How do you make sure all your employees do the same tasks in the same way? The answer is simple — create a standard operating procedure (SOP) document.
We’ve compiled a list of steps you can follow to create your own SOP. Thanks to this document, you’ll be able to standardize and centralize the roles and responsibilities in your teams.
But, if you don’t have the time or energy for that, you’ll also find templates that you can use right away!
What is a standard operating procedure?
A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a document that outlines each role’s responsibilities and explains the necessary procedures to complete tasks successfully.
The SOP helps standardize quality and simplify the onboarding process, making it an essential document in any industry.
In it, you can describe what every team member needs to do and how they should perform each task. Plus, you can attach additional resources so that no information gets lost. This way, you’ll make sure everyone is on the same page and avoid any misunderstandings.
Start organizing your workflow in Plaky
Why you need an SOP document
Implementing a standard operating procedure helps you:
- Maintain consistency — Make sure all team members perform the same task in the same way so that the output quality is consistent.
- Improve efficiency — Create a standardized process for each task so that no one wastes time wondering how to do their job.
- Minimize project risks — Avoid project failure even when your key team members leave by documenting and preserving their knowledge.
- Eliminate training and onboarding bottlenecks — Keep procedures available in written form. By doing this, you’ll avoid overwhelming your experienced staff with lengthy training and onboarding sessions for new employees.
- Ensure high output standard and quality control — Come up with standardized procedures to comply with the industry’s best practices and regulations.
- Avoid unnecessary costs — Make sure all team members know which steps to take so that no one makes costly mistakes.
Of course, creating SOPs requires an initial investment of time and mental energy. But it’s quite useful later on as it helps standardize all your workflows.
9 free SOP templates
We’ve prepared 9 customizable templates to save you the trouble of creating them from scratch.
Below, you’ll find pre-made free SOP templates ranging from general ones to those for specific industries, such as HR and IT, in 3 different formats: Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and PDF.
#1 Standard SOP template
Download: Google Docs | Word | PDF
This standard SOP template is versatile and adaptable to any type of job, so you can use it to outline standard operating procedures easily, no matter the team or industry.
The template covers all the important points every SOP should have, including:
- The document’s basic information,
- The SOP scope,
- Defined roles and responsibilities,
- Step-by-step procedures,
- Specific terminology tied to the SOP,
- Frequently asked questions, and
- A section for additional documents, resources, and tools.
#2 HR SOP template
Download: Google Docs | Word | PDF
With this HR SOP template, you can easily create standard operating procedures for every HR activity.
Human resources professionals often have a lot on their plate, as they take part in:
- Recruitment,
- New employee onboarding,
- Performance reviews, and
- Legal compliance with local and international laws.
This template helps you track processes linked to each of these activities, helping you keep all HR procedures uniform.
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
Looking to learn more about project management in human resources? Take a look at our guide:
#3 Customer support SOP template
Download: Google Docs | Word | PDF
This customer support SOP template outlines procedures for handling general inquiries, complaints, and refund requests. Of course, you can easily expand the template to fit the specifics of your product.
CS agents usually handle time-sensitive requests around the clock, so they’re an important part of creating a positive customer experience.
With this SOP template, you can define priority levels for your ticket system, allowing agents to quickly reference it and determine how they should categorize and handle certain requests.
#4 Sales SOP template
Download: Google Docs | Word | PDF
You can use this sales SOP template to document how teams should handle each phase of the sales process, step by step.
Much like HR, sales teams have a wide range of responsibilities, from generating potential leads to nurturing leads and customers after the initial sale.
With this template, you can come up with a detailed SOP for every step of the process, including:
- Lead generation,
- Lead qualifications,
- Sales calls,
- Long-term leads and customer tracking, and
- Sales activity data reports.
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
Read our article to learn why lead management is important and how to guide your customers through the sales journey:
#5 Marketing SOP template
Download: Google Docs | Word | PDF
Our marketing SOP template is great for compiling all the procedures of the entire team in one place.
You can use it to cover procedures for a wide range of important marketing processes, such as:
- Market research,
- Campaign planning and execution,
- Social media marketing,
- Digital marketing,
- Reporting,
- Analytics, and
- Performance reviews.
