Getting Started with S.O.P.s
What’s more challenging for your company, finding employees or keeping them? The real enemy of progress is employee turnover. The Construction Industry has the second-highest turnover rate, just behind Retail and Hospitality. A Sixty-Eight Percent Industry Turnover rate means that if your company has 50 employees, you lost 34 last year. Does that sound like your business? If so, you need to start combating the turnover enemy immediately, and one effective way is by examining your S.O.P.’s (Standard Operating Procedures). Put simply, “This is how we do it”. So the question becomes Do you have a written procedure for getting work done your way, the company way? When I ask this question to my clients, the answer is usually “No.” Listen to me closely. If you do not have written procedures, you unknowingly have a sign above your door saying “Chaos is Welcome.” It’s chaos because there is a constant lack of clarity on the process for a given objective. That’s why the most common complaint I hear is “all I do is put out fires.” We assume that people instinctively know how to do their jobs the way we want them done. I’ll go even further and say that bringing others into your chaos of disorganization and uncertainty is a fool’s errand at best and abusive at worst. Who would want to work in chaos? That could be contributing to your high turnover rate. So how do you fix it?
1) Do you know your turnover rate? If you don’t, start tracking it by department to identify the areas that need attention and start measuring the improvement.
2) If you think all your employees know what to do without a written process. Put that to the test. Sample some workers independently and ask for the correct way to do things…..you will immediately see the discrepancies and might be shocked what isn’t known.
3) Set up a meeting with the leaders of your organization and create a list of the ten most important functions your company does. Start with these ten first.
4) Assign each person in that meeting with creating a rough draft of their given SOP. Revise and update over time as needed.
5) Start Incorporating these SOPs into onboarding new employees, Training, Poor quality or execution issues, yearly reviews, etc.
6) If you want help creating a process adoption plan, reach out and I will be glad to help.