New Hampshire Department of Transportation Standard Operating System (SOS) AASHTO Agency Administration Conference May 2019

NH DOT 2000 employees 100 statewide locations 24 business units 1640 full time employees 100 statewide locations 24 business units

It all started with Asset Management… Asset management became a more formal, documented, data driven process in 2017. Multidisciplinary workgroups for 5 focus areas were created Get away from silo thinking and decision making Workgroups have strategic plans, delivery requirements

NH DOT: Workgroups

Policy & Records Workgroup Goals: Policies and procedures exist for all major functions Policies and procedures are current and accessible Policies and procedures are clearly mapped to individual employee responsibility and performance Employee training is tracked, documented and matched to employee responsibilities Routinely monitor and audit compliance

What is the NHDOT SOS? To meet Policy & Records goals, the Standard Operating System (SOS) was created: Policy EX 1 Adopts a Standard Operating System (SOS) Procedural Documents: Policies, Directives, Procedures, Manuals, and Forms Produced and Formatted in a Consistent, Predictable, and Repeatable manner Accessible via intranet Easy to Find The Standard Operating System, (SOS) is a collection of procedural documents that guide the performance of the Department.

Policy and Documentation Hierarchy The SOS policy and documentation hierarchy, as seen here, allows for a consistent, understandable structure. Why, What? Policy Directives Procedures Work Instructions, Forms Who, What, When, Where? Manuals You’ll notice “Directives” has no explanatory text. That is because Directives are atypical in that they usually combine characteristics of many types of documentation, since they are intended to be temporary and are supposed to be eventually replaced by official policies and procedures. Once a critical mass of documentation supporting a policy is reached and it would be beneficial to organize the information into sections, they should be combined into a Manual. How?

SOS Organization SOS documentation is categorized by functional area (Executive, Finance, Human Resources, etc.), using a naming and numbering structure created specifically for the SOS. Most categories will have an overarching policy, supported by implementing procedures and other documentation. Definitions related to SOS terms are created, approved, and posted to ensure consistency throughout all SOS documents.

As an example…….. NH DOT Safety Programs have been using an similar style documentation control system for several years These programs and related documents all tie back to an overarching Employee Safety Policy

SOS Accessibility Eventually, all polices and procedural documents approved by the Commissioner will be stored in the Index, centrally located in a custom-built section of the Intranet. The Index will be updated as policies and other procedural documents are approved and posted. https://nhdot-docs.com/approved-documents/

Priority Schedule A priority schedule to create or update policies has been developed. Each Policy is assigned a Responsible Office and Contact Person with responsibility to keep documents current. A “Contact Person” is a person designated by a responsible office for developing, revising, and coordinating review of a specific policy or procedural document of the Department’s (SOS). As a policy hits top priority, the Contact Person will be called to action.

Obstacles Change is hard! Subject matter experts are busy “Control” at lower levels will be lost Some want to wait this out as “just another temporary trend”

What questions do you have?