If Angie Fuller hadn't discovered the Standard Operating Procedure manual her predecessor left, she wouldn't have known how to do her job.
"My predecessor left the day I started," says Fuller, who is the community outreach and development coordinator at the Allen Foundation. "It was like being thrown into the fire. I didn't know what my responsibilities were."
"Once she'd settled into her new position, she began updating the SOP manual to accurately reflect her evolving role. That way, if she ever left her job—even for a weeklong vacation—someone else could easily take over.
Never be left scrambling to remember how something should be done.
Use this step-by-step guide for creating your own administrative SOP manual.
Follow Fuller's tips to create an SOP manual for your role:
Use an existing format. "Not having a format to start with is a barrier," she says. "A fear exists—'What if I do this wrong?'—so people don't start at all. I was lucky: Some of the pages had already been done when I started."
Jot down tasks you do during a typical day, week, month, quarter and year, as you think of them. "Then, just take one at a time and type out what you do to complete the task. When finished, start a new one," Fuller suggests.
Tip: If time is an issue, mark which tasks on your list are more important and do those first.
Creating good step-by-step documentation takes some thought and effort, but the end result is a resource that can be used over and over again by you or anyone who needs it. Start creating your SOP manual today with this step-by-step guide!
Create separate pages for each duty you perform, listing how often to do it, what steps to take, who can answer questions and where to find any necessary documents.
Include even small tasks. Example: Fuller says, "I think it's second nature to get the mail each day, but my co-workers depend on me delivering and receiving the items from the mail room twice a day at certain times, so I included the times in my procedure manual."
Be more detailed than you think you need to be. "It will benefit your replacement," she says. For example, in Fuller's manual, pages that cover fundraising procedures and data entry are extremely detailed.
"A tip that was given to me once was that if a 12-year-old could follow the instructions and do a task right, then it was detailed enough," she says.
Tip: For each task document you create, have a co-worker follow your instructions. If he can do the task flawlessly, you've done your job.
Use it to manage your workload. Fuller says the manual has "saved a ton of headaches for me. I know I can go on vacation, and the critical jobs will be done without me, and I won't have stacks of work when I return."
Start building your SOP manual binder today!
When you're out of the office, it's nice to be missed. But it's nicer when things can run smoothly so you don't return to a pile of problems or unhandled business.
A smoothly operating office is a sign of a prepared and polished professional who has the best interests of his or her co-workers and company at heart—and a solid Administrative Procedures Binder is essential.
Get to work with Creating a Standard Operating Procedures Manual and you'll never be left in the lurch when something happens or scramble to remember how something should be done.
There's no need to reinvent the wheel. You'll have 6 sample documents to follow, from a table of contents to an activity log to an out-of-the-office checklist and more. Get your copy today!
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