Does Anyone Know WTF Is Going On??

Once upon a time there was a young woman who worked in retail shops. Over a span of fifteen years she held just as many positions, from cashier to store manager and everything in between. Clothing stores, book stores, accessory stores, department stores, and video stores (Google it if you’re under the age of twenty-five). Despite the variety and marked differences of these staples of capitalism they all had one thing in common, never failing, every time… a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Manual. It was usually a cumbersome three- or four-inch binder outlining all of the processes for all of the operations within the store. Not to be confused with the Training Manual or the Employee Handbook, the SOP Manual is a comprehensive guide that, in a nutshell outlines how to do all the things, when to do all the things, and who should do each of the things. Not sure who the point of contact is for a given issue? Refer to the SOP Manual. Want to know the proper order of tasks to open or close the store? SOP Manual. Unsure if a customer is allowed to use the store’s restroom? You get the picture.

Over the next ten years or so, the young woman moved into administrative roles within the small business sector. Human Resources, Bookkeeping, Communications, and Management. These roles relied heavily on systems, processes, and accuracy within those frameworks, but oddly enough what they all had in common was a glaring lack of SOP manuals. Not one single administration office had even a paragraph for employees to refer to for this information. Time and again, the young woman (plot twist: it was me) was shocked to find this documentation lacking. So time and again, the young woman (I) started creating documents and spreadsheets chronicling her daily, weekly, monthly, etc. job functions including how/when to generate reports, organizational charts and spreadsheets of point people, and walkthroughs for software platforms.

The objective for creating these types of documents is two-fold. First, having an SOP Manual is just good sense where efficiency is concerned. If employees are running around trying to find out who does what or how to do a thing, they are not only wasting their time (and your money), but they’re interrupting other team members and wasting their time (and your money). In a bigger picture sense, SOP Manuals provide new team members (including contractors) with the tools necessary to hit the ground running, especially when they are taking over responsibilities that previously fell to you or they are replacing an employee in a well-developed existing position. For example, if your Social Media Manager has perfected a process to keep your socials up-to-date and engaged and she’s the only one privy to that process guess what happens when she transitions out… the process goes with her and the next person has to start from scratch. Again and again and again, with every position on your team. That’s a lot of lost productivity, inconsistency, and again... waste of your money.

A manual does not need to be exhaustive, as it can be built upon over time. A simple one- or two-page document can be sufficient depending on the scope of your operations. The goal is simply to get the operations on record to avoid a logistical nightmare when your business grows to the point of possibly needing one of those huge binders. Unfortunately, I have worked for companies conducting business in such a hellscape, which definitely played a part in my choice to leave them. Setting your team members up for success by providing them with appropriate organization tools is a huge factor in retention, and we all know turnover gets pricey.

I want to hear from you! Do you document your processes so anyone can come in and hit the ground running or are you winging it? Tell me in the comments or shoot me an email.

- Candi

Work With Me

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