SOPs and New Hire Briefings
What This Guide Covers
- How to turn the way you actually work into clear, written standard operating procedures
- How to use Claude to draft a new hire briefing document that gets someone up to speed faster
- How to keep procedures consistent across every staff member, not dependent on verbal tradition
Why This Matters
In a lot of small personal care businesses, procedures live entirely in the owner's head, passed down verbally to each new hire slightly differently. Writing procedures down once means every new hire gets the same accurate information.
Case Study
Amberlyn Salon Studio had trained three new stylists over two years, each one slightly differently depending on which existing staff member happened to show them the ropes. The owner used Claude to write down core procedures, from client check in to color mixing standards.
Result: The next new hire ramped up faster, and the owner spent noticeably less time answering the same repeated questions.
Step-by-Step Guide
- 1
List the procedures worth writing down
Focus on anything that currently lives only in your head.
- 2
Write each SOP with Claude
AI PromptHere are my rough notes on a procedure: [describe the process in your own words, including any details that matter, like exact timing or measurements] Write this as a clear standard operating procedure, numbered steps, in plain language a new hire with no prior experience at my business could follow.
- 3
Draft a new hire briefing document
AI PromptI have SOPs for the following procedures: [list them briefly] Write a new hire briefing document that introduces these procedures in a logical order for someone's first week, with a short intro paragraph for each explaining why it matters, not just what to do.
- 4
Review with an experienced staff member
Have them flag anything that doesn't match how things actually work in practice.
- 5
Store these where they're actually findable
A shared Notion page or Google Doc works well.
- 6
Update SOPs when a procedure genuinely changes
Frequently Asked Questions
How detailed should an SOP be?
Detailed enough that someone with no prior experience could follow it correctly.
Do I need SOPs if I don't have any employees yet?
It's still useful for training your first hire and noticing inconsistencies in your own process.
Should I write SOPs for everything, even small tasks?
Prioritize anything that affects client experience or safety.
What if my procedures are different from what's considered standard in the industry?
That's fine, as long as they work and meet any relevant safety or licensing requirements.