A Training Manual Template Built on the SOPs You Approved

Use it once a role has several written procedures and new hires still learn them by shadowing. The SOPs say how each process runs. The manual adds what they leave out: what this role learns first, which version is current and how you know the person understood. Write a manual for each role, not one for the whole company.

Fill in the header, then add a row for each section in the order a new hire should learn them. Write each goal as something the person can do, and name the SOP and version behind it. Pick a check you can watch or ask about, not a signature. Tie the review date to the SOP, so the manual changes when the procedure does. Use the blank template below and compare it with the filled example. A fictional dry cleaning chain with four stores and one cleaning plant filled in the header and the first section of its counter associate manual.

• Role: counter associate at all four stores
• Owner: Renata, the operations manager, who approves every version
• Version: 2, approved after the intake SOP changed
• Order: intake first, because every later step depends on a correct ticket

Download the blank template: CSV · Markdown (.md) · Word (.docx)

Read the finished manual column by column. A section with no source SOP teaches a habit, not your standard. A section with no owner drifts out of date. A check that only asks for a signature says nothing about understanding. OSHA's resource on developing worker training sets a similar bar: material should be accurate, updated as needed and clear to the trainee, not only to experts. If new hires keep missing a section, fix the SOP or the lesson before you blame the person.

The manual owner decides which SOPs go in, in what order and when a new version replaces the old one. Elvina assembles the manual from SOPs approved in Company Knowledge, and each step below is available now. Nothing reaches a new hire until the owner approves it on the Learning Platform. If a section has no SOP yet, Elvina can draft one from a recorded interview with the person who knows the task, and that person checks the draft first.

• Draft: Creation Studio writes each section from its SOP and version for the owner to edit and approve
• Job aid: the steps of each section on one page, for use during the shift
• Check: a short quiz or scenario for each section, matching your check column

Public sources, checked on the date shown.

• OSHA's training resource says materials should be accurate, updated as needed and clear to participants, not only to people who know the jargon. Source: https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/osha3824.pdf (checked 2026-10-02).