How to Write Good Work Instructions

Explaining to other people how to complete a task through written instructions may be one of the most difficult tasks in the workplace. In maintenance, this lack of correct communication when it comes to work instructions can have costly and potentially dangerous outcomes.

When work instructions are written poorly, a maintenance task may be performed incorrectly or incompletely. This can result in machine breakdowns, downtime, accidents, and injuries. In addition, having bad work instructions can be demoralizing to employees who feel they do not have the tools to do their jobs correctly. This means an extended training time, poor knowledge transfer, a negative culture, and higher turnover.

As you can see, poor work instructions can cause a negative ripple effect throughout the organization. Conversely, good work instructions can help maintenance, operations, and reliability teams perform optimally, resulting in positive outcomes and benefits throughout the company.

What Are Work Instructions?

Work instructions are the detailed steps required to complete a specific task. Although they have historically been in written form only; today, it’s much easier to incorporate images, drawings, and even videos as part of work instructions to increase understanding, comprehension, and adherence. In addition, computerization of work instructions has increased access and improved formatting of the needed information.

The Difference Between Work Instructions and SOPs

Often, the terms “work instructions” and “standard operating procedures” are used interchangeably. Although they are related, there are important differences. SOPs define the “big picture,” helping employees see what procedures are required, how they fit into the daily work, and why they are important. Work instructions fall under SOPs, detailing the individual steps required to complete those procedures successfully.

Work Instruction Best Practices

Work instruction best practices mimic what’s required in excellent communications. Here are some key characteristics:

• Clarity. The instruction should be extremely clear and as simple as possible. Avoid acronyms, complex explanations, and unneeded tangents. 

• Brevity. Write each instruction as a separate step and keep it as short and tight as possible. Avoid extra words.

• Accuracy. Be sure the work instruction helps a technician complete the task correctly and accurately.

• Reliability. Involve seasoned employees to write or test new work instructions to ensure they are correct and complete.

• Visual. Include diagrams, photos, images and even videos if possible to better illustrate work instructions.

• Accessible. Employees must be able to quickly find the appropriate work instruction when they need it. Having a computerized system that organizes, maintains, and delivers work instructions at the right point in time is invaluable.

How to Write Great Work Instructions

In an effort to illustrate by example, here are the steps to write good work instructions:

1. Create a succinct title. Starting with the title forces you to get to the point of your work instruction. All the subsequent steps must stay in line with your chosen title.

2. Provide a brief context in the introduction. Although you don’t want to have a lengthy introduction, it can be important to explain why this work instruction is important, where it fits into the overall SOP, and who is responsible for the task completion.

3. List needed items. There’s nothing more frustrating to a technician than to be part way through a repair and realize tools or parts are missing. List all the materials, supplies, and tools that are needed to complete the task at hand. If items are out of stock, being able to notify purchasing at this point ensures items are reordered in a timely manner.

4. Choose the best format. Consider the work instruction at hand and select the best format for laying out the steps. For example, a decision tree can be an excellent tool when if-then decisions are involved. A complex work instruction should be broken down into individual steps that each take no more than 10 to 15 seconds to complete.

5. Check for readability. Incorporate images, drawings, highlighting, boldfacing, and bullet lists throughout to make the instruction as easy to read and understand as possible.

6. Simplify. Go back through the work instruction and remove extra words, explain or take out acronyms, add links to reference charts if needed, and be sure that you are consistent with language.

7. Add supporting information. Although you don’t want to clutter up the actual instruction with extra details, it can be useful to include footnotes or links to background or additional information if the reader would like to learn more.

8. Test before launching. Select three to five employees, ideally who are very different in nature, to review the work instructions and perform the tasks at hand. Watch carefully to see how each interprets the instruction and note misunderstandings or errors so the final work instructions can be clarified and improved upon before widespread launch.

Work Instructions Example

Each work instruction will be unique in terms of length and detail depending upon the complexity of the work instruction itself. Let’s take a very simple task to illustrate a good work instruction.

Task: How to Change a Furnace Filter

Introduction: Replacing the furnace filter on a quarterly basis is important for the optimal performance of the HVAC system and to improve air quality. The maintenance department is responsible for performing this task.

Supplies: New furnace filter, flathead screwdriver

Instruction (use images):

1. Find the filter door, which is located on the southside of the furnace unit.

2. Remove the four screws.

3. Remove the door by lifting up and out.

4. Remove the entire blue casing from the unit.

5. Unlatch the blue casing from around the filter by releasing four corner tabs.

6. Remove the old filter and discard.

7. Place the new filter into the casing, paying attention to air flow direction.

8. Latch four corner tabs.

9. Insert the casing back into the unit.

10. Match the bottom of the main door to the opening, pushing down and in to replace.

11. Replace four screws.

12. Document task in computer maintenance management system.

Benefits of Great Work Instructions

Investing the time in writing good work instructions will generate many long-term benefits for an organization. Here are some of the main ones:

Easy Knowledge Transfer

In today’s day and age, people change jobs and careers multiple times. Being able to easily and efficiently transfer knowledge to new employees can make a big difference in the overall efficiency of an organization.

Safety Risk Reduction

Clear work instructions can go a long way in meeting safety and OSHA requirements. If employees know the proper and complete way to perform tasks, the risks of accident and injury can be substantially decreased.

Culture of Empowerment

When technicians know what needs to be done and how to do it properly, they will often step up to the challenge. If they feel empowered to do a good job and contribute to the overall value of a team, there will be an overall positive culture, which reduces turnover and improves employee experience.

Lower Costs

Completing tasks correctly each and every time eliminates rework, reduces downtime, and can improve the overall reliability of critical assets. All of these result in lower costs and greater productivity, having a direct impact on a company’s bottom line.