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One of the key elements to making policies and standard operating procedures actually useful is to share your SOPs with your employees. While this sounds obvious, a lot of organizations create old-fashioned SOP documents and employee handbooks only to store them in a binder somewhere that lives in a file drawer with the extra pens and post-its and only gets dusted off for the odd training or to add an update no one reads. read more... about Share Your SOPS How You Need To, When You Need To
Wednesday, March 3, 2021Jargon are words and phrases that are common to specific jobs and industries, but that many people won’t understand—also known as “Geek speak”. Examples of jargon are everywhere. For a fun list check out The Original Hacker’s Dictionary . Here’s our favorite new term from that list: “ BOGOSITY n. read more... about Tip -- Avoid Jargon in Your Employee Manuals
Wednesday, March 3, 2021We’re amazed at the number of people who really want to develop better standard operating procedures for their organization, who clearly understand the benefits of standardized procedures and who even have management mandates and funded projects to develop or update their policies and procedure manuals. read more... about 5 Ways to Finally Get Your Procedure Manuals Done
Wednesday, March 3, 2021Two common mistakes people make when writing policies and procedures involve opposite sides of the same coin—Not enough detail or Too much detail. Some policies and procedures fail because they are so vague and generic that people can’t use them. Other policies and procedures are so long-winded and complex that people can’t follow or understand them. read more... about What’s the Right Level of Detail for Procedures and Work Instructions?
Wednesday, March 3, 2021There is a simple and powerful step you can take to dramatically increase the usefulness of your standard operating procedures, Operations Manuals, and Employee manuals. You can make it easy for employees to get help or ask questions by adding a Help Line. If you build a “Help Line” into your procedures and you will boost in employees’ willingness to use and follow your company’s standard procedures. read more... about Add a “Help Line” to your Policies and Procedures
Wednesday, March 3, 2021As we began in our previous post, 5 Ways to Finally Get Your Procedure Manuals Done, often organizations really want to develop standard operating procedures and improve their operations manuals, but their goal never gets past the “good intentions” stage. There doesn’t seem to be enough time or resources to complete the entire project. read more... about Divide and Conquer to Complete Your Operations Manuals Quickly
Wednesday, March 3, 2021Expanding on the points from our previous post, 5 Ways to Finally Get Your Procedure Manuals Done, if you have been wanting to develop standard operating procedures and improved operations manuals for your organization, but keep getting bogged down, maybe you are trying to take on too much at once. read more... about Start Small and Build on Your Success
Wednesday, March 3, 2021One of the biggest reasons most corporate procedures collect dust and don’t get used is that people sit down and just start writing without taking the time to carefully think it through. If your goal is writing policies and procedures that get read and used—and avoid writing bad procedures—follow this tip. read more... about 5 Things You Must Know Before Writing a Procedure
Wednesday, March 3, 2021Whether you have an official Operations Manual or not, the people in your organization apply policies and procedures everyday to guide decisions and complete their work. You might ask, Why bother to write down standard operating procedures and policies and make them “official”? Many organizations don’t. read more... about Do "Unwritten Rules" Undermine Your Business?
Wednesday, March 3, 2021One of our clients recently discussed problems they had getting their veteran employees to use and follow their company’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) and company procedures manual. As a consequence, errors and inconsistencies were commonplace. It’s only human nature. If you’ve been doing a job for a long time, you think “I can do this in my sleep” and you think you don’t need to follow “procedures,” right? Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. read more... about How to Get Veteran Employees to Use SOPs
Wednesday, March 3, 2021When writing policies and procedures, accuracy rules! Unless your company procedures manual is accurate, your employees won’t use it and your efforts will be wasted. The the most important thing you can do to ensure that your policy and procedure manuals get read and used is to test your procedures for accuracy. read more... about The Best Way to Test Your Procedures for Accuracy
Wednesday, March 3, 2021