Q. What are Standard Operating Procedures?

What is a SOP?

SOP is the acronym for Standard Operating Procedure, it is a document that outlines the steps required to complete a certain task to specified standards and consistency in your business.  This ensures that employees know what is expected and who is responsible for completing the task, as well as improving efficiency and quality of hygiene standards.

You can create simple step-by-step SOPs for your business operating location and these should be kept on file for all priority tasks in your business, especially tasks that relate to Health & Safety.

SOP Documents Should Include:

• A title which identifies what the SOP is for
• The date when the SOP was created and the date it was last reviewed/updated,
• A document reference so it can be easily located.
• Approval details – If there are a number of employees in your business, the SOP should be approved by Management
• A purpose section – which is a quick summary of what this SOP is for and who should follow it (some SOPs may only be relevant to certain staff members, while others won’t).
• A definitions section –  If there are any words that have the potential to cause confusion, or misunderstandings with the person reading the SOP (e.g Acronyms), outline the definitions to explain each.
• Instructions – the step-by-step process of how to carry out each task in the SOP.  Where applicable, you should include diagrams, or images in the SOP to facilitate a clear understanding of the workflow.

If specialist equipment or chemicals are required to complete the task, this should also be specified in the SOP stating clearly or linking to, a separate SOP which includes what is/ is not acceptable in terms of purchasing/storage/PPE/safe use.

If a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is required, attach the link to this datasheet in the SOP, as well as stating where the hard copies are located, so that there is no doubt about precautions that should be taken and include an instruction to refer to this before carrying out the task. The MSDS is a document that provides employees with procedures for safe handling of the chemicals they will be using for cleaning purposes and what steps need to be taken in case of an emergency (e.g., disinfectant got in the eyes). These MSDS documents are usually provided by the company who supplies chemicals to you.

Links/References – If you have to adhere to quality or safety standards in your business, you should include a reference (and where available a link) to the industry standard that this SOP complies with.  You may also need to reference, or link to other SOPs as a guide.

Include the step your staff should take to notify the management/owner if changes are required to the SOP and have a process for clearly communicating changes to all staff, what the changes are and who requested them as well as the reason.

Keep all your SOPs in one place! Digital copies are best for Master Files but printed copies may be displayed at the place where the tasks are carried out. Have a process in place to ensure digital and printed copies are updated at the same time and schedule regular checks to ensure all SOPs are up-to-date and relevant.

Having a template will ensure all of your SOPs follow the same format and that your staff will easily identify an SOP when they see it and anyone in your business should be able to do a task by simply following the instructions set out in the SOP.

To illustrate this, let’s use an example for a Cleaning SOP for a small business…

Every business should have a daily cleaning schedule for employees to follow, to ensure the facility is cleaned regularly and to a consistent standard to ensure a clean and safe environment for staff members and the general public.

One person’s idea of a cleaning routine will differ from anothers and that’s why it’s important to outline in an SOP exactly what is expected from all staff members and the steps they must follow to ensure compliance.

Business owners should train and demonstrate to all employees personal hygiene (e.g., washing hands) and disinfecting procedures. During this training, employees should learn how to safely use the disinfectants, including “wet time” and the use of PPE, so that they will immediately identify what is required when they see the task on the SOP.

Employees should know the location of each product’s Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). These documents should be easily accessible to all employees in case of an emergency and every employee should know the exact location of these datasheets.

There should be a cleaning log to ensure that all facility disinfecting is being accomplished daily and everyone can see at a glance when the last cleaning had taken place (date/time and by whom).

Considerations before creating your cleaning SOP

• Identify how many times doors/surfaces are touched during a business operating day.
• Identify what cleaning supplies are required to do the task and assess how often they will need to be replenished
• How long it takes to clean each surface.
• Create a Cleaning schedule/order of cleaning duties
• Instructions for Cleaning according to cleaning material and equipment guidelines
• PPE required to be worn by staff carrying out the cleaning task and assess how often stocks will need to be replenished
• How to dispose of cleaning materials used during and after cleaning tasks
• How you will communicate the standards and any subsequent changes to staff

To create your own SOP template, ensure that you include the following:

1. All steps have been outlined
2. Speak with the people who regularly carry out the task to check that nothing has been missed
3. Add instructions and identify any problems or potential for confusion (map the process)
4. Identify inter-dependencies with other SOPs/Processes
5. Confirm when the SOP will go live and how you will communicate this.
6. Identify how you will measure if the SOP is working (audit) – how many times the task happened in a week/how long the task took/were there any problems?
7. Add the process for ensuring the SOP is updated to reflect changes and document what the changes were and why they were made (create a master SOP change log doc).

A Simple Google Docs SOP Template and a Cleaning Schedule Document is included in my Small Business Starter Kit template if you prefer a done-for-you option that you can download today!