Benefits of Having a Well-written Standard Operating Procedures Manual in Place

In today’s economy, organizations require maximizing every cent that has been spent. However, several organizations overlook the benefits of implementing good standard operating procedures (SOPs), which in turn improve their bottom line. As a matter of fact, standardizing operations can bring down costs, do away with errors, reduce waste, and shield against "brain drain" when key employees leave. A quality manual that specifies standard operating procedures (SOP’s) defining practices that require to be followed strictly by all employees and without any deviation should thus be brought in place to sustain quality of products and services while ensuring business growth.

Creating a standard operating procedure manual can turn out to be one of the most essential communication tools a company can employ. 

Listed below are reasons why businesses require having SOP’s in place:

• Act as Crucial Communication Tools: Well written SOPs act as effective communication tools that could be employed for communicating responsibilities to employees in an effective way. 

• Provide Consistency and Quality Control: Rather than pressurizing employees to accomplish tasks, SOPs ensure efficient and effective running of organizations exactly the way it is supposed to. In fact, employees develop a sense of security as they are well aware of what is expected out of them rather than guessing what requires to be done daily.

• Help Augment Productivity: With standard procedures in place, employees are properly communicated regarding what exactly is expected out of them. This helps them to better their performance, which in turn may result in increased productivity. Managers and supervisors can also save precious time as they do not have retrain or remind them of their responsibilities. 

• Cross Training: Every organization has some “key employees” who are responsible for performing certain crucial tasks. However, when these key employees due to some or the other reason aren’t available, the responsibility could be handled and fulfilled by other employees with standardized procedures in place.

• Evaluation of Employee Performance: Evaluating performance of employees without properly documented tasks and processes becomes all the more difficult. Well written SOP’s can help managers clearly identify employee performance while communicate inefficiencies during annual review. 

Preparing well-documented SOP’s requires investment of time and effort. However, the benefits reaped are worth the time spent.