Standard Operating Procedures

Learn About Dining Standard Operating Procedures

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  What are standard operating procedures?

  Standard operating procedures (SOPs) outline how Dining Services business processes should be carried out. They are less formal than official unit policies and procedures. Dining has created a template so that SOPs look similar and cover the same basic set of information for each business process (purpose, responsibilities, definitions, training materials, and links to other resources).

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  Are SOPs different than policies?

  There is a hierarchy of procedure and documentation in Dining Services. See the chart below for reference. Unit policies and procedures focus on the "what" and "why" and have a thorough review and approval process. SOPs focus on the "how", and our intention is that they are dynamic and easy to update.

  

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  Who is responsible for writing, updating, and approving SOPs?

  The Dining Executive Team, support group managers, and other full-time employees in administrative support groups are responsible to create standard operating procedures for business processes they are responsible for which affect two or more Dining Services departments/support groups.

  SOPs are intended to be dynamic, so there is a simpler approval process than for unit policies and procedures. "SOP Owners" are expected to operate within their jurisdiction AND collaborate with department stakeholders when creating and updating SOPs. SOP Owners submit proposed SOPs (and revisions) to Dining Services by emailing them to dininghelpdesk@byu.edu. An SOP reviewer looks through them for grammar and consistency. A member of the Dining Executive Team approves the final version before the document is published on the Dining Services website.

  Concerns with SOPs should be addressed to the SOP owner or through the concerned employee's upline to the Dining Executive Team.

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  How are SOPs formatted?

  SOPs are created/modified in word documents and published as PDFs on the website. This enables the SOP Owner to modify the SOPs themselves (instead of working with a web developer to update a web page).

  Each SOP Document may contain the following elements:

  Element	Description	Required or Optional
  Properties	Header in the SOP template that defines the SOP Owner, Accountable Group, Type of Business Process, and the SOP Collection.	Required
  Purpose	A few sentences describing the purpose of the SOP.	Required
  Responsibilities	Define responsibilities of the business process, specifically differentiating between "area" and "centralized" responsibility.	Required
  Definitions	Define terms used in the SOP/business process.	Optional
  SOP User Guide	Detailed instructions for how the business process is to be completed.	Optional
  Training Videos and Other Resources	It can be helpful to include links in the user guide to training videos and other resources.	Optional

  For more information, review this example SOP with notes.

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  Sample SOPs
  • Simple Example: Equipment Retrieval SOP
  • Longer Example: Managing Inventory SOP
  • Dining SOP Example with Notes
  • Dining SOP Template (Blank)