I’ve been in plenty fly by the seat of our pants type operations.  I can only recall one maybe two tops out the many businesses where I was employed that not only had a robust guide, knowledgebase, something to follow those employees would actually peruse.

It may be disorganization or job security, whatever the case, it was always a huge challenge to onboard individuals or let go of others because they retained too much knowledge in their head.   The culture of writing things down, documented it, and eventually it becomes a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is something to strive for.  We simply don’t hire people that are not process oriented and they will not last long if they are not.

I was guilty of not documenting along the way until I realized the benefit of doing so, it become ever clearer once I owned a business.  Document and updating SOPs and passwords became a critical piece of a run well operation.  It also demonstrated to other businesses that we are very well organized.

None of this can be done if you can find a platform that is friendly enough for you and your team to use.  Here are some things I would look for key in a documentation system:

 

Cloud Based

Yes, you go this route you need MFA, IP restrictions, and some security measures but the ability to link a SOP via a URL in an email or ticket is phenomenal.  I no longer have to attach any confusing documents and somehow reference below or digress about the SOP in an email.  The link is there.  Use it.

Document Linking

You may compose an SOP but you obviously don’t want to long of a document if you can break it into several mini-SOPs that you can have an embedded link or @ symbol tag of the document you wish to reference.  SharePoint doesn’t do this unfortunately.

Global Search Button

Can find what you are looking for?  The global search will help you immensely if you have a standard naming convention for documents plus some helpful keywords in the title

WYSIWIG Building Blocks – Internal WIKI

Imagine a very easy approach to structuring a document so reading is not a chore.

Password Database

Throw in a secure way of tagging passwords to SOPs will make your life so much easier.

On the Go Features

You can’t have a full fledge documentation system if its not at your finger tips/

Organizing Your Standard Operating Procedures Summary

The reality is if you want to scale and sell your business eventually, you need Standard Operating Procedures.