Tag: Standard Operating Procedures

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are written step-by-step instructions that cover an organization’s regularly occurring work processes.

While this description makes them sound like simple assets to set up, SOPs take far more time and commitment to bring to fruition than many business owners realize.

Likewise, they also convey far more benefits to businesses that invest in their creation than their simple concept might suggest.

What should a good SOP do?

Sources like the EPA and the Penn State University Extension program have done excellent write-ups on Standard Operating Procedures, including their purpose. An SOP should serve as a training resource and go-to reference for your employees whenever they have questions about their work.

At the very least, this should reduce the need to stop what they’re doing and hunt down a relevant supervisor with minor questions about a task.

Penn State suggests you have a specific business goal before working on the SOP.

What does your business hope to gain from the procedure? Merely completing the prescribed task is not enough. Seeking to complete the task with a certain level of efficiency, quality, and safety is.

A well-written SOP should meet the above criteria of being a training and general reference, as well as helping to accomplish a specific business goal.

A poorly written SOP is likely to fail all criteria.

We will go into more detail on what separates well-written SOPs from poorly written ones later in this article.

It may be tempting to assume that a company doesn’t need an SOP if they already follow published operation materials. These could include a variety of things, from manufacturer-provided instructions for their machinery to OSHA-mandated Safety Data Sheets, which are documents containing important safety and handling information for various industrial chemicals and substances. 

This assumption, however, is incorrect.

Not only do organizations using pre-published methods still need Standard Operating Procedures, the SOPs should have more detail about procedures than published materials provide.

SOPs should also detail how the organization’s procedures may differ from published methods.

What other benefits does an SOP bring?

The chief benefit of Standard Operating Procedures is that they help to reduce work effort, improve credibility, and ensure compliance with the law. In a previous post, we provided a brief overview of this topic, but here we will go into greater detail.

The various benefits of adopting SOPs include, but are by no means limited to:

• Improving quality control over labor and products by improving the consistency of your processes. An SOP cuts down significantly on variation among workers carrying out the same task. If written with a specific business goal in mind, it also sets a tangible standard for those performing the task to meet, eliminating the ambiguity of what should be considered “good enough.”
• Insulating your workforce against losing knowledge to changes in the guard. As mentioned above, there is no reason why a well-written SOP shouldn’t also serve as a foundation for training programs. Having written step-by-step instructions is an excellent way to get new hires acquainted with your processes and speed up the training process. Not only this, but Penn State also suggests that existing hires should undergo retraining whenever a new SOP is introduced. This ensures that everyone on staff is familiar with the new procedure and can carry it out properly.
• Providing easy evidence of compliance. SOPs not only provide step-by-step instructions for your employees but also serve as evidence of your commitment to comply with the law. Making sure the steps in your SOP also respect any government regulations that may apply to your industry makes it simpler and easier to enforce those same regulations in your facilities. Government inspectors may even check against your SOP when performing audits.
• Addressing safety concerns before they become safety concerns. This benefit goes hand in hand with the aforementioned compliance. Ensuring the steps outlined in your SOP follow all necessary safety protocols of your industry doesn’t just make compliance enforcement easier. It also helps prevent accidents before they happen and lowers the potential liability to your business.

• Cutting down on potential miscommunication. A good SOP should contain the answer to any foreseeable question an employee might have about their tasks. This cuts down on the need to consult a supervisor. Not every manager will give the same instructions every time they are consulted, nor will every subordinate interpret said instructions the same way. By implementing SOPs, you cut down on at least one factor that leads to miscommunication about tasks.
• Boosting worker motivation and camaraderie. Writing SOPs is a process that takes the input of many different people. From the SMEs who provide the information about the procedures and help develop the steps to those who review the drafts, test the steps, and give suggestions and feedback. As Penn State sums it up: People typically support what they helped create. The development of your SOP can also double as a team-building exercise.

What are the steps to creating a Standard Operating Procedure?

There are generally three main steps to developing any SOP: preparation, testing and approval, and regular review.

Preparation

During the preparation stage, the organization determines which procedures and processes need to be documented. This is also the best stage to determine the specific business goal of your SOP, as mentioned above.

Once the procedure and goals are identified, the authors of the SOP begin making a detailed list of the procedure’s steps in the order they are performed.

One way to achieve this is by observing as a Subject Matter Expert (i.e., someone familiar with the process) carries out the task and writing down everything they do.

Ideally, the recorded steps should be detailed enough that a person with limited knowledge or experience, but a basic understanding of the procedure, can replicate it unsupervised.

