7 Simple Reasons Why Teams Don’t Document and What to Do About It

Many small business teams struggle to create documentation and standard operating procedures in a timely and effective manner. As a result, SOPs are just filed away in a dusty file drawer and left unused. In this article, we look at how to help employees write SOPs, why most of them don’t use the SOPs, and how to address the mental barriers to break the crazy cycle of not wanting to write, read, or even update SOPs.

What is an SOP? What is documentation? 

First of all, what exactly is an “SOP” and what is the difference between “SOPs” and “documentation?”

The abbreviation SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedure. A standard operating procedure is a series of written instructions explaining the step-by-step procedures that a team must follow to accomplish a typical task. 

Standard operating procedures or a company SOP define the rules, processes, and standards that a company must follow to thrive. They may help a company set the standard to help reduce mistakes, increase efficiency and profits, provide a safe working environment, and create standards for resolving problems and overcoming hurdles. Pretty nifty right?

In comparison, documentation is any material that acts as a record or offers official information or proof. For business documentation, it instills trust in your company, possible investors, and clients. Documentation reveals the story of a company: its beginnings, goals, and the path it’s on to attain them. SOPs are just one specific kind of documentation.

So why don’t we complete our documentation? If it’s so essential our teams should just be swimming in it, right?

Why do we struggle to get our teams to document?

Reason 1: They don’t know how to write proper documentation. 

Documentation helps a business in a lot of different ways. That is why it is imperative. Despite its importance, there are still many who don’t know how to write proper documentation, and because of the lack of knowledge, they opt not to do it rather than risk failure. It’s not exactly a standardized skill taught in most high schools or even colleges around the world.

SOLUTION

What if there was a class or a course you could take? Check out our fantastic new Documentation Certification Course. Or better yet, enroll your team to take it too! Learn how to properly create, file, organize and share types of documentation typical in a small online business. Get your documentation done properly, increase productivity and save your team a lot of headaches.

Reason 2: It’s not visual enough to be engaging or easily understandable.

According to a study, only 4% of businesses have documentation in their work process. And for those that do many times, documents are too lengthy with thousands of words and excessive paragraphs. They can get a little overwhelming and too much of a hassle to read, especially for new employees just learning the way tasks are done.

SOLUTION

To solve this, consider using a graphic format or including graphics when writing your procedures. Flowcharts, graphic organizers, lists, and bullet-style formats divide lengthy processes into shorter subprocesses with only a few steps. Plus they take less time to create and are more interesting.

Reason 3: SOPs are viewed as optional to create, update or use.

Employees may not follow a Standard Operating Procedure because they don’t place a high priority on using, and keeping documents up to date. This is particularly hard to combat because if team members do not believe there is a purpose for using something and do not see the benefit, they will not be motivated to change their habits.

SOLUTION

What will you do in a circumstance like this? When you encounter this problem and it’s creating errors for your team, instead of giving them directions again have your staff go back to the SOP and double-check it. That way, they’ll need the SOP, and start to see the value in using them regularly. Not to mention it’s a chance to update or change any out-of-date SOPs.

Reason 4: They don’t know SOPs exist, forget they exist or know they exist but can’t find them. 

Your staff may be unaware that you have a standard operating procedure. It’s always frustrating when you labor over SOPs, use them to train your team, and then your team says they had no idea there were there. There is no way for team members to use the SOP if they’re treated like dusty digital files that no one knows exist. 

SOLUTION

The solution here is actually pretty easy. Make your documentation easy to find. Treat SOPs like any other data that you would regularly search for: utilize keywords in the titles and headings to make documents searchable, file them in an intuitive system and most of all keep all your documentation in one place.

You can also use document sharing programs like Teamwork Spaces or Central Desktop to create a collaborative workspace where you can edit and share content with other team members and clients. 

Reason 5: They are out of date and not helpful.

If your employees think that your company SOP is not helpful, they will not use it as much as you intend them to do so. If they know it’s out of date it becomes an unreliable asset. If the directions are direction your team to do things incorrectly, then that defeats the whole point, right?

SOLUTION

Allowing people who perform tasks directly to create an SOP for their work process could help them find more meaning in the tasks they do. The primary goal of an SOP should be to make the worker’s life easier, set them up for success, and help them do a great job. Plus who is more an expert on the fastest and most effective ways to complete the task but the person who is doing them every day?

Reason 6: They’re intimidated by them. 

Another mental battle we face, team members may be frightened by the SOPs and find it difficult to follow them. You might have written elaborate SOPs that are so broad that someone attempting to complete the work has no idea what they’re trying to communicate. It’s like reading an encyclopedia – they don’t know what to do with all of the knowledge and are left feeling overwhelmed and intimidated.

SOLUTION

If you give your staff too many directions to follow all of the time, they’ll likely ignore them all and discover a method to accomplish things more quickly. Make sure not to overcomplicate it when you write SOPs, as the main purpose is to make the worker’s life simpler, not the other way around. Break them down into logical segments and include elements such as checklists and summaries that make them easier to understand.

Reason 7: They’re bored by them. 

Your team could simply be ignoring your SOPs because they’ve become bored with them. When you use exactly the same format, with deadpan delivery, and no visuals it quickly becomes monotonous. No one really wants to spend their time reading boring documents that hold more starch than the pope’s hat.

SOLUTION

The answer to this problem is to make the SOP interesting and easy to engage with. Add a quick pop quiz at the end, insert random humor (pope analogies anyone?), create linked cheat sheets and other resources, and include some color. Really the sky is the limit here with your imagination. There’s no rule that says you need to sound like that encyclopedia to be official.

The Crazy Cycle of Documentation

In the end, most of the time the reason your team isn’t completing their documentation is a mental barrier. Bored, overwhelmed, scared, unaware, or unsure we get wrapped up in procrastination, and procrastination swiftly leads to out-of-date, boring, incorrect documents catching dust bunnies in your digital file drawer. We get into the crazy cycle of documentation and it’s essential that we get out of it in order to have functional SOPs and useful documentation.

Documentation might sound so simple, but it’s actually a rigorous process that demands the author’s and the reader’s attention. You can prevent and combat the crazy cycle with engaging, easy-to-read, attractive Standard Operating Procedures. We believe in you!

Conclusion

With the mental battle people face when it comes to documentation, motivation and productivity levels drop.  Help your team overcome the mental block of documentation by giving them the right tools to create useful documentation not just files for the “shelf.” Write SOPs well and make sure that the materials and guidelines you provide your people are user-friendly and easy to understand.

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