5 Impacts Operational SOPs Have on Your Business

Desiring an overall quality increase in your business? Left believing that if you had an operational procedural and workflow system outlined that your business would be consistent?

At the core of the answer to your concerns are Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) which, through documentation (and mapping), organizes your business growth and ability to avoid shutdowns stemming from any changes in management.

In this article, we will dive into the positive impact SOPs will have on your business, when incorporated.

What are Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) Again?

SOPs are outlined documentation of processes implemented within a company to guide service and product consistency.

An SOP is used to ensure that a company is always led by company optimal replicable steps and shared knowledge—keeping leadership and employees on the same page; where there are any changes, this system works effectively to communicate it to all user groups.

The Impacts SOPs Will Have on Your Business

One of the first steps towards business success and sustainability is not simply its procedures, but how those procedures are implemented in a quality system. Part of a structured system includes competent workers who stick to the outlined procedures to promote uniform experiences, both company-wide (internally) and to clients or customers (externally).

When you think of the future of your business and how it will progress, SOPs direct this process, ensuring everything is done as planned and referenceable.

SOPs will ensure your business experiences the following impacts directly:

1. Clarity. In operating a business, it’s important for clarity to be part of the company’s culture. Standardization and clarity work together as the components that create processes and—a company’s internal and external operations.

Clarity in processes ensures that your business functions with uniformity and meets an implied (or company promised) quality standard.

SOPs help keep procedures streamlined, which decreasing the failure percentages connected to employee error.

Employees will have no complaints about being confused on their function in the business operations “wheel.”

In providing efficiency through replicable information, company clarity is achieved.

2. Process “leaning.” SOPs are ideal for ensuring that limits, controls, and validation are always a part of the process.

Process leaning uses leverages ranging continuous improvement-centric principles to improve workflows and quality while aiming to smoothly “trim the fat” off existing business processes, without compromise.

For instance, SOPs work to ensure that operational functions don’t run the risk of being incomplete because standardized directions are provided to ensure that processes and procedures are executed correctly, on the first attempt.

The aim of SOPs is to always improve the efficiency of your business because the focus is heavily on improving your services (and even products) offered to match the needs of your stakeholders and clients.

3. Operations Alignment. Business teams that operate with SOPs in place experience far less from misalignment in operations. This is so because the SOPs incorporate operational framework—from both macro and micro-perspectives—to ensure alignment is highlighted.

Operations shouldn’t make the people, functioning in them, guess.

This involves the incorporation of your company’s goals, projects, and strategies into the fit of operational functioning objects. Meaning—company goals, projects, etc. should be thought of (from an operational level) when establishing SOPs.

4. Productivity Boost. SOPs are instrumental in monitoring systems and processes, which increases productivity levels for the business. This due to production factors being meticulously analyzed in order to create an SOP.

An increase from input resources is noticed from the improving output—i.e., early project completion, quicker turnaround times, smooth project transitions, client experience feedback.

An improvement of output means there will be fewer resource wasting which will continue to generate higher productivity, even if in small increments.

Ultimately, there is financial gain for the company as a result of the clarity, alignment, and value-added—along with and increase of employee trust in the company.

5. Brand experience consistency. The implementation of SOPs works to build the consistency of how your brand is experienced—internally and externally. This is crucial to both the company and your clients.

The consistency of your brand is critical for the growth of your business as it communicates trust to employees (internal) and client (external).

With everyone following standard procedures, that will provide more guaranteeable results; SOPs keep results and brand experience consistent.

A brand is consistent when the room for error is minimized; thus, reliability is increased, which is precisely what the implementation of SOPs affords.

Final thoughts

An organized business with adequately trained employees is the recipe for a successful business.

Operational functioning and employee onboarding is based on, and leveraged from, company SOPs and SOP maintenance. Portraying how activities are performed within your company, ensuring that this recipe is always consistently executed.

With the implementation of SOPs, the entire company (employees, leaders, key stakeholders and clients) stand to benefit.

SOPs make producing the sustainable company operation you’ve always dreamed of much more achievable.