In the preparation stage, many businesses make a costly mistake: assigning their Subject Matter Experts the task of writing the SOP. While it may appear the most logical and cost-effective route on paper, it is less than optimal in practice.

To learn more, please refer to this article’s sister post “How Can a Writing Agency Work With SMEs to Develop SOPs?”.

Testing and Approval

During the testing and approval stage, at least one other person with training and experience with the procedure should test and validate the SOP.

While technically, only one individual is required for this process, Penn State suggests giving a copy of the draft to each worker who performs that documented procedure. Ask them for feedback on how easy it is to understand, how accurate it is, and how they might improve it.

This can, in turn, be a valuable step to ensuring employees develop a sense of ownership in the SOP. If employees see their input was incorporated into the final version, they’ll be more likely to respect it.

If the organization has any external consultants, it’s advisable to have them review the SOP, depending on the relevancy of their expertise. For example, a telecommunications company developing an SOP for securely accessing customer data on their servers may have their cyber security consultant review it.

The final step is for the relevant managers to review, sign, and date the SOP. For example, an SOP for a senior living facility’s dishwashing procedure would likely be reviewed, signed, and dated by the director and assistant director of dining services.

Once approved, the final draft should be posted wherever appropriate. These are generally the workspaces where the procedure in question is carried out. In the previous example, the dishwashing SOP would be posted in the dish room.

Review and Revision

Once a Standard Operating Procedure has passed the primary review stage, it should receive an annual or bi-annual review, regardless of any procedure changes. The SOP should always document the last date it was reviewed.

Whenever a procedure changes between these regular reviews, the SOP should be updated and re-approved to reflect this. Only the pertinent sections need to be modified, along with the date and number of the revision.

For example, let us assume an SOP that was first approved on August 1, 2020, was reviewed again on September 7, 2021, and given a revision to one of its sections. The section which received the revision should specify it is now on revision 2, made on September 7, 2022.

How should a Standard Operating Procedure be written?

An SOP should consist of concise, easy-to-follow steps in chronological order. Bullet points or basic numbering formats are preferable to whole paragraphs.

Visual references illustrating the procedure, such as flow charts, are recommended for more complicated procedures.

Following the organization’s style guide (font size, margins, colors, and other requirements) is also advised.

The SOP should use plain speech, avoiding jargon as much as possible. Readers with little to no experience will have more difficulty following the steps if every other term is foreign to them.

For example, a machine may have one common name known to the general public. To an engineer, it may be known by one or more technical names. In such situations, the SOP describing the operation of said machine should always adopt the more commonly used term.

Likewise, the document should be kept short and simple. Rambling or providing superfluous details and trivia in the steps are not helpful to the reader. If a detail is not essential to successfully carrying out the described procedure, it most likely should not be included.

For example, it is essential for the employee reading the SOP to know that before operating the dishwasher, the temperature gauge must read above 180℉ to ensure proper sanitization of the dishes.

Informing them in exhaustive detail of the eight different settings on the dishwasher’s user interface screen, nearly all of which are used exclusively for maintenance or deep cleaning purposes, is not essential to them successfully carrying out the described procedure.

Lastly, the SOP should be written in the second-person imperative mood. Studiobinder has an excellent article on the uses of second person perspective in media and advertising, but the most relevant one to our purposes is the imperative mood. The second-person imperative mood implies the word “you” instead of directly using it. It uses action verbs, such as “go” and “run,” to issue commands to another person.

There are countless examples of the second-person imperative mood, many of which we encounter every day:

“Take out the trash.”

“Email me the details.”

“Do the laundry.”

“Leave the door open.”

“Mow the lawn.”

“Walk the dog.”

A Final Thought

These are just a few of the things to keep in mind while writing your SOPs. After reading this article, the task may sound much more demanding than anticipated. While developing SOPs can indeed be time-consuming and laborious, one of the best ways to go about it is to consider hiring a writing agency.

And if you have not already, we suggest reading this article’s sister post, which you can find here.

There’s no denying that Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are a valuable investment for any business. But getting them written, and written well, can often be quite daunting.

Sometimes it’s tempting to leave the task of writing them to your resident Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): They’re already on the payroll and do the documented tasks every day, so why not?

There are various reasons why letting your SMEs write your Standard Operating Procedures is a less than optimal idea. In this article, we’ll detail the reasons and discuss how you can avoid them by hiring a writing agency to write your SOPs.

Reason 1: They don’t have the time.

