Tag: Improving Business Processes

How to Communicate, Implement, and Review Business Process Changes

by Julie

Once you’ve come up with your plan for updating business processes in need of improvement, and secured the necessary resources, you will need to communicate, implement, and periodically review these changes. This blog post provides some tips for each of these tasks.

https://pixabay.com/en/time-for-a-change-new-ways-letters-2015164/

Source: https://pixabay.com/en/time-for-a-change-new-ways-letters-2015164/

