A simple and precise cannabis SOP is the foundation of nearly every successful cannabis business. SOP stands for standard operating procedures, which is a step-by-step detailed description of the daily activities and steps that must be followed in order for your cannabis business to function properly and generate a profit.
The cannabis industry is considerably new and is getting legitimized while legalization and licensed businesses quickly increase. So, how do SOPs translate for this new market segment, and why do you need cannabis SOPs for your business?
Here we will cover everything you need to know about cannabis industry SOPs.
Why do cannabis businesses need SOPs?
Without SOPs for your cannabis business, it may easily lose track of the daily activities that lead to effective management. With this in mind, cannabis SOPs can be developed and used to ensure consistency in both processes and product quality.
Benefits of Creating SOPs For Your Cannabis Business
Following are a few reasons why your cannabis business needs SOPs:
Avoid loss of institutional knowledge
Employees come and go, and when they do, they frequently take with them valuable knowledge about organizational practices. Without cannabis SOPs, it is impossible to replicate this lost knowledge, which forces businesses to frequently “reinvent the wheel.” For most organizations, that would be simply too expensive and time-consuming to sustain.
On the other side, employment process documentation helps your business continue as usual regardless of employee attrition caused by retirement and resignation. While it may be challenging to replace a knowledgeable employee, thorough, well-written SOPs guarantee that your valued business processes remain with your company.
Ensures consistency
The consistency that a set of established SOPs guarantees is one of its greatest benefits. Cannabis SOPs would enable all staff to carry out all company tasks in a definite way. This means that your entire staff will be following set procedures in your company. This can also reduce any potential problems that might result from inconsistent practices or staff who are unsure of how to complete tasks.
For instance, in the case of cannabis SOP for grow facilities, if there are no proper SOPs for harvesting the crops, the entire yield could get affected if a new untrained employee joins. Or worse, if you don’t have an SOP for your cannabis dispensary in place, two of your team members may provide a conflicting message to consumers, which may cause the customer to have a negative impression of your company.
Standardize Customer Service
Let’s say a consumer needs help because they have a question or a problem with one of your goods or services. How will the consumer even inquire if the organization hasn’t laid out any cannabis SOP template? Your company may have to pay a high price just for this one simple point.
The employees will have a proper follow-up routine and a designated inquiry process for the customer’s complete support with adequate operating procedure requirements. Additionally, this will greatly increase your customers’ value and their trust in your business.
Mitigate Risk
Cannabis SOPs outline the organization’s policies as well as the actions required to address each situation that is mentioned in the policy. They become our go-to manual for daily guidelines on how to conduct important tasks. Given the amount of turnover, cultivation, and customer walk-ins, this becomes increasingly crucial.
Ensuring that employee knowledge and processes are transferred even when the persons in charge of training are not available, hence minimizing risk. It is the quick guide that serves as the foundation for your training materials, employee certifications, and the resource that members of staff consult when they are unsure about how to respond in a particular scenario.
Having a set of SOP that reflects the essence of the organization, establishes the standards that the organization expects its employees to uphold. This reduces risk by making sure that every employee is on an equal footing and is aware of what to do in various situations. Roles become vague and the company culture is not consistent if this information is not shared with the employees.
Evaluate The SOP
No matter how much experience you have in creating cannabis SOPs, it is always best to review them after. Evaluate each procedure to make sure that it can handle each task in a consistent, repeatable manner.
For instance, if you’re evaluating your inventory management procedure, you’ll have to ensure that it guides your team to count products accurately, label them correctly, and stock the products to make auditing as straightforward as possible. The inventory management SOP must also include what to do with products that are not acceptable.
Think about how much time each task ought to take. After that, consider whether the quality measures are appropriate. But most significantly, you’ll need to make sure it fulfills the goals of your company.
Here, the major goal is to make these instructions as simple to follow as possible. You should execute your tasks quickly, consistently, and carefully. Avoid overcomplicating your SOPs as this will make training your employees more challenging.
Remember that your SOPs shouldn’t give your team members too many choices. Your daily operations will be less consistent if you give people various choices.
How Can Forte Help
A cannabis business cannot afford to make mistakes. Nobody has room to waste their time or money in such a strictly regulated industry that hasn’t yet become highly profitable. Your company needs the expert attention that an SOP partner expert can bring to the table when creating your standard operating procedure.
This is where Forte comes in with our high-quality SOP services. Our cannabis SOP templates will do the vast majority of the heavy lifting for your cannabis business. We will ensure that your SOPs are compliant and follow mandatory regulatory requirements.
Request a Demo today to get started with your own SOP project!
