How to Write an SOP That a New Hire Can Follow

A useful SOP is short, based on how the work is really done and tested by someone who did not write it. Check your draft for three problems: steps that do not match the work, missing exceptions and no named owner. The seven steps below cover each one.

Start with a process that recurs and goes wrong in a way you can name: an order shipped without a check, a register that does not balance, a refund issued twice. EPA defines an SOP as written instructions for a routine or repetitive activity. For your first SOP, choose a recurring process with a clear start and finish, and keep one process per SOP; a document that covers the whole company is a handbook.

• Receiving and checking a delivery
• Inspecting a production batch before release
• Reviewing an invoice before payment
• Handling a complaint or a refund request

The right source is the person who does the work, not the manual nobody updated. Ask them to do the task while you watch, or to record a short walkthrough on a phone, and note every place where they make a judgment call: that is where a new hire will slip. With Elvina, you upload the recording or your notes and she drafts the SOP; the person who knows the task checks the draft first.

Write one action per step, in the order it happens, and start each step with a verb. For each step, say who does it, what they need before they start and what exists when they finish. EPA's guidance asks for a concise, step-by-step, easy-to-read format in the active voice. Put the purpose and the roles at the top; the SOP template on this site has those fields ready.

Include instructions for situations where the normal steps do not apply, such as a late customer, a missing part or a system outage. Write what changes in each case and the point where the person must stop and ask. Where nobody has decided yet, mark the line as an open decision and let the owner close it, so nobody teaches a guess.

Ask someone who did not write the SOP, and who has the training the task requires, to follow it with appropriate supervision. Every place they hesitate or ask is a step to rewrite. EPA's guidance says it is especially helpful when someone other than the original writer tests a draft before it is finalized. The test run shows the steps the expert does without thinking.

One named owner approves the SOP, and staff see only the approved version. Write the version number, the date and a review date on it, so a procedure nobody follows anymore is withdrawn instead of taught. Keep the approved SOP in Company Knowledge as a training source, and nothing reaches staff before a person approves it.

A written SOP is not yet training. To teach the procedure, pair it with a short lesson, a one-page job aid kept where the work happens and an observed practice task. Elvina drafts the lesson and the job aid from the approved SOP, available now; the steps are in our guide on turning an SOP into a training lesson.

A fictional salon group with two locations writes its first SOP for closing the register. The evening lead records a short walkthrough while she closes, and Elvina drafts the SOP from it. The manager tests it with a stylist who has never closed, rewrites the two steps where the stylist hesitated and approves version 1. The draft uses four distinct labels:

• From your rule: the person closing counts the drawer and logs the total before leaving.
• Needs your decision: who signs the log when only one person closes.
• Elvina's suggestion: add a photo of a filled-in log, so both locations close the same way.
• Who approves: each location's manager, and the owner for the one-person close.

Elvina drafts SOPs, lessons, job aids and checks from what you record or upload, and keeps every open decision marked as yours. She does not set your policies or certify that a procedure is legal or safe: where a rule comes from a regulator or a licensing board, a qualified person checks the text. Your process owner approves every version before staff see it.

Public sources, checked on the date shown.

• EPA's SOP guidance says SOPs should be written in a concise, step-by-step, easy-to-read format, by subject-matter experts who actually perform the work. Source: https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-06/documents/g6-final.pdf (checked 2026-10-26).
• EPA says it is especially helpful if draft SOPs are tested by individuals other than the original writer, and that SOPs should be updated and re-approved whenever procedures change. Source: https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-06/documents/g6-final.pdf (checked 2026-10-26).