The Guide That Makes Writing a Standard Operating Procedure Simple

Do you feel that your team is spending more time than necessary doing tasks? If so, that isn’t surprising. Too many companies don’t have a set of procedures in place that layout how to handle tasks and set up their employees for success.

That’s what standard operating procedures are for. They’re there to help your team complete tasks efficiently and do things right.

It’s hard to understate the importance of a standard operating procedure in business, so it pays to know how to do it right. Follow the guide below to create process workflows that work well for your company.

Start With the Right Process

Not everything in your company needs a standard operating procedure. Standard procedures are great for maintaining a business standard for work that needs to be of high quality. It doesn’t make sense to spend time optimizing things for business tasks that don’t take much to do or get wrong.

Look through all your current business functions to see how you can apply smart management techniques to improve processes. Look for things that take time to do and can go wrong.

Pick the Goal for Your Procedure

Once you have a procedure to standardize, you need to define your goal. People don’t always have the same goal in mind for a process, so you need to determine what this is before you start.

What makes the most sense as an outcome for a process? You’ll need to ensure it matches your company’s goals. Anything else is a wasted process and should likely not exist anymore.

Pick the Format

Once you have a process and goal to standardize, it’s time to pick the format of your procedure. There are a few routes you can go with this:

• Step-by-step process
• Flowchart with multiple choices based on input

Each process is different, so one format may not work for all your SOPs. Do research to determine what it will take to complete a task to ensure you pick the correct format for your process.

Get Input

Now that you know what format your process is, you’ll need to get input about the process. Your team members are the ones who will execute these tasks, so it pays to learn what they think is the best way to go about things.

Get in touch with the people who will regularly execute your processes. They’ll know more about what it will take to get the task done.

Write and Test the Procedure

Once you get input from your team, it’s time to write your new procedure. Write out each step of your system, taking into account the feedback you received from your team. Check out Zolicity to learn more about this process.

Of course, your job isn’t complete once you write your procedure. Have your team test everything to make sure it works. Take feedback during the testing process and continue refining your design until you create one that works well for everyone.

Now You’re Ready to Create Your Standard Operating Procedure

You can’t afford for your team not to have guidance when completing everyday tasks. They need a standard operating procedure to help them learn how to do things right. Your procedures will help you keep your team on track and ensure every new employee has the information they need to succeed in your organization.

Do you want to learn more tips that will help you optimize your business processes? Head back to the blog to find more information that will help.