Guides

Guides and templates

Practical guides you can use today, each paired with a free tool and a printable PDF.

Six guides

Free guides and templates

SOP template guideA one page SOP format with every field explained, plus a worked example.Read more 30 60 90 day onboarding planA week by week ramp plan for frontline and operations roles, with checkpoints.Read more Employee onboarding checklistBefore day one through day 90, for the manager, the buddy and the new hire.Read more Cost of employee turnover explainedHow to calculate what turnover costs, with sourced benchmarks and a worked example.Read more What is a bottleneck in business?How to find the one step that limits everything else, and what to do about it.Read more Glossary of operations and L&D termsSOP, RACI, ramp, nesting, KPI, fractional and 30 more terms in plain English.Read more ComparisonsFair, sourced comparisons of the options for getting operations and training help.Read more

The short answerThese free guides cover the operations basics most growing businesses need: how to write an SOP, a 30 60 90 day onboarding plan, an onboarding checklist, how to calculate the cost of turnover, how to find your bottleneck and a glossary of operations and L&D terms. Each links to a matching free tool and PDF.

Start here

If you are not sure where to begin, start with the bottleneck guide and the Bottleneck Finder. They tell you which problem to solve first. Then use the matching guide: SOPs if knowledge is stuck in people's heads, the onboarding plan and checklist if new hires ramp slowly, and the turnover guide if people keep leaving.

All of the printable resources live on the resources page. No email is needed to see tool results.

What is in each guide

SOP template: an eight field format, a worked example and the rules that keep SOPs alive.
30 60 90 day onboarding plan: goals for each stage, who does what and the checkpoint questions.
Employee onboarding checklist: before day one through day 90, with an owner for every line.
Cost of employee turnover: the formula, sourced benchmarks and a worked example.
What is a bottleneck: how to find the step that limits everything else and what to do about it.
Glossary: 35 operations and L&D terms in plain English.

The guides are written for owners and managers of teams of 10 to 250 people. They assume no HR department and no operations staff, just a business that has outgrown doing everything by memory.