Once your process docs are easily viewed on any screen size (see: Tip 12), ensuring your team can easily find them is important.

One of the biggest complaints you’ll hear from any team when introducing process docs is that they have to leave their current tools only to have to open up or go to another platform to find out how to execute their responsibilities.

The solution is to simply incorporate your process docs into the platforms where your team works.

Here are a few examples…

Work management tools

Most process docs management systems will allow you to link to the assets you build. However, for maximum productivity, you’ll want to look for a tool like Arvo that allows you to embed process docs anywhere.

Asana

In Asana, you can add descriptions to teams, projects, and tasks. These are excellent places to link to the process doc related to the specific procedure.

ClickUp

In ClickUp, you can embed process docs directly into the Space, the Folder, the List, or even the Task Description. This makes it an incredibly powerful tool.

Monday

In Monday, you can get an add-on to embed process docs into board views.

Airtable

Airtable allows you to embed process docs directly into the table’s sidebar. This can be super handy in explaining how the table or views should be used.

A Word of Warning:

Don’t Add Process Docs Directly to Tasks

Processes and procedures have a way of changing often. When you add your procedure to a project or task template and then use that template 100 times, you have 100 copies of that process.

Let’s say you want to make a change to the process. You can edit the template, but what about the existing 100 copies already in your work management system?

You can leave the 100 existing copies, which can confuse your team. Or, you can go back and try to find the 100 copies and manually make the changes, which is extremely time-consuming and likely a lost cause.

No matter how you go, this is a recipe for disaster — avoid at all costs.

In the field

If you have workers in the field, you can leverage several strategies.

• QR Codes — make QR codes available on the equipment or other resources they have available to them. They can use a phone or tablet to quickly scan the code and get the process doc instantly.
• Digital Libraries — if they have a phone or tablet accessible, it’s possible to easily add one or more searchable libraries of process docs to the device's home screen.

At work stations

If you have workers working on a line or at a station, leverage QR codes to make it easy for them to bring up quick references or instructions on handling specific machinery, cleaning procedures, and more.

Notes on Training

Often times you’ll rely on managers to train new hires. Use these and similar strategies to ensure they have easy training material on hand so that the onboarding and execution of the training is always done in the same.

Summary

1. Create a single source of truth for your process docs
2. Link or embed from that source, do not make copies
3. Use QR codes for “in the field” situations to make finding the right docs easy for your team.