There’s a belief among regulatory bodies: “If you didn’t write it down, it didn’t happen,” and while the regulations tell companies what they need to do and document, they don’t tell them how. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are often used as training tools, which means that they need to be easily understood by all those whom they affect. Effective SOPs are not only a regulatory requirement; they also make good business sense. Often, employees fail to follow SOPs because they can’t understand them, and often, procedures are being constantly revised. This leads to lengthy and expensive investigations and costly revisions.
The goal of this course is to develop a general understanding of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and safe work practices (SWPs) and a detailed understanding of how to review systems for risks. Also covered is how to create, communicate and maintain the documents and training associated with these risks. This course addresses general, nonroutine facility SWPs and SOPs designed to keep workers safe.
Course Outline
Introduction & Fundamentals of Effective SOPs
- When are SOPs needed and why?
- The difference between SOPs, policy documents, work instructions and local guidance
- Determine the scope, roles and responsibilities associated with SOPs
- Identify the essential structure of SOPs • Share best practice: what makes a good SOP?
- Identify who should write, review and authorise SOPs
- Current thinking in writing SOPs and an example of a good SOP
- Example of a best practice SOP
Developing concise and user-friendly SOPs
- Translate the flow of operations into the document
- Write SOPs that are sufficiently detailed, but not restrictive and limiting
- Understand the target audience and account for end users’ needs
- Tips for how to write the content, format, style and presentation
- Defining SOP content using mind-mapping and flow-charting
SOP Implementation and Management
- Review and approval processes for SOPs
- Handling updates – when should SOPs be updated and how?
- Distribution, version control
- SOP training
- How to maximise end-user compliance
- Exercise: write an SOP using best practice methodology
Ensuring your SOPs meet Regulatory Requirements
- What needs to be included for compliance in GaP areas?
- Current regulatory trends
- Tips for what auditors and inspectors look for when they review SOPs.
Learning Objectives
In order to accelerate skill development, this course features a problem-based learning approach that provides a collaborative job-focused experience. This course begins with a problem scenario that requires the content of the course to solve. As participants work through the problem, they will begin to understand the use of SOPs and the avoidance of critical failures; recognize when a process needs to have a procedure or safe work practice; create a SOP and SWP for a non-routine task; collaboratively build a personal job-aid to apply back at work; and understand the importance of communicating and training users on SOPs.
Learning Outcome
After completing this course, Participants will be equipped with a basic understanding of the following:
- Participants will gain a better understanding the regulatory expectations for, and the proper design and maintenance of effective and compliant Standard Operating Procedures.
- Participants will also learn how to create and review SOPs, and generate a system for training and implementation of effective and compliant written procedures
- Participants will learn how to write documents that ensure consistency in operations. A workshop in process writing gives participants the opportunity to actually write about a process and then assess the results.
- Participants will learn how to tighten and refine the language to produce clear and comprehensive documents.
Who can participate?
The Standard Operating Procedures and Safe Work Practices course is designed for:
- Operations, Safety and Maintenance Managers
- Technical, Operations and Maintenance Engineers
- Frontline Supervisors
- Safety Officers
- SOP/SWP element leaders and team members
- Site Process Safety Management (PSM) committee leaders and team members.
