Welcome back to the fourth in our series of blogs describing the Key elements in the SOP lifecycle. So far we have introduced the ‘SOP pie’ and have dived into the first two slices. This blog will dig further into the third slice – Format & Writing Style and consider how to format and write the SOP.

This slice goes hand in hand with the previous subject of 'Audience and Authors' to really get to the details of how the SOP will be written. Consider how to format the SOP by thinking about how it will look and feel. Your aim is to get the message across in the best possible way.

How to format and write your SOP

Keep it simple!

Remember at this stage to keep it simple, sometimes the best SOP is an environmental SOP, where a document or procedure is not required at all. Simple examples of this are:

• If you want people to walk in one direction around the laboratory or factory, would an arrow on the floor and walls work? 
• If things need to be done in a particular order, could that be achieved by layout, labelling and numbering? 

These environmental SOP’s used in the correct circumstances can be far more effective than any documented version.

Writing your SOP

When writing your SOP, you need to include as much detail as possible. Ideally, write it as a step-by-step guide that anyone can follow to successfully complete the task. You should also include answers to who, what, why, where as well as details on how to complete the task. Don't forget to include explanations or definitions for any technical jargon that readers may not understand.

A great test for a SOP is to ask someone who has never completed it before to follow the instructions. If they successfully complete it, then you are off to a great start. Any feedback they have can also be used to improve the SOP.

Using a Collaborative environment to create your SOP

We recommend that you use a collaborative environment to write the SOP with the participation of the different contributors. Microsoft SharePoint is an example of such a tool. SharePoint has the concept of "Team Sites", where all the contributors can collaborate to create and maintain the SOP document. You can use "Document libraries", "Task Lists", and "Discussion Groups" to record and log all decisions taken during the creation of the document. Once the final version of the SOP is agreed upon, it can be pushed to a corporate SOP library and targeted at the right audiences using tools like Collaboris' DocRead.

These considerations will be covered in more detail in the second half of the SOP pie, starting with the next in the series - Test & Adjust

Standard Operating Procedures Guide – Distribute & Train

Welcome back to the 6th in our series of blogs describing the Key elements in the SOP lifecycle. So far we have introduced the ‘SOP pie’ and worked through all the way to having our SOP ready and tested in order to start the roll out. This blog will look at how you get the SOP out there and read by the relevant audiences– Distribute & Train

So your ultimate aim here is to ensure that your staff read the SOP, understand it and can adhere to it in their day to day roles. You may also need to include some SOPS training in this process. I would recommend SharePoint used in conjunction with the DocRead and DocSurvey tools as the perfect solution for this activity. The following points describe the main considerations and how those tools can help with each:

SOP Library

There needs to be a SOP Library in your organisation. Documents have to be stored in an easy accessible known area, where they can be referred to again and again. SharePoint is a great choice for this function, it has rich functionality that can help you achieve SOP adherence and compliance. Take a look at this blog - 5 Reasons to use SharePoint for SOP management

Distribution

It is no good having the document sat in the Library if we don’t have a means of telling people it is there and ensuring it has been read. We need to be able to distribute, and alert staff to any new, or changed SOP’s. Using a tool like DocRead to achieve this allows you to distribute your new or updated SOP to any group of employees and then gain a positive confirmation that they have read it.

Training

What is SOPs training? Ensuring your staff have read the SOP, if written in the correct way with an easily digestible format, can be all the training you need. However, this needs to be assessed on a per SOP basis. Don’t assume that one training method will fit all SOPs or all Employees. A low cost but more engaging SOPS training solution would be to send out a training video. Using DocRead functionality this can be done in the same way as sending out a document. It also provides the benefit of getting a positive confirmation that the Video has been watched or Document has been read. In turn, saving a lot of chasing time by allowing you to easily view who has and hasn’t done what you have asked.

Evidence and Tracking

From the simplistic view of wanting to know that all your staff have done all the above steps, through to needing to provide evidence to customers or regulatory body. Whatever your reasons, you will need some form of Management Information reporting on these final stages of getting your SOP read and understood. When done manually using emails and list this can take hours and be very unproductive. The recommendation is to ensure the solution you use can automate this and provide the MI (Management Information) to back it up. Whilst the workflows in DocRead take care of ensuring your staff have read and understood the content. The DocRead compliance cockpit gives you the tools in an easy to use interface that allows you to track that activity and provide the evidence where required.

So now we should be fully armed to get our SOP produced, out there and understood by its audience in order to give us the SOP adherence we are aiming for. So is that it?....No it isn’t!!

Next time we will talk about keeping your SOP current and relevant in our final slice of the ‘SOP pie’ – Review & Update

Welcome back to the 7th and final blog on the ‘SOP Pie’. This series of blogs has described the key elements in the SOP lifecycle. Up to now we have been through the who, what and why’s of our SOP, followed by some fine tuning before getting it out there and understood.

