Getting the Team to Commit to Standards
Purpose
To show the importance of creating standard operating procedures (SOPs), and communicate the importance of the system to your team.
Scope
Important changes in leadership and policy must come from the top down. This is to say, if the managers and supervisors are not using established policies and systems, the employees will not use them either. This guide has been created to ensure that all upper level managers and supervisors have a clear understanding of SOPs including what they are, why they are necessary, the benefits of following them, and some easy ways to communicate this information to the team.
What are SOPs?
Standard operating procedures document the essential tasks in your business including how to do the task, and who is responsible for completing the task. SOPs can be written for every job and task in a business, and can also contain important links and templates to increase understanding and make jobs easier to complete.
Why are SOPs Necessary?
Staffing changes will occur many times in the life of a business. When an employee leaves the company or goes on extended leave, they often take valuable knowledge and routines with them, leaving a potential service gap. Updated and accurate SOPs help to eliminate this service gap by allowing others to complete those tasks and protect the work flow. It is crucial that all jobs and tasks are well documented so that internal changes will not negatively affect clients and customers.
Benefits of Creating and Using SOPs
Documenting every process within your business may seem like a daunting task, but the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. Following are five impressive benefits of using SOPs in your business.
Easy Delegation - Having SOPs for each task eliminates the “It’s faster to do it myself” response. Managers can easily delegate tasks and include detailed instructions simply by sending a link to the SOP.
Standardised Processes - Many questions and situations within your business will be repetitive. Having SOPs in place will ensure that all employees are handing situations and answering questions accurately and consistently.
Better Customer Service - Since everyone in the company is using the same procedures, customers are guaranteed to receive consistently great service no matter who they talk to.
Reduced Interruptions and Training Time - Once they are familiar with the system, new employees will have a wealth of information to draw from and will be able to find answers for themselves.
Business Continuity - With every task and process documented, business objectives can continue uninterrupted through vacations, employee turnover, and even change of ownership.
Introduce Your Team to SOPs
Now that you understand how important SOPs are to your business, it is time to introduce them to your team. The goal is to get the whole team involved with the planning and writing of procedures so they begin to see the procedures as an essential part of company culture.
Start with a Meeting
Schedule a meeting with the entire team (or split up into departments). Use this initial meeting to introduce SOPs and explain why they are important to the business.
Example Script:
"We already have an employee manual, but to really help this company grow and provide great service to our clients, it’s time to take it to the next level by creating an entire library of standard operating procedures. Once completed, the SOPs will help you perform better at your job, protect your clients in case you get ill, and reduce the amount of time you spend training new team members. Over the next few weeks we will all be working together to document our work processes and create a manual that we can all benefit from. This process will also give us a chance to really look at the work we do here to see what is working well, and what we can change to make things easier and more efficient."
Set Goals
Get your entire team involved in creating SOPs by setting achievable goals and timelines.
Goal 1: Each employee should list the essential jobs they perform. The lists should be submitted to management for approval.
Goal 2: Each item on the list needs to be written out and explained as a procedure. This can be a time consuming process, so it is best to set realistic goals for each team member. (i.e. Complete one procedure per week). Alternatively, you can use the lists that employees provide as a starting point, and hire a writer to draft the procedures.
Offer Incentives
Creating SOPs should be exciting and fun. Get the team involved and interested in the new manual by offering incentives and tracking goals as a group.
Example:
Hold a department race to see who can get their procedure lists completed first. Take the winners out for lunch or dinner, or provide gifts as prizes.
Refer to SOPs Often
Make sure the interest in SOPs does not die down after the initial manual creation by incorporating the manual into your company culture.
Make references to it in meetings (i.e. “That’s a great point, Jenny, could you update the procedure so we remember that later?”)
Include procedure links in work briefs and delegation requests.
Include manual access information in new employee induction materials so they begin using it right away.
Set task and acceptance reminders in Way We Do to keep people engaged.
Create checklists in Way We Do to tick off steps completed and refer to SOPs during workflow.
Continue offering incentives for employees who use and update the manual regularly.