Just How Detailed Should My Standard Operating Procedures Be?

While many business leaders understand why process documentation matters, most are also unsure about which details they should—or should not—include.

Document too little, and it’s barely worth doing in the first place. Your employees don’t have the information they need to do their job.

Document too much, and you can get in the weeds fast. It takes longer to sift through the pages and pages of information than it would take just to figure it out on your own.

So where’s the middle ground? Which details matter—and which ones don’t?

Here are 5 questions to help you decide for yourself.

1. What do you need to delegate right now?

Don’t miss the forest for the trees. What’s that one thing that’s hanging you up the most? Worry about the rest later.

As a business leader, it’s completely natural to want to have your hands in every part of your business. But in order to grow, you know you need to delegate. And delegating well happens the same way you eat an elephant…one bite at a time.

So start here—list all of the repeatable tasks you perform. Then, determine which ones you can hand off. Now, what does a person need to know to get them done? This is what needs to be documented. Everything else you have going on? That can wait.

2. Who is it for?

Who is it for, an expert or a learner?

An expert is someone you hire for the skills they bring to your business. They have knowledge you don’t. And they likely have a high capacity for problem solving, too. You don’t need to teach them how to do their job—that’s why you hired them. Experts need to know how you define success in their role, and maybe get a checklist or two.

Learners come to you with time and eagerness, but little expertise. They’re teachable, but need lots of guidance along the way. Learners need more detail about how to do their job. In addition to understanding how you define success in their role, learners need context (how does what they do fit into the bigger picture?) as well as concrete examples of how to get the job done.

3. Is the subject matter more subjective, or more objective?

Some areas of the business (for example, accounting) are pretty black and white. They’re objective. Invoices must be processed in a certain way, bank deposits have to go in on the same day of the week, and bills must be paid on time. For those areas, provide as much detail as you can.

Other areas of your business are more subjective, for example, marketing. Is there a right way to do marketing? Not really. There are best practices, sure. For these areas, stick to principles and values that help guide decision-making, rather than 10-point to-do lists.

4. How likely is it the information will change?

Your company mission, vision, values, and origin story probably won’t change much over the next ten years. They could, of course, but it won’t happen frequently.

Those are areas of your business that you know, that are more or less static. Your north stars. So get them down on paper, and be as detailed as you can be. More is more. Don’t bore people with a novel, but put some color on it, use videos, and spend time drilling in why it all matters.

On the flip side, there will be parts of your business that constantly evolve—such as technology or your environment. The steps it takes to run Facebook ads, for example, will look different today than they did last year. 

In cases like this, give enough information for someone to “figure it out” without spending hours on every minor detail. Try this: swap out detailed instructions for recommended guidelines.

Customer FAQs are a great example of this. There’s no way you can anticipate every customer question that will arise in the future, and they’ll change over time along with your products and services. But you can document the most frequently asked questions, along with general guidelines for how to properly interact with customers. Then, let your team fill in the gaps.

5. What are the minimum steps new hires need?

Turns out 4 in 5 employees will leave their job within the first year if their training was poor.

So ask yourself: what are the basic steps someone needs to do this job well? Once you’ve established those, walk away. It’s easy to want to add more…and more. But if new hires have everything they need to perform the job efficiently, then you’re done.

Bottom line: How much time will documenting this save you down the road?

If nothing else, ask yourself this. If you can spend 1 hour today to save you and your team 1 hour EVERY WEEK from now until eternity...there's your answer.

But if you feel too busy to even get started, or if it all feels overwhelming, we can help. Find out how.