The Forgotten S.O.P.

The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (iiED) is dedicated to cultivating entrepreneurship and economic growth within the Monterey Bay. Its goal is to create a pipeline of entrepreneurs from the Monterey Bay region who remain local and are able to increase the number of businesses and high-paying jobs in the area. To reach this goal, iiED provides multiple opportunities to its participants and tailors those opportunities based on their feedback. Recently, iiED’s management has begun to experience turnover as individuals retire or reduce their work hours. As a result, iiED has begun to depend on the specialized knowledge of key individual employees, which jeopardizes its sustainability. This project aims to redistribute the workload of key employees to reduce the risk of burnout by creating comprehensive job aids and standard operating procedures (SOP) for iiED’s budget management and has assisted with the facilitation of the creation of an accounting intern position. This position will take on some of the more timely tasks associated with budget tracking and reconciliation. Moving forward, iiED will need to maintain these job aids and provide training for any future accounting interns. It is also recommended that iiED focus on creating manuals for each of its positions that contain SOPs, job aids, position tasks, and resources that are position-specific. iiED should also continue to use team task tracking tools, like Basecamp, to ensure task continuity in the event of sudden turnover.