I have been tasked with designing a solution using SharePoint to help us manage our SOP’s + policies. Our business is heavily manufacturing based so we naturally we have a lot of regulation and processes that need to be documented, sent and confirmed by our employees. Some of the SOP training is also delivered via video (but most is Words Docs, PDF and sometimes Powerpoint slides).
So my question’s are :
- How can I manage the creation and approval of a SOP in SharePoint (I am thinking a site with documen library, metadata and Workflow).
- Is it a good idea to add video (outlining a SOP) into SharePoint?
- How can I get (force) the engineers to train on the SOP?
Hi Melanie,
I assume you are using a SharePoint on premise version (may be 2013?). Best way is to use the standard document library, tie down with your Active Directory, build a workflow for document editing, approval and publishing. And customize for your branding and other specific requirements.
It is a very good idea to add videos on “how to” which is the best way to force engineers using the SOPs.
If you need any assistance let us know.
Just making a point that if both Dinu and Alexander had read the comment thread and specifically your response than it would not be necessary to regurgitate the same info about Docread and Docsurvey. Not sure if they’re resellers of the product or what, but….
Hi Amber … not sure what you mean? I don’t know Dinu or Alexander and DocRead is not their product.
Wow guys! Probably should read the other answers to this question before replying. Mark, Dinu and now Alexander all plugged their Docread product. I think they get it!
1) Collaboration
Successful Standard Operating Procedures require collaboration across the organization at varying levels from experts to end users. SharePoint is the perfect collaboration tool for this, making it easy to create specific sites for authoring or updating an SOP. Functions including discussion, wikis, tasks, and calendars, offer the perfect platform for pulling all the references and points of view into one place, to really achieve the best quality end result.
2) Great Document Control within a Central SOP library
We have all been there, told to go follow a policy or procedure, only to realize when you look for it you find multiple contradicting versions, or worse have no idea where to look or find nothing at all. SharePoint makes it much easier to have a controlled central SOP library. With a central library employees will always know where to go to find the SOP and will be able to search easily. With the very strong version control built in, they should always get to the latest one too. SharePoint makes it really easy to see changes and revert to previous versions if required. This makes it much easier to ensure the correct SOP is being referred to and used at all times as well as giving full traceability of how and when an SOP changed and evolved.
3) Security and Accessibility
An SOP library or group of SOP libraries are great but there does still need to be some access control. The features of SharePoint mean that you can truly control which employees or groups of employees can view, edit, or delete documents and sets of documents. To give true flexibility on the audiences of your SOP’s, SharePoint can even be configured so that people outside your organization and on the Internet can access it.
4) SOP Distribution and Training
One thing is for sure, just having an SOP in a SharePoint library will not ensure it is read or ensure it is understood. SharePoint has some great features available as standard to aid in publishing and circulating of documents. However the true value comes in the various 3rd party SharePoint Add-ons that are available to support this process such as DocRead and DocSurvey.
Distribution – DocRead allows new or updated SOP’s to be distributed to any group of employees and even tracks that they have read it.
Training – When DocRead is used in conjunction with DocSurvey the employee comprehension of an SOP can also be taken care off with the addition of a test.
5) Compliance, Compliance, Compliance
So important to every industry and process these days, having SOP’s managed in SharePoint is an immediate plus point to any regulator and has a number of related benefits:
A single, easy to search database of policies and procedures. Make it much easier to demonstrate that you are doing the right things.
Once activated SharePoint auditing can track key events and interactions with your policy, again helping in your compliance efforts.
If SOP’s are created well, are easy to find in SharePoint, and distributed and trained effectively using SharePoint add-ons like DocRead and DocSurvey, this will go a long way to tightening the employee execution of these SOP’s; thereby ensuring that your company remain compliant and can demonstrate compliance.
—Alexander Jackson—
clouddesktoponline
