You are ready to scale your business, so you will hire people and teach them what to do. Easy, right? But if you have ever hired someone, you know that it is not always that simple. The challenge comes in having capable employees who can do the work without constant input from you.
Do you relate to this scenario?
You decide to hire someone to help take work off your plate. The new employee comes in eager to learn and they have a million questions for you. “Great,” you think,” I want someone who is motivated to learn. They will have the ropes down soon.” However, as time passes, that employee does not become more independent. They continue to come to you with questions, asking you to make decisions, and seeking your approval on their work. As a result, the constant interruptions are adding time to your day instead of clearing your calendar.
Where did you go wrong? Did you hire the wrong person?
It’s Not Them, It’s the System
The problem is that you have trained your employees to think that you are the source of all the answers. Consequently, they think that you need to be involved in all of their assigned responsibilities. To bridge the gap between your knowledge source and their independence, you need a Standard Operating Procedure. Chances are, you already have several processes that you follow to run your business, but without defined and documented SOPs, your team has to come to you for answers and direction on how those processes work. To effectively empower your new employee to do their job, you have to have detailed processes in place. And above all, you need to write them down.
I often tell my clients that if you haven’t written it down, you don’t have a process. It takes time to define each task or process that you use in all of the areas of your business, but it’s worth it! Start by considering the following questions:
- What tasks need to be done?
- How are those tasks accomplished?
- Do you have defined standards or guidelines in place?
- Are there support, training, or other resources available to answer questions and provide more information, or do they need to be created?
- What is the desired result or outcome?
The upfront investment of time and effort to document your processes will have a huge payoff as you can effectively hire and train each member of your team.
SOPs Are Keys to Success
I’ve seen this time and time again. Just recently, the director of a non-profit that we work with was frustrated with the person in charge of fundraising. Although planning and executing events was the reason they were hired, this person hated that part of the job and would often get sidetracked into non-income-producing activities. In addition, it was difficult to hold them accountable during employee performance reviews because there was not a defined job description. Further, there were no defined performance standards on the job requirements, resulting in frustration on all sides.
This situation would benefit from a defined and documented SOP. First, we helped the director create a clear job description outlining the responsibilities and tasks that this employee was responsible for doing. In addition, for each responsibility, we defined and documented Standard Operating Procedures that detailed how the tasks should be done. Finally, we created a training and tracking system that would record how well the employee was performing and areas that might need additional training. This provided direction for improvement and overall accountability. With a strong job description linked to Supporting Standard Operating Procedures, this employee now had a clear understanding of expectations for them and the information for how to do their job successfully.
Standard Operating Procedures Should Cover
- What each person does = clear job description
- How to do the work = defined and documented processes
- Policies and Standards = improvement and accountability
With your Standard Operating Procedures defined and documented, you can provide your next new hire (and your current team!) with everything they need to succeed. It really can be that simple.
Not sure what a modern SOP looks like? We have a course for that! With free templates, step-by-step instructions, and tools to help you succeed, we’ll teach you how to create a powerful SOP for your business. Preview the course here.