Does Your Company Have Written Standard Operating Procedures?

One of the biggest problems when someone takes vacation time is finding someone to temporarily replace them. It takes more than just putting an extra person in the position as they also need to know what to do and how to do it, to properly cover for the vacationing employee. One of the best ways to resolve this issue is to make sure every employee has written standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all the tasks they perform.

After you’ve taken the step of making sure the SOPs are all completed, make sure they are accurate and detailed enough. Have someone try to follow them to complete the tasks to see if they hit a place where they cannot go any further or are not sure how to proceed. Then make the necessary corrections to the SOPs and try it again until someone who doesn’t know the work, can satisfactorily complete it.

There is one final, important item to keep in mind and that is that the SOPs need to be reviewed and possibly updated at least once a year or sooner if you know you have made a change in a procedure. Once you have accurate SOPs for all your employees’ tasks, there shouldn’t be a noticeable affect if someone is out due to illness, vacation or leaves the company.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.