON’Ts

Do’s

• Organize your processes such that they are simple to read and reference. No one enjoys reading a long block of dense material.

• Well-formatted SOPs are doomed by indented numbering.

• Ensure that all-important operations and operations of the firm have defined operating procedures.

• If the document writer does not do the process regularly, the procedure should be "test-driven" by those who execute the activity before final approval. This check allows persons who will be doing the procedure regularly to test the document's logical flow.

• Make sure you have enough room. To minimize page numbers, some businesses lower font sizes, margins, and paragraph spacing so that more material may fit on a single page. Because the writing is too tiny and crucial information is lost, the upshot of this cost-cutting method is illegible SOPs that cannot be used in situ.

• Within each document, the relationship of sops, instructions, forms, and lists should be stated so that users may understand how related documents are connected and where to get a process or instructional information.

• Provide a "document change history" that is appropriate.

• Provide clear, unambiguous directions so that everyone understands what is expected of them. The possibility of deviation is decreased by making instructions essential.

• Ensure that readers can easily interpret written instructions by arranging the material logically, clearly, and succinctly.

• Maintain an optimistic attitude. To make the SOP more interesting and less off-putting, use positive language ("do") rather than negative ("don't"). Negative language makes little sense in SOPs, which are supposed to instruct users how to accomplish something.

Don'ts

• Have someone draft the SOPs who doesn't have a thorough understanding of the operating procedures.

• Put too much faith in the persons in charge of the duties that need to be simplified. It's crucial to include them, but if you leave it up to them, they'll probably make choices that are most convenient for them.

• Teach the how but not the why: Many SOPs teach the 'how' but not the 'why.' This means that business operations are repeated without anybody asking why they are required to do so. Staff members are taught ways to tackle problems that no longer exist over time.

• Drab layout and a lot of text - According to educational studies, 83 per cent of human learning is visual. We all know that learning from a picture is far easier than learning from a page of badly written or confusing text.

• Adding material that isn't useful to the readers to make them more thorough than necessary.

• Repetition and inconsistency across policies: Employees may fail to follow SOPs because they are unsure which one to follow and when.