Have you ever wanted to make a certain dish, but the recipe was so long and so monotonousness that you barely got started before you were bored?? Think about starting a new job and the standard operating procedures are the just a massive wall of words.  Most of the time new employees do not have extensive experience in a new position if any at all; couple that with nerves and you can turn someone away quickly from a new job. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are the best way to explain the desired practices within a company.  They should be specific, explanatory, and easy to read.  Human beings learn in three primary ways Auditory, Visual, Kinesthetic.  Most procedures focus on the Visual aspect of the process.  For a Kinesthetic learner who likes to get hands on with the task to learn, they will not take much from reading lengthy paragraphs with no illustrations.

Summit SmartFarms has taken an initiative to bring life to your old SOPs and give them a look that can help appeal to all three learning styles.  The old processes are brought to life in a digitized storyboard format.  This format gives the reader an ease of step by step instruction with a color-coded path, outlining responsible parties for the tasks at hand.  To appeal to the auditory folks in the crowd, videos are embedded into the document for a quick demo of the task at hand.  These can be as extensive as you would like, keeping in mind that the end goal is for an easy read.  Storyboards can be used and viewed during new hire training sessions to appeal to the auditory learners and to develop an expectation of how the certain process should go, who should be involved, and who is responsible for answering inquiries when they arise. And then to follow up while doing a task, the same documents and videos can be accessed via tablets and cell phones.

Our database currently houses close to 5,000 documents.  These proprietary documents can be accessed easily by end users through a secure customer portal.  This can allow individuals or teams access to the documents at the decision of the organization. While SOP’s can be deemed as the set way to do things, they can be ever-changing depending on the business.  Revisions can easily be made to keep everybody on the same page.

These digitized work instructions assure accountability with individuals and create easy reading or training materials.  They can appeal to all the three learning styles and with quick revisions can always stay current to your organizations needs and processes.  Let us take the hard work out of the updates and you can rest assured that your SOP’s will meet the needs of your team members and your audit requirements.  Do not lose another new hire to the deer in headlight look.  Get them on the right track from the start and give them the expectations they need to thrive in their new position.  For your existing employees they will be kept up to date and will have no “secrets” or miscommunications in the work they are expected to do.  It is a win-win for everyone involved.

Contact us today if you want to update and improve your work instructions!

Quality Performance Systems (QPS) is a product of Summit SmartFarms.