As with the other templates, you can easily add new elements or remove existing ones if they don’t fit your company’s marketing operations.
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
If you’d like to learn more about marketing project management, take a look at this article for some detailed insights:
#6 Small business SOP template
Download: Google Docs | Word | PDF
Running a small business with a versatile team? This SOP template can help your employees carry out a wide range of complex tasks efficiently by letting them know how certain problems should be handled.
Our small business SOP template helps you set up various procedures for day-to-day operations of a wide range of businesses that include:
- Materials and/or goods procurement,
- Inventory management,
- Customer service,
- Workplace safety and hygiene, and
- Emergency procedures.
You can use this template for a store, a restaurant, or any other similar business in the service industry.
#7 IT SOP template
Download: Google Docs | Word | PDF
Our IT SOP template can help you define the roles and responsibilities of:
- Software developers,
- Manual testers,
- Automation testers,
- DevOps engineers,
- Data scientists, and
- System administrators.
Some IT roles require a more detailed SOP. However, this template can easily be adjusted to accommodate all processes, no matter the department.
#8 Advertising agency SOP template
Download: Google Docs | Word | PDF
Similarly to the marketing SOP template, our advertising agency SOP template outlines the responsibilities of all the different departments within an agency.
Use this template to define the roles typically found in an advertising agency, such as:
- Project managers,
- Web developers,
- SEO specialists,
- Copywriters,
- Designers, and
- Video presenters.
The template’s universal form makes it easy to adapt to any team, no matter how specific its roles are.
#9 Simple SOP template
Download: Google Docs | Word | PDF
If you’re looking for a clean, simple, and straightforward template for a standard operating procedure, then this is the template for you.
Our simple SOP template focuses on the core elements of an SOP:
- Basic information,
- Scope,
- Procedures, and
- Relevant resources.
The template is best used for smaller tasks and subtasks that don’t fit in with the more comprehensive templates or official documentation. You can also use it as a personal checklist.
A step-by-step guide to writing an SOP
Need help creating an SOP? Here are the main steps you should follow:
- Define the purpose — Write something simple and straightforward that lets everyone involved know what the document is about from the get-go.
- Define the scope in detail — Be clear and unambiguous on what the SOP does and doesn’t involve.
- Define team roles and responsibilities — Each team member should know who is responsible for what.
- Create step-by-step instructions — Instructions should be comprehensive and easy to understand. However, remember to account for all possible issues employees might face.
- Review and update — Make sure to review and update your SOPs regularly to keep them up-to-date with the industry standards and the company’s knowledge base.
Also, don’t forget to clarify terminology and add resources. All team members should be able to easily check the meaning of any technical term or abbreviation and have quick access to any extra materials and tools.
Manage your work processes with Plaky
Managing work processes requires a wide range of documents that are easily lost and forgotten about. In Plaky, you can document all processes and neatly organize all your SOPs and other important files.
For example, you can simply create an item for each SOP and link the document in the appropriate field. Once all the documents are collected in one board, your team can access them easily at any time — without having to dig through emails, DMs, chat notifications, and more.
But centralizing all SOPs in one place is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to managing work documents and processes in Plaky.
Plaky is an easy-to-use project management tool that helps you track specific tasks and manage your project workflows more efficiently. Here’s how:
- Add custom fields — Design each board in a different way so that it fits each project’s specific needs.
- Create detailed items — Describe each item and define its due date and budget so that no one misses a deadline, or spends too much!
- Assign items — Distribute items to individuals or entire teams so that everyone knows what they need to work on.
- Attach files — Add images and documents to items to avoid switching to other apps to share additional resources.
- Leave comments — Comment directly in item cards whenever there’s an update or new information so that subscribers know what’s going on.
The free plan is quite generous, but you can get your hands on even more features like private boards, automations, and custom board templates with Plaky’s paid plans.
Organize your procedures with ease. Sign up for Plaky’s free 14-day trial!
How we reviewed this post: Our writers & editors monitor the posts and update them when new information becomes available, to keep them fresh and relevant.