When new employees enter your shelter, do they feel like strangers in a strange land - with no tools to help them navigate planet Earth? Are veteran staff members complaining about even the slightest change in procedure each time you institute something new? Do citizens have little idea what to expect when they request your agency's services? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, it might be time to formalize your standard operating procedures.

And if you've read this far already, congratulations! Such bureaucratese - complete with its own time-saving abbreviation, "SOP" - is enough to make the eyes of the most enthusiastic person glaze over.

But the fact is we have SOPs for almost everything we do in life, from making toast to driving a car. SOPs are embedded in our behaviour. Leaving the house, we don't consciously think to ourselves: Take key out to car; insert key in lock; turn key; remove key; open door using handle; step into car; sit in seat behind steering wheel; fasten seatbelt; adjust rear-view mirror, etc. - but we do those things, usually in the same order, day after day. That we barely have to think about them simply shows how fully we've internalized a series of simple actions that we know will allow us to drive to the store to buy a loaf of bread.

But imagine if you landed on earth for the first time and someone asked you to "pick up some bread." To those who have done so thousands of times, it's a simple instruction. To those who've just landed, it would be a complex mystery: Pick up bread? What is bread? Why should I pick it up? Where and how should I pick it up? What do I do with it after I have picked it up and am holding it in midair?

Every day in an animal shelter, thousands of tasks are performed by earthlings who know how to do them so well they barely think about them. And every day in an animal shelter, aliens from another planet - or, as some call them, new staffers and volunteers - watch in mystification, hoping to figure out what's going on so they can live long and prosper in this strange new world. It is primarily for the sake of these alien visitors - aliens whom many shelters hope to colonize and make into happy shelter "earthlings," that the SOPs that govern the work of animal shelter staff must be formalized in writing.

In a shelter setting, every piece of the work that staff and volunteers do throughout the day - whether it's admitting animals, answering the phones, feeding and cleaning, performing euthanasia, working the radio dispatch system, handling cash, or talking to the media-should be clearly described in the set of written SOPs the shelter has developed; these written SOPs should be read and reviewed regularly by all staff so that everyone in the shelter better understands their job  and the jobs that others do.

These guidelines should also help link cause and effect-not just for the aliens, but for the earthlings themselves. When you've been repeating the same process over and over again, you can sometimes forget why you do it. Having a manual that explains the reasons behind sanitation guidelines, for example, can remind long-term staff that their rote behaviours are grounded in logic and ethics: Sanitation plays a major part in the appearance of the shelter, in disease control, and in the comfort of the animals. This makes for a healthier animal population, which in turn positively influences both morale and public perception of the shelter, which ultimately can help increase adoptions and encourage citizens to take advantage of other shelter services.

A Strange New World

Life in the world of an animal shelter is inherently chaotic. Staff frequently wear numerous hats, running from one dissimilar task to the next, constantly on the go and constantly facing new demands on their time. Because of the fast-paced environment, training of recently landed staff and volunteers is often done on the fly, with newbies learning by osmosis through following the quickly conveyed directions and examples of more experienced employees.

And while learning by watching is valuable, the employee the newbie is learning from often learned his job in the same manner, making the process of passing on organizational knowledge like an extended game of telephone. The directions for how to clean a cat cage that were provided to Steve eight years ago-by his supervisor, who was in a hurry that morning-change a little bit each time Steve relays them, and change again each time that person passes on the information. Absent a set of written SOPs, given only this hand-me-down guidance, newly arrived staff tend to develop their own methods for doing a job-which may or may not be the most humane and effective.

In larger shelters especially, whole weeks can go by with a staffer working in one area of the shelter not seeing a staffer who works in another department. Having and using written SOP manuals can help clarify the purpose and process of work that staff in one area never see performed; this helps foster effective communication organization-wide. Written SOPs build consistency and cooperation among staff who better understand not only their own jobs but also those of their colleagues; recorded protocols help employees see how each job fits into the larger mission of the organization.

What's more, most shelters suffer from high rates of staff turnover. Often as soon as one staffer has become an expert at managing certain jobs or areas of business, she leaves-taking all of her knowledge and experience with her.

The combination of the chaotic environment and the high rate of turnover at many shelters jeopardizes organizational stability. If the best-performing staff leave to seek out new planets of their own, their departure can sweep the procedural foundation away and leave the shelter struggling. Having written guidelines for how the shelter's workers should perform their jobs solidifies the operational structure of the organization, making training of new employees easier and helping to ensure that institutional memory isn't lost.