You may think your SMEs have enough time. They may even think so, too. But chances are, you’re both mistaken.

Writing a good SOP isn’t as easy as jotting down a few key notes, including opening up a Word doc and hammering it out in an afternoon.

“When people try to do it internally, they typically underestimate the time involved to write quality material that is helpful to anybody,” says Wintress Odom, who has written hundreds of SOPs as the owner and editor-in-chief of The Writers For Hire. “And they rarely have any dedicated resource for that.”

Because of this lack of dedicated resources, full-time employees who already have a host of responsibilities are often assigned the extra task of documenting them for the SOP.

This does not work in most cases as there’s not enough time in the workday to complete their regular responsibilities and work on this special project.

Managers tasked with it will inevitably try to delegate parts to their subordinates.

While this approach might work on paper, it makes the SOP even messier in practice.

It decentralizes the project, introducing authors with varying amounts of free time.

Most will only be able to carve out a few hours a week to dedicate to it, and everyone is bound to be on a different page as to how much they’re supposed to contribute.

“Then it’s always this backburner project that never gets done or gets done in fits and bursts,” Odom says. “By the time any volume has been completed, the initial stuff they did is outdated.”

Reason 2: They probably aren’t strong writers.

Everyone writes. But not everyone writes well.

Your SMEs may be excellent at their jobs, but they’re probably only average when it comes to the written word. Developing a good SOP demands more than just being average, and it’s inevitable that your SMEs will make basic mistakes. Mistakes like skipping steps.

“Especially if they’ve been doing it for a long time,” Odom says. “It’s hard for them to back up and really slow down and explain all of the steps that a new user would need to do to complete the process they’re documenting.”

A few more common mistakes include making the SOP too wordy, failing to simplify things into clear steps, and neglecting best practices for instructional materials—like sticking to shorter paragraphs and using bulleted lists.

Odom elaborates: “[Not] making it easy to scan…forgetting to bold things to make it easier for people to grab the information they need…[and] drifting from topic to topic, that’s another one.”

SMEs with ample experience in their field are especially vulnerable to talking shop in the SOP.

Often, Odom has seen SMEs fall back on what they know and begin using terms whose meanings are clear to them, but utterly indecipherable to inexperienced readers.

“That is a huge issue,” Odom says, “and then flip-flopping terms is something you see them do a lot too…and they may even be purposely trying to switch up the terms because they think that that makes them a better writer because in other types of writing you want to use different words for the same thing because it makes it more interesting.”

Reason 3: Not all SMEs are made equal.

There are three broad categories Subject Matter Experts tend to fall into.

There are those whose strongest asset is their skill, those whose strongest asset is their knowledge, and those whose strongest asset is their understanding.

Each of these three brings their own strengths and drawbacks to the process of working on an SOP, but they are not equal in how useful they are to an SOP.

To explain why, we’ll have to define the difference between skill, knowledge, and understanding.

Knowledge is theoretical. Skill is practical.

As explained by The Difference Between, knowledge involves the learning of concepts, principles, and information about something. Skill, meanwhile, is the ability to apply said knowledge in a specific context. It concerns tangible procedures and results and requires practical exposure to develop.

A SME whose greatest asset is their skill will likely have an easy time laying out the practical steps for a procedure. Said steps will probably be laid out plainly, and even a layperson will understand them because a skill-focused SME is less likely to devolve into trade jargon through their explanation. Their comparatively lesser knowledge and understanding, however, means that they’re likely to leave out bits of the broader context that may be required for the task.

These SMEs are likely to be present in lower-level jobs in an organization where knowing how something works is often less important than knowing how to make it work. What does this mean?

Joshua is an entry-level dishwasher for a restaurant.

He’s held that position since graduating from high school four years ago and has become skilled at efficiently getting dishes through the machine and back out to the kitchen.

His entire shift consists of clocking in, firing the dish machine up, and keeping the cycle of dirty and clean plates flowing until the end of the night.

If you asked Joshua to handle a large batch of dishes after a hectic night, he’d find a way to manage it by closing.

If the machine jams as a cook tries to use it, he can fix it in two minutes flat because he’s done it a thousand times before.

But if you asked him to explain how to fix the machine’s conveyer mechanism after it breaks down entirely or how to do preventative maintenance on it, the best he can do is give you a blank look.

His boss is much more comfortable calling authorized technicians to handle such tasks rather than relying on Joshua; thus, he has never had to acquire such in-depth knowledge of his workstation. He gets by just fine without it.

