What are Work Instructions? (+6 Work Instructions Templates for You to Use)

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Your company is growing daily, so you need to keep your processes consistent. Templates can help your employees perform tasks effectively — without hassle.

But most brands don’t create a work instruction template because they think employees already or could easily understand every process and procedure by implementing them. 

However, not having a template can increase the chances of employee accidents and mistakes. In this blog, we’re going to help you understand the importance of a work instruction template.

This blog includes the following templates:

• Project work instructions template
• Safety work instruction template
• Assembly work instructions template
• Visual work instructions template
• Construction site work instruction template
• Manufacturing work instruction template

What are work instructions?

Work Instructions are documents that describe the right way to perform a task. Not having them increases the chances of employees getting it wrong. 

You need to describe, dictate or stipulate the steps your team needs to follow to complete any specific activity or work. 

We know what you’re thinking: sounds exactly like SOPs. But no, it isn’t SOPs and work instructions each have their own specific value for your business. 

In short, SOPs are a set of ways to complete a process, while work instructions explain the smaller steps to complete a specific task. 

What are the requirements of great work instruction?

Work instructions can be a huge responsibility. You need to make sure they’re accurate, standardized and compliant. Here are traits of great work instructions:

Work instructions are clear

When employees read your work instructions, they need to understand them. Avoid complex sentences and multi-syllable words; don’t add jargon without an explanation. 

To make it easier for them:

• Write in an active voice.
• Write a clear title that explains the doc’s purpose. 
• Ensure your introduction gives context and speaks to the right audience.
• Format your instructions well and add images for better understanding.

Work instructions are accessible

Work instructions won’t make any difference if employees can’t access them. 

Ensure work instructions are where employees need them, whether on the ground floor or in a shared knowledge base. For example, you created a work instruction for factory workers but stored it on the office computer. It won’t make sense for them to come into the office whenever they need to reference something. It wastes time and could potentially be dangerous. 

Work instructions are credible 

When you create work instructions, ensure they’re credible enough for employees to trust them.

Here’s how you can do it:

• Make sure the writer is a subject matter expert on the topic.
• Gain some additional perspectives to spot any mistakes or gaps.
• Proofread for any spelling or grammatical errors. 

6 Types of work instruction templates

You can create any type of template to help you with development. Here’s a list of six crucial work instruction templates to get you started. 

1. Project work instruction template

In your organization, you likely have multiple projects going on at the same time. A template helps you outline objectives, actions and tasks for each process. You can use it to explain general and industry-specific work projects. 

A project instruction template should have the following details:

• Project name.
• Project date.
• Person in-charge. (Usually a manager or coordinator)
• Project approved by. (usually a director or supervisor)
• A detailed description of the project. 
• Objective.
• Action.

Here’s a project work instructions template template that outlines these steps in more detail. 

2. Safety work instruction template

Safety work instructions outline health and safety guidelines for using the machinery and equipment based on a task. Following safety work instructions will help you decrease any anticipated workplace incidents. 

You can help your employees with strict safety policies with a preset safety work instruction template. This template should include two sections, and in the first section, you need to add:

• Activity title.
• Created by.
• Document no.
• Risk assessment no.
• Initial issue date.
• Current version.
• Next review date.
• Scope of the task.
• Authorization required to perform the task.
• Prerequisites.

In the second section, you need to add:

• Hazards.
• Safety controls and Emergency Procedures
• Instructions.

3. Assembly work instruction template

Assembly work instructions generally use mockups after completing all design, prototyping and verification. 

Creating an assembly work instructions template will help you document every last detail of the assembly process. You can add every step in detail and add any relevant quality checks for completion. 

In this template, you need to add:

• Title and description of the process.
• Who is the team leader.
• Who is the supervisor.
• Step descriptions.
• Sampling.
• Tool to use.
• Any additional notes.
• Time.

4. Visual work instruction template

Visual work instructions educate your employees about the work procedures through visual aids or graphics. Graphics allow users to see what the end product would look like and the steps you need to reach there.

