Training new hires and writing SOPs for a trades business
The fastest way to write SOPs for a trades business is to record your best person doing the task in a short video, then turn the recording into a one-page written guide, and keep both where the crew already looks. AI is good at the second step: it turns a recording into numbered steps that the person who does the job then checks. Z&G Partners writes a plain guide for every system we build, and we can help you do the same for the rest of the office. We have not built a hiring system for a client, and we say so plainly.
What owners tell us
The SOPs exist, but nobody uses them. One owner said: “We have a whole system and it's pretty intricate and they do none of it.”
Everything runs through one person. A general manager told us: “I'm the GM of the company, but I also am fulfilling the controller's role at this point.” When the person who knows how to do it is out, the work waits.
Why training breaks down
- SOPs are written once, in a long binder, and never updated.
- The real steps live in one person's head.
- Training a new hire means pulling your best person off the job to shadow them.
- Crews mix ages, languages and comfort with phones and apps, so one format does not fit everyone.
- Nobody sees the fit problem until it costs money. At one company, a crew leader had been handed 13 people and could really manage six. That used to surface mid-season, by accident.
How we would solve it
This is how we would approach it with you. It is not a packaged product we have shipped to a client.
- Record each task as it is really done: a few minutes of screen or phone video, one task per video.
- Turn each recording into a one-page written guide with AI, then have the person who does the job check it.
- Make a version in Spanish where your crew needs one.
- Keep the videos and guides where your team already works, like a shared drive or your project tool, and name one owner for each.
- Automate the steps you can first, so there is less to train. A task the system does on its own needs no SOP.
What we already do
- Every automation we build comes with a plain user guide, written for the office staff who run it, and a daily summary email.
- At a painting company in Cape Cod, a crew skills directory refreshes itself from the HR roster, so the office knows who can do what.
- Our free webinar toolkit for trades owners includes a guide to recording video SOPs.
What about hiring?
We have not built hiring or recruiting automation for a client yet. If hiring is your biggest leak, tell us on the call, and we will tell you straight whether we are the right people for it.
What it costs
A plain user guide is part of every build we do. For SOP work beyond that, we quote it on a free 30-minute call.
If training is hard because the office is buried in typing, start there. See where AI helps a trades business.
Questions owners ask
What do I need to record SOP videos?
A phone or a free screen recorder. One task per video, a few minutes long, done by the person who does it best.
Can AI write our SOPs for us?
It can write the first draft from a recording. A person who does the job has to check it. AI cannot know how your company does the work unless someone shows it.
Do you build hiring or recruiting automation?
Not yet. We will not sell you something we have not built for a client.
Book a free 30-minute callWe take on 3 new trades companies per month.