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ARTICLE · 10 JULY 2019

I Don't Have A SOP For That Issue.

Fisher Phillips LLP
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I recently talked to a group of managers about misusing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and the resulting safety and performance problems. Issues raised, included:

United StatesEmployment and HR
Fisher & Philips LLP
Fisher & Philips LLP
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I recently talked to a group of managers about misusing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and the resulting safety and performance problems. Issues raised, included:

  • Employees justifying bad judgment by claiming that there was no SOP requiring them to perform a task in a safe fashion.
  • Managers refusing to require employees to perform a task safely and in a common-sense way because there was no written SOP.
  • Confusion about the roles of SOPs, work guidance, and policies.
  • Conflict between unduly complicated SOPs and the actual steps to safely perform the task.

Below are some observations and recommendations that we discussed over lunch:

Written guidance is not a substitute for using good judgment.

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