So what is left?... Well, as I touched on in the Test & Adjust blog, Standard operating procedures have to evolve with the environment around them. This blog will look at the Review process,  how you keep your SOP current, and ensure it continues to fulfil its purpose – Review & Update

Be it regulatory, structural, legal, physical, or staff based, the environment your SOP is operating within is almost certainly an ever changing one. We need to ensure that our SOP rises to the challenge of staying current and relevant in order for it to still do its job. How do we achieve this? Let's go through some of the considerations for an effective SOP Review Process.

Self Regulating 

Depending on the SOP, it may make sense to achieve this review and update by making it part of the SOP itself. By that, I mean a process that includes steps or checks against the relevant environmental considerations. E.g. Include a check and update step at the start of the process. Or having variable elements in the SOP that are referenced and looked at the point when the SOP is executed.

Expiry Dates and Reminders

There may be value in setting expiry dates on your SOP documents. This would ensure they are no longer distributed when they are expired or until a review is completed. If using DocRead as recommended previously, you can take advantage of the DocRead expiry date feature coupled with Power automate workflows to achieve this to achieve this.

Ownership

Each SOP or set of SOPs has to have a clear defined owner who is responsible for whatever the agreed review and update approach is. Clear ownership has to be maintained for this over time, ensuring responsibility is shifted as people move around the organisation. As well as ownership of the SOP, in most circumstances there would need to be some ownership of the influencing factors for this SOP.

Managing Influencing Factors

These are the things that have an impact on your SOP. They usually fall into one of the environmental elements mentioned above. E.g. Regulatory. There needs to be a level of management against each of the Influencing Factors for your SOP, with a person, team or process being responsible for keeping up on changes. Identifying each of your influencing factors and understanding how the SOP owner will be made aware of these is key to success in your SOP Review Process.

That about concludes our series on the SOP lifecycle. I hope that the information gives you a helping hand on your SOP creation and maintenance journey, and that the recommended solutions were useful to you.

Happy SOP’ing and thanks for reading!!

Welcome back to the 5th in our series of blogs describing the Key elements in the SOP lifecycle. So far we have introduced the ‘SOP pie’ and worked through the first half and hopefully got to the stage where we now have a the first draft of the SOP. This blog will dig further into the first step of the second half of the pie which is all about getting the SOP out there and used by your audience– Test & Adjust

There would be no point in writing any SOPs, even going through all of the points we have covered so far, and then just pointing people to it on your SharePoint site and assuming it will work perfectly the first time. Nothing works perfectly the first time it is used, especially when people and interpretation are involved.

Test and Adjust

So as with most things it is best to go through a test and adjust phase with our SOP. You will have heard me say this with most of the stages of this lifecycle by now, and I am sure it will be said again, there is no one correct answer for achieving this, but there are some simple considerations to help achieve a successful outcome:

Standard Operating Procedures Guide – Audience and Authors

Welcome back to the third in our series of blogs describing the Key elements in the SOP lifecycle. So far we have introduced the ‘SOP pie’ and discussed Scope & Purpose. This blog will dig further into the 2nd slice – Audience and Authors

So let’s start with Audience

This is an area that is often not considered when creating and updating SOP’s. During the Scope and Purpose stage you should have already identified your audience at a high level. Now when moving into that SOP we need to dig a little further and understand that target audience in more detail.

Onto Authors

Remember just because you have been given the responsibility to create the SOP, it may not mean that you are the correct person to write it. Similarly whilst a head office team or committee may have triggered the need for the SOP, they are often not the correct people either. Identifying the most appropriate person is rarely simple, so here are some tips to help:

Standard Operating Procedures Guide – Scope and Purpose

Welcome back to the second in our series of blogs describing the Key elements in the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) lifecycle where we will consider what is the purpose of a SOP. Last time we introduced the ‘SOP pie’ to help us describe the main areas involved and a high level view of the lifecycle. This blog will dig further into the first slice of that pie - Scope & Purpose.

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What is an SOP?

Firstly, let's define what a SOP is. A SOP is a document that outlines the steps that are required to complete a particular process. SOPs are used in many different industries to ensure that work is done in a consistent and efficient manner. They can be used to document procedures for anything from manufacturing processes to customer service protocols. SOPs can help to improve the quality of work, reduce errors, and increase efficiency by providing clear and detailed instructions for completing tasks.

The SOP pie diagram

To aid our discussion, we've created the 'SOP Pie,' a high-level diagram that illustrates the SOP lifecycle and serves as a comprehensive guide to standard operating procedures.

In truth there is no such thing as a ‘complete guide’ to SOPs, as the scenarios in which SOP’s are used are almost endless, and every situation has too many different variables to be able to list them all. There are however some quite simple considerations, checks and steps to help ensure success.

In each instalment of this guide, we will dig deeper into one of the six ‘slices’ in our ‘SOP pie’. We hope to provide a good insight in order to help ensure you and your organization are successful and efficient when it comes to SOPs.

Don’t miss our next blog which will cover the ‘Scope and Purpose’ considerations of the SOP lifecycle!... All of the posts in this series are linked below so you can easily navigate through them: