Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Project Study # 13
Increasing the number of Standard Operating Procedures
Project Description: Implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs) in the system as a
training tool.
Size of Utility: 310 employees
Critical Success Factors: Adequate technology and skill sets of staff.
Costs: Most of the cost is staff time, utilizing existing resources and reprioritizing work to allow
enough time to write and implement standard operating procedures. Typically in operations
employee strength is their operational skills, not in their technical writing ability. They have to
be interviewed or videotaped in order to provide a starting point for a specific standard operating
procedure.
Alignment: This project study is aligned with succession planning, because of the high rate of
retirement that is expected over the next five to ten years. It is a way to capture institutional
knowledge in a form that can be passed on to new employees. It also ties into technology
planning by documenting the SOP and standardizing the data that is related to a specific
operation and having the technology in place for implementation. Further, it is aligned with the
utility’s strategic plan by trying to create a workplace that attracts and retains employees.
Benefits: The utility is seeing improved training programs. In addition, when the organization
reviews the completed SOP’s after a year or two, the utility is able to tweak them instead of
having to recall the entire procedure from employee memory.
Compiled April 2008
_____________________________
POC:
Cheryl Nero or Dave Matthews
City of Akron Public Utilities Bureau
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