Mistakes and crises will happen in every animal shelter from time to time, but a lack of standardized procedures makes them almost inevitable. For example, when there is not a universally understood review process for making euthanasia decisions and completing the necessary paperwork for individual animals, euthanasia of the wrong animal is far more likely to occur. When there are not written procedures explaining the processes for quarantining a vicious or rabies suspect animal (where the animal is to be housed, what kind of signage should warn the public not to touch the animal, etc.) a visitor is more likely to get bitten. When there are not written procedures explaining the hows and whys of the cleaning process, disease can more easily get its foot in the door. Any of these scenarios presents the potential for human and animal tragedy, organizational liability, and the crises in reputation and credibility that follow such public snafus.

A Process For All Earthlings

Written procedures are excellent tools for reducing confusion about organizational structure, values, and processes. But it's not enough to simply post a memo on a wall and expect the new procedures to be immediately adopted. Earthlings who've been functioning in their world for a while will fear and resist change, especially when the change seems arbitrary. If staff aren't involved in the overall context from which the organization's policies are born, they will often see nothing more than a constant flux of exasperating new rules forced upon them by management. Involving staff from the beginning will not only make them more receptive; it will also help them see that much of the process is simply a formalization of the tasks they've been performing all along.

Working together to iron out the details of operating objectives can do much to alleviate future problems. Well-structured planning sessions serve to bring to the surface any simmering confusion or disagreements among staff about their jobs; these can then be resolved openly, helping to build a common understanding of the issues.

When you start working on the actual procedures, figure out what you need to cover and how detailed you should be in your descriptions. Will you use these descriptions to train new staff? To assess the performance of those on the job?

Have staff make individual or departmental lists (whichever makes sense for the size and scope of your organization) of all the things they do throughout the day: clean, answer phones, take in animals, etc. Once the lists are made, you can divide the tasks into logical categories such as office administration, animal care, cleaning, animal rescue and control, and so on. An outline should naturally begin to appear; once you've got it, you can circulate it among staff for review before beginning to work on the text of the SOPs.

After gaining consensus that the lists of tasks are complete, you can start working on writing the SOPs. Some procedures are simple and will require only a few lines, but in the case of more complex work (for example, counselling a potential adopter), it may help to write a heading and introduction followed by an explanation of why the task is necessary; which staff should be involved; how the task should be performed; and when and how often it needs to be done.

Keep the "alien" newbies in mind as you develop the procedures. Don't assume your readers already understand; this manual will serve as a training tool, so avoid using abbreviations (like "RTO") and shelter slang (like "chipping") that new staff members (and, by extension, members of the public) won't be familiar with. Be precise: A procedure such as "Before placing a dog in the general animal housing area, assess his or her temperament" may confuse new staff (or result in a bite!). Remember that you need to create descriptions for Martians who have just landed in your world: Everything is new to them; they have never done any of this before, so you'll want to describe in detail exactly how to evaluate a dog's temperament.

Your SOP manual will go through many drafts and reviews before it's all done, but when you think it's reaching that close-to-perfect stage, you might find it helpful to have it reviewed by an outsider for clarity and consistency. And it's a good idea to have a lawyer look at it too: All documented operating and personnel-related policies and procedures should include a legal review to ensure that the organization is operating within the bounds of statutory authority, following legal mandates in personnel issues, and avoiding any unnecessary legal challenges.

AS TIME GOES ON, you'll want to re-evaluate the SOPs you've developed to make sure they're still working for you. Consider the following questions:

Where are they kept now? Is the "centralised" copy still readily available? Does everyone have a copy? Do new staff get a copy right away? Do you get blank stares when you talk to staff about policies? Do you hear consistent grumbling from staff regarding particular procedures? Is the manual comprehensive? Does it seem to elecit more questions than answers for new staff? Have new technologies superseded old methods?  Have you solicited suggestions for improvement?

Once you've got the final document, have a general meeting to provide copies to all staff and explain again how the manual will be used. Make sure they understand the document is required reading and that all staff should be following the SOPs. At some point, staff and volunteers should sign a dated confirmation letter stating that they have read and understand the material covered by the SOP manual. This document should then be placed in each staff member's personnel file as a matter of record-and a centrally located, easy-to-access copy of the SOP manual should be available to staff at all times.

With all the chaos of the shelter environment, it's easy for everyday problems to turn into crisis management situations. But if you can schedule some time to work with staff on developing the manual, your agency will be the better for it in the long run. And when the aliens land, there will be no shortage of leaders for you to take them to.

Source: By Carrie Allan This article was adapted from materials created by HSUS Animal Sheltering Issues. Sept/Oct 2004