In this visual work instructions template, you need to add:

• Title and description.
• Created by.
• The objective of this template.
• Prerequisites and expected results.
• Steps and a space to insert an image for the same.

5. Construction site work instruction template

Construction projects take a lot of effort and time. You must take care of many things to ensure everything aligns with your primary goals and objectives. This template can create comprehensive, logical instructions for a construction process or project. 

This construction site work instruction template should include:

• Title and description of the construction process.
• Created by.
• Process number.
• Initial issue date.
• Current version.
• Bill of materials.
• Outsourcing.
• Routings.
• Cost.
• Projected completion date.
• Actual completion date.

6. Manufacturing work instruction template

Manufacturing work instructions help manufacturing teams accurately create, package, label, and ship products per the required specifications.

You can use this template to outline the framework and instruction for a process. This template will help you to provide detailed instructions on each manufacturing procedure. 

Here’s what you need to include in this manufacturing work instruction template:

• Title and description of the manufacturing process.
• Created by.
• What’s the scope?
• Process number.
• Initial issue date.
• Inventory details.
• Cost.
• Master production schedule.
• Steps in the procedure.

5 work instruction tools to make the process of creating work instructions easier

To save your time and make things easier for you we’ve created a list of work instruction software. 

1. Scribe

Creating a work instruction and maintaining it can be a huge challenge. Work instructions are supposed to save you time, but it isn’t beneficial to you if you spend more time correcting any possible mistakes in it. 

Scribe can help you turn any work instruction into a step-by-step guide instantly. It helps you document your business processes by capturing your screen. Besides the speed, it makes your work instructions more presentable and easy to understand.

Scribe Features:

• The browser and desktop extension.
• Advanced formatting options for your work instructions.
• Share with the relevant people through a public link.
• You can create individual Scribes for each substep in your work instruction and embed them into the core page to create a comprehensive document. 
• Embed your document in your wiki, confluence, or website.
• Export it in multiple formats such as PDF, HTML, or markdown.

Scribe Pricing:

• To begin with, it has a free version, and the pro plan costs $29 per user per month.

2. Starling work instruction software

Starling is an easy-to-use work instruction and training software. You can create work instructions and manage the training—in real-time and all from one place. It helps simplify and automate the manual tasks associated with work instructions.

Starling Features:

• Automate your training process by integrating the staff training and work instructions.
• Intuitive and simple UI makes it easier for users to navigate easily.
• Let’s you record videos directly from the Starling app through any device.

Starling Pricing:

• It has two plans, starting from £295 per month.

3. Screensteps

Screensteps is a documentation software that helps your employees save time and follow procedures. It helps you reduce errors and enhance the productivity of your employees. 

Screensteps Features:

• Integrated screen capture.
• Ask questions to your employees and modify your documents according to their answers.
• Interactive checklists to add any reference information.
• Link to additional information.

Screensteps Pricing

• It has two plans, and it starts from $4,500 per year.

4. Stonly

Stonly allows you to create interactive guides for your employees and customers to understand your product easily. You can use scripted guides, interactive decision trees, and knowledge bases to aid your customer support in understanding customers’ concerns better. 

Stonly Features:

• Mobile user support.
• Allowing users to customize chat colors, text, logs, and branding.
• Integrates with other software to improve productivity.

Stonly Pricing:

• It has three plans and starter plan begin at $99 per month.

5. REWO

REWO is a plug-and-play end-to-end video platform for documentation that can transfer knowledge up to 12x faster than traditional documents. It has improved capturing, visualizing, and communicating knowledge to anyone within the corporate ecosystem.

REWO Features:

• Easy to onboard people.
• Flexible integration options.
• Record with any existing hardware.
• On-premise or cloud deployment.

REWO Pricing:

• You need to schedule a demo to know more details about their pricing.

Wrapping up — are you ready to make winning work instructions?

If you want to increase workplace efficiency, then you need to invest in work instruction templates. You’ll realize how much easier your life has become after creating these templates. A standardized process is the kind of process that wins!

Scribe can help you keep things consistent with every work instruction template you create. 

Let Scribe work while you work to create beautiful and engaging work instructions for your team. The best part is you can start for free.