Joshua would likely be great at laying out the step-by-step process for how to load and send dishes through the machine. But he doesn’t know much about calibrating the machine (temperatures and other settings) to run most effectively.

Because of that lack of knowledge, any SOP he writes for it will miss important context.

However, Joshua’s coworker, Sam, does pay attention to such things. He’s practically memorized the machine’s manual over the years.

Given Sam’s extensive knowledge, he could probably go on at length about the different settings and the optimal temperatures to ensure the plates are spotless and sterilized.

But chances are his explanation of the step-by-step loading process will be lacking compared to Joshua’s because Sam is more focused on the context than the task itself.

No matter whether Joshua or Sam writes the dishwasher’s SOP, something will be lacking.

So, where does that leave SMEs whose greatest asset is their understanding?

Understanding runs deeper than knowledge.

As also explained by The Difference Between, knowing something is the same as having knowledge about it.

To understand something is to go beyond merely knowing it: It involves conceptualization and association, becoming aware of the connections between the pieces of information which comprise one’s knowledge.

Understanding generally takes longer to develop than knowledge, and one must first understand data and information before explaining, interpreting, and summarizing it.

For this reason, SMEs whose greatest strength is their understanding are rarer than those defined by their skill or knowledge. They tend to have more experience than either of the other two categories and are likely to occupy higher levels in an organization’s hierarchy because of said experience.

Of the three, they’re the most likely to succeed in breaking down processes into individual steps and providing the reader of your SOPs with necessary context, rather than just skill or knowledge.

For example, Nathan, the general manager for the restaurant where Joshua and Sam work, has been in food service for 30 years.

He has worked his way up from dishwasher to waiter to cook and eventually manager. He understands the ins and outs of every job in a typical restaurant and can step in to cover them or train new employees as needed.

Nathan is a precious asset to the business and is quite frankly the largest reason things have operated smoothly for years.

His version of the SOP will likely impart to the reader the bigger picture of why proper dishwashing matters: ensuring food safety.

But both his context and step-by-step instructions will be more generalized than Sam’s or Joshua’s, respectively.

While he can operate the dishwasher just fine when he has to, Joshua and Sam both, however, do the task more regularly and have a better idea of the specific steps and information required to operate their model of dishwasher.

Okay, but how will a writing agency help my SMEs?

A writing agency’s entire business typically revolves around the management of complex documentation projects, and they’ll have the experience your SMEs sorely lack.

Your SMEs will thus save a lot of time and energy because someone better qualified will be handling the writing of your SOP, with your SMEs providing the required materials and information.

A writing agency can work in ways that suit your business’s operations schedule, from on-site interviews and observations of your SMEs at work to remote screen captures as your SMEs walk the agency through their digital tasks.

Your SMEs also gain a safety net by working with a writing agency. The agency is more likely to catch any deficiencies in the information your SMEs give than if your SMEs wrote the SOP themselves.

This helps to avoid common mistakes SMEs make, like forgetting to mention specific steps of a process or being too technical in their descriptions.

Lastly, should you choose to adopt SOPs for your business, you will need multiple versions to cover all your regular procedures. Hiring the same writing agency to handle all of them is a much more efficient option than letting your SMEs go it alone.

Rather than having SMEs from different departments individually struggling to document their tasks, you can have the writing agency organize them into an overarching project. This can include the agency doing a full audit of your current documentation, determining which tasks still need to be recorded, and then making a timeline of which SOPs to complete first.

The agency can also help you choose the templates and formatting that will be best for your SOPs, maximizing their effectiveness.

Ultimately, hiring a writing agency to write your SOPs will save your SMEs time and headaches, and provide a much higher quality SOP.

Successful companies, big and small, live by clear and consistent instructions. These instructions are the building blocks of Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs).

Companies use SOPs to guide virtually every facet of their operations. Therefore, SOPs must communicate precisely what staff members must do in order to achieve the company’s objectives.

The challenge, however, is communicating these instructions so that everyone can easily grasp them.

In this article, we will explore five reasons why companies should consider hiring a writing agency for these Standard Operating Procedures.

But, before we get started, let’s dive into what SOPs are and why companies need them.

What are SOPs?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines SOPs as “established or prescribed methods to be followed routinely for the performance of designated operations or in designated situations.” Thus, the purpose of SOPs is to take the guesswork out of regular tasks.

SOPs aim to facilitate work so that staff members can be as productive as possible while minimizing risks and mistakes.

As a result, it makes sense to craft SOPs clearly and concisely.

