Successful Businesses Realize What Process
Can Do For Them
Creating clear processes in your business is invaluable and beneficial to you, your employees, and your customers.
It creates clear direction, transparency, and expectations for how tasks and procedures should be performed for all those involved;
It allows for consistency and less variance and errors in quality while increasing productivity and efficiency;
It brings you to a new level of systemizing and building capacity in your company.
It saves you time and money in short and long-term.
Clear Process🡪Clear Direction
Business processes can be found in any company. Whether they are mapped out and known by all those involved is a challenge that companies face. Process mapping helps employees and customers to understand how certain matters, operations, and tasks should be handled prior to proceeding. It allows a roadmap and actual steps or actions that should be taken to achieve a certain goal.
How many times have you had new hires start out in your company and there is no consistent way to onboard them or you are creating hiring documentation on demand for them to fill out?
Have you noticed customers complaining when they call your office or call center because they are being told different advice, don’t get callbacks, the staff is unpleasant, or they are simply given wrong information?
Do you find that your leadership or staff is wasting time figuring out how to do certain tasks or accomplishing certain goals?
Documenting “how things should be done” does not have to be a daunting or elaborate process. Chances are there are individuals in your company that possess all the knowledge in their head but just need to do what I call a “data dump”. It serves no good purpose if the “know-how” is not shared amongst your teams in the company. This allows for workflows to clearly mapped out, for different departments and experts to understand how work streams interact or help to move business objectives forward. It allows for a certain level of transparency so that everyone is on the same page and understands the work being done, how the work should be done while setting clear expectations of accountability and responsibility.
Process mapping is a simple discovery of what is already known in your organization, and it allows you to take a look at areas that need to be better managed and improved. It allows for the company and its employees to understand the inner workings of the company.
Every company has established processes, even if they do not formally refer to them as so. The dilemma is that they do not always formalize them or communicate them to their teams and customers. This must be done. The good news is that documenting processes does not have to be daunting, with hours of work that end up with a manual of thousands of pages.
The EOS Traction method recommends that all you need is 80% of your six core processes documented at 20%. They suggest that every company has at least 6 core processes: Human Resources, Marketing, Sales, Operations, Accounting, and Customer Retention
Let’s take the Human Resources (HR) example. Every company should have standardized templates and required documentation for new hires. All those involved in hiring in the company should have a process that everyone is aware of to onboard a new employee. They should indicate the interview process, required documentation and background checks, and training and materials, shadowing required on the job. They should communicate to the new hire and all employees so that the transition for the new employee is seamless and pleasant. No one wants to start working at a company that is disorganized and chaotic before their official first day on the job.
PROCESS FOR QUALITY
Process allows for certain quality checks and protocols to be met.
Known and shared process among your teams allows for consistency in quality, outcome and customer experience. There’s nothing worst than getting poor reviews or getting customer complaints because tasks weren’t performed to the Company’s standards.
Take for example a call center. It’s important that there is a clear process of how calls are fields from the minute the customer dials in, picks their selection, and gets routed to the sales/customer agent. There should be call scripts and process from which the call center representative follows to ensure quality service. If they need to route calls, they should know who to “pass the ball” to, and the next person in your staff should know how to handle that call. If a call back is required, it's key that the customer service representative ensures the call is returned to the customer in a certain amount of time.
If your process includes a callback within 24 hours, ensure that your staff does so. Process allows similar quality standards across the board so that your staff is handling calls to the same standard and responsiveness, and customers are receiving the same quality customer care.
PROCESS BUILDS SYSTEMS & CAPACITY
Process is the building block to build systems and capacity in your company. It sets the parts of your company to work together as one interconnected network of parts. It provides a mechanism to function and work better. To systemize, scale, and build capacity. It is also for better administration, structure, organization, multi-site functionality, remote functionality, and so much more.
If you have multiple locations, how do you ensure all locations are still operating with the same processes for consistency, quality, and functionality? By having clear processes. It helps you build a workable model that will be key for the foundation of your business.
Look at Starbucks. No matter where you go in the world, are going to experience the same orderings process, coffee-making process, and customer service no matter where you go. They have standardized processes that they’ve instilled in their company culture. Customers know the quality and organization they will experience. Established processes bring you to a new level of systemizing and building capacity in your company
BEST PRACTICE IN PROCESS
There’s is no doubt that process and process mapping is invaluable to business quality and growth. Two things are essential when working on establishing and mapping out your processes.
You must take the time to do a ‘data dump’ amongst leadership and employees to put the best processes in place for the company with already existing knowledge.
Training must be done to ensure everyone is on the same page and knows the established processes. If someone leaves or leadership is “out of the office” people should be able to continue business as usual.
Equip your company with a handful of well-documented processes.
Ensure your team understands them, values them, and follows them. It will be invaluable.
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Sasha Lalite, MPA, PMP is owner and Principal Consultant of Meta Viable Solutions LLC. She is a Fractional COO & Strategic Operations Advisor who provides expertise to businesses on an outsourced, part-time, or project basis.
Meta Viable Solutions helps businesses during times of change, transition and growth. Sasha has successfully improved individual and organizational performance in national and global companies for the past 20 years. Sasha can be reached at sasha@metaviablesolutions.com or (347) 470-7901.
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