Your core processes are documented. We have detailed SOPs.” Sound familiar? I hear this quite often from the small teams we support. I then follow-up with something like, “So if you have an employee who will be involved in hiring someone for the first time, where would they get an overview of your hiring process so they know what to expect and the materials you use during interviews?” The answer usually includes how HR has all of the details and the team’s manager has access to some of it. The thing is, they aren’t wrong – not everyone needs access to every detail in every process. At the same time, people do need access to relevant information for their position and contribution.
Hiring is an activity that involves human resources, the manager in need of a new employee, their team, finance, and marketing. For the experience to be effective and efficient everyone needs to know generally what to expect AND be able to access the appropriate resources for their specific contribution. The information needed extends beyond an SOP. You need a Comprehensive Core Process that references the appropriate SOPs. To find out the difference, read on.
Three Main Differences
SOPs and Core Processes differ in three key elements:
Definition: Exactly what we mean by SOP and Comprehensive Core Process
Audience: Who is the documentation is written to educate/guide
Access: Who can see the final document
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Procedures are a step-by-step accounting of how to complete certain work. SOPs are helpful when:
- Training a new hire, particularly when the person who used to do the job is no longer available
- Multiple team members perform the same work
- Documentation of how work is completed is required for legal compliance such as in the financial or health care sectors
SOPs can be incredibly time-consuming to create and maintain. Teams are often too busy doing the work to document how they do the work. Tools like Loom or Scribe that leverage videos and transcription to extract key information and summarize it in both written and visual formats help reduce the burden associated with SOPs. It can still be very easy for SOPs to become outdated and irrelevant, an issue we see a lot with the companies we support.
Audience: Procedures, by their nature, are written for a narrow audience who have access to the appropriate tools and know when and why the task is being performed. They often don’t make sense to those outside the specific team that completes the work. In our hiring example, the team manager doesn’t need to know how to post an open position to the company’s website, just that it’s part of the process to promote the job opening.
Access: In some cases full transparency is not in the company’s best interest. Does everyone need to know how to archive security camera footage for a warehouse? How to process changes in paycheck amounts or tax withholdings? The steps to add or remove access to client or employee information? No, but the person who was just hired to replace someone who left suddenly after doing the job for many years most definitely needs a detailed resource so they can take over those duties. In short, they need an SOP.
Definition:
A procedure is HOW the steps in a process are done.
Core Processes
In contrast, a process is an overview relevant to a broad audience. In our hiring example, the people involved are:
- HR Manager
- Manager of the hiring team
- Members of the hiring team
- Finance Manager
They each have their own contribution to specific pieces of the process. Everyone involved needs to understand the overall flow of activity, who is responsible for what, and what resources are available for their specific tasks. An SOP is one of those resources.
Audience: Everyone in the company.
Access: Everyone in the company.
Definition:
A process is WHAT happens to achieve a specific outcome.
Continuing with our hiring example:
Outcome: Fill Open Position
Process Name: Hiring
Activities: Job description & posting created —> Position promoted —> Candidates vetted —>Offer made —> Due diligence —> Onboard
This flow chart only tells part of the story, though. How are candidates vetted? Is there an assessment or test? How many interviews? It is also not clear who does what. If you’re a new manager involved in your first hire do you decide how many interviews and who’s involved or does HR? What resources are available such as templates, samples, and, yes, SOPs throughout the hiring experience?
Adding those elements we get what we at Practical Insight call a Comprehensive Core Process:
Now everyone in the company can see what the hiring process looks like from inside the company versus when they were a candidate. The process may have changed since they were hired or they may be involved in hiring for the very first time. Whatever their experience, they have the information they need to know what their role is and what resources are available to them. When we work with clients, we’d expand this to become the HR Core Process with separate sections for separations and feedback organized in this same way.
There are generally 5 – 7 outcomes the company works toward again and again: HR, sales, finance, strategic planning, and one or two that would fall under operations. Organizing their documentation in the same way, in the same platform with open access to the entire company supports consistency, transparency, and accountability.
Keeping Core Processes & SOPs Up-To-Date
Ensuring documentation is current requires a trigger. It doesn’t usually happen on its own. We recommend an annual review of all of the company’s core processes at the same time. This ensures the review and updating actually takes place and lends itself to a company wide update of information. The review will identify resources, including SOPs, that need to be revised or created. This work can then be assigned to the appropriate person. Maintaining the documentation of how you do things has a time and process of its own.
Need help creating Comprehensive Core Processes and evaluating your existing resources including SOPs for relevance and completeness? You’ve come to the right place. We love this stuff and would be happy to lend a hand. Contact Us to set-up a time to talk about where you are and what you need.