SOPs, after all, become the backbone of a successful organization.

In a manner of speaking, SOPs are the playbook companies use to guide them to victory.

Why are SOPs critical to company success?

Since SOPs are the backbone of any successful company’s game plan, their importance goes without saying. However, companies tend to overlook one crucial factor: SOPs must be easy to understand and implement.

How so?

For instance, employee handbooks contain SOPs. When employee handbooks are clear and concise, there is little room for error.

In contrast, using complex prose in SOP drafting may cause staff members to miss the point of what SOPs intend to communicate.

The challenge for companies is to produce SOP texts that are straightforward and clearly articulate what staff members need to do.

Nevertheless, communicating complex procedures in plain language can often become a considerable challenge. The challenge magnifies when SOPs cover an extensive area of knowledge, such as entire systems.

Moreover, highly detailed technical processes require careful attention to detail.

When companies set out to formulate their SOPs, relying on their Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) is a given. Nevertheless, while SMEs are the go-to referents for technical knowledge, they may need a helping hand in producing the text end-users will engage.

Thus, it is worth looking into how a writing agency can help companies produce their SOPs.

Five Reasons Why Companies Should Hire a Writing Agency for Their SOPs

Hiring a writing agency can make the entire SOP formulation process straightforward when in doubt. Here are five key reasons why companies should hire a writing agency.

1. SMEs have the technical know-how but lack writing experience.

SMEs know their business. They are experts, after all. Nevertheless, SMEs may lack writing experience.

How so?

SMEs master their domain through years of training, study, and experience. While writing may be a part of their training, their focus is generally on technical documentation.

Consequently, technical documentation typically utilizes complex terminology which might not be easy to follow by non-experts.

Ultimately, an SME’s job is not necessarily to write documentation. Their job is predominantly focused on accomplishing specific organizational goals.

Thus, SMEs may lack the overall experience needed to produce documentation consistently.

2. Producing texts is not part of SMEs’ job.

Most technical job descriptions do not include producing content. However, most SMEs or staff members produce documentation regardless.

They do so because producing documentation is a part of the company’s processes. However, the issue arises when writing is not an explicit part of a staff member’s position.

Please note that staff members will go the extra mile to produce documentation. However, when producing texts is not a part of their job description, it becomes an additional task that may take away from a staff member’s core tasks.

As a result, staff members, including SMEs, may become overburdened. Overburdening may then lead to core tasks falling behind schedule.

It is, therefore, crucial to understand each staff member’s core tasks so they can focus solely on them.

3. Producing documentation is time-consuming.

Producing high-quality documentation is time-consuming. It is even more so when staff members must capture long and complex processes in black and white.

Consequently, companies may need to hire additional staff members to handle writing tasks. In doing so, producing documentation may take longer than anticipated.

Furthermore, producing top-notch documentation is not only about writing. Producing high-quality materials requires revision, editing, and proofreading.

These are all processes that require careful dedication and attention to detail.

Unless companies have a dedicated writing team, staff members may find it difficult to cope with their regular workload in addition to writing and editing tasks.

4. Having an in-house writing team is costly.

When companies opt to have dedicated, in-house writing teams, they soon find it becomes costly.

The cost involved in having a writing team goes beyond wages. A dedicated writing team may entail hiring them as part- or full-time employees. This approach means the company needs to pay benefits, insurance, or bonuses. Thus, the price tag on a writing team can get quite high.

If a company chooses to hire freelance writers, it may find itself dependent on a single person. If this writer, for any reason, chooses to leave the project, the company may need to scramble to find an alternative solution to complete the project.

In short, hiring a freelance writer may not be the best answer either.

5. The core business of companies is not writing.

Unless a company’s main purpose is producing documentation, writing does take away from its real core business.

For instance, a software company’s core business is producing software, not documentation.

Indeed, a software company must produce documentation to accompany its software releases. Nevertheless, this documentation is not their core business. Therefore, dedicating time and effort to producing documentation takes away from the company’s main objectives.

Companies need to devote their time and attention to boosting their core business in today’s competitive marketplace.

Otherwise, distractions may cause companies to lose ground with their competitors.

Consequently, outsourcing writing tasks is a great way to cut away from non-core functions. This approach allows companies to focus specifically on what they do best.

The Benefits of Hiring a Writing Agency

Companies have five key benefits when they work with a writing agency to produce their SOPs.

A writing agency is a team of experienced professionals.

