Why You Need an Operations Manual
An Operations Manual is one of the single, most important books your company can have.
Save for your financial and other similar sensitive detail, it should outline how your company runs and operates from the moment you “turn on the lights,” until it’s time to go home.
What Does an Operations Manual Include?
Your Operations Manual is comprehensive of operational procedure for different sectors of your company. Let’s divide this example into two parts:
First, general process for everyone:
- Opening/Closing Procedure
- Safety Procedure
- Emergency Procedure
Then, departments:
- Marketing
- Sales
- Supply Chain
- Etc.
Each of these departments will have its own set of rules, procedures, and implementations. But usually, there’s first a general section that has information for everyone.
Importance of an Ops Manual
An Ops Manual carries important information about the company, so many business owners are careful with it. Some businesses consult their general counsel as to what goes in the manual, the verbiage, and where to keep it. So do check with your legal people about your manual.
Also, because business owners don’t necessarily want to give away the house to everyone walking into the business, they create different manuals for training.
Enter the Employee Training Manual
Employee Training Manuals come in different versions, depending on what you need. For example:
- Salary Employee Training Manual
- Hourly Employee Manual
And you may be wondering…
Can’t You Just Hand the Operations Manual to Any New Employee?
Well, sure. But…does a new employee need to know everything in your Operations Manual, or is it a gradual increase of responsibility for them?
For example, an Hourly Employee may only need to know:
- Safety Procedure
- Emergency Procedure
- Individual Responsibilities for their position
And even then, it’s a good idea to have the Employee Manual in digestible chunks for your employees. Also, it’s an even better idea to have someone to walk them through the information.
Enter the Trainer’s Manual
Rather than give your employees a book or sit them in front of a computer to complete videos or modules, here comes the trainer. The trainer holds a version of the Employee Manual with suggested activities, timed activities, and the daily breakdown of your employee training.
Think of the Trainer’s Manual as the Teacher’s Copy a textbook. You knew your teacher’s copy looked differently, right? It’s because it held exercises, answers, and suggested activities you didn’t see in your textbook.
How Does This Tie Back to the Operations Manual?
The Operations Manual is the big bang. It’s the informant of the trickle-down effect of your training materials. Without having everything written down in one holistic place, then your point of departure could be off.
If anything changes, the updates start there. And then you know you must trickle down the changes to your other documents.
Who Are We?
We are Miranda Park Learning, your instructional design experts. When you’re ready to create an Operations Manual for your company, call us at 720-722-9998 or contact us here. We’ll help you create your Ops Manual and the training materials that follow.
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