Working with an individual writer is a good way to ensure high-quality documentation. However, there is one considerable drawback: Relying on a single writer may cause delays if the writer runs into any type of obstacles. If the writer leaves the project for any reason, the company will need to find someone else to pick up the slack quickly.

Delays essentially go away when hiring a writing agency.

A writing agency is a team of professionals that support one another and can pick up the slack when needed.

Additionally, a writing agency helps companies save time and effort because the agency has the experience and know-how to produce texts within a shorter timeframe.

In other words, the SMEs provide the materials and the writing agency puts pen to paper. This combination facilitates producing accurate, high-quality information in a much shorter turnaround time.

A writing agency is a multifaceted team.

Writing agencies often have a multifaceted team consisting of writers with diverse backgrounds. This combination of talent allows writing agencies to tackle any number of projects, regardless of topic, requirements, length, or specifics.

The secret lies in building a team of writers with a mix of experience and academic credentials.

Thus, company SMEs easily communicate with writers to produce the right documentation.

As a result, writers can easily communicate with SMEs to capture the essence of SOPs and translate the SOPs into language that everyone in the organization can grasp.

Please note that this is not about “simplifying” things. It is about articulating complex systems and procedures in a broadly appealing format.

Consequently, all stakeholders can find common ground, thereby facilitating communication across the board.

Furthermore, SMEs no longer need to go beyond their core functions. They can confidently focus on their tasks while the writing agency takes care of producing top-notch documentation.

A writing agency saves time and money.

In today’s business environment, time is money. Companies, therefore, seek to save on expenses without cutting corners. Unfortunately, some companies view hiring a writing company as an added expense.

In reality, hiring a writing agency saves time and money in the long run.

Consider this example:

What do most people do when a water pipe breaks?

Do they try to fix it themselves? Perhaps, if they have the time, knowledge, and tools.

Do they hire a full-time employee to fix the pipe? Most likely, not.

Most people call an expert, that is, a plumber, to fix the pipe. The plumber comes in, does the job, and leaves.

So, why do companies feel the need to ask their full-time employees to write, especially when it is not their area of expertise? Additionally, why do companies feel compelled to hire full-time employees to handle writing tasks?

Hiring a writing agency saves time and money by reducing the time needed to produce high-quality documentation.

Additionally, a writing agency’s fees reflect the project itself. There is no need to pay wages, benefits, insurance, and other associated expenses. A writing agency comes in, does its job, and sits back until the next project.

A writing agency allows companies to use their resources efficiently.

A writing agency helps companies cut down on time, money, and effort. Consequently, a writing agency allows its client companies to make more efficient use of their resources.

Consider this situation:

A company’s money invested in an in-house writing team could be better invested in bolstering its SME team, equipment, research, and operations. In the end, a writing agency can become part of the investment needed to take a project to fruition.

A writing agency allows companies to free up resources by eliminating the need to commit resources indefinitely, as would be the case with an in-house writing team.

Indeed, a writing agency helps businesses’ bottom lines financially and logistically.

A writing agency helps businesses focus on their core functions.

A writing agency’s core business is writing. So, it would make sense to delegate writing tasks to someone whose core business is writing.

By delegating writing tasks, companies can focus solely on their core business. This approach allows SMEs to devote more time and attention to what they do best.

Most important, hiring a writing company avoids overburdening staff members with tasks that may go beyond the regular scope of their functions.

Overall, a writing agency is the best way that companies can produce high-quality SOPs without needlessly overwhelming their staff.

One Last Thought

Professional writing agencies can help companies produce outstanding SOPs and first-rate documentation. However, the question might be, “How can companies find a reputable writing agency?”

Unfortunately, plenty of companies out there claim to be the best. So, here are three things to consider when looking for a professional writing agency.

• First, professional writing agencies are transparent. They are willing to work with their clients to ensure the best possible results. Moreover, they do not shy away from revising and reviewing work until it meets the necessary standards.
• Second, a reputable writing agency is clear about its limitations. Professional writing agencies recognize when a project does not fall within their area of expertise. In such cases, they will be upfront about it. Moreover, professional writing agencies will find a way to help even when they do not do any writing.
• Lastly, a respectable writing agency is realistic. Good writing agencies are honest about timeframes and costs. They do not overpromise by offering low-cost solutions. Plus, great writing agencies never cut corners. Ultimately, going with the lowest cost may end up costing far more in terms of revisions, editing, and rewrites.

A great place to start is through word-of-mouth. References are key. So, companies looking for a great writing agency would do well to ask around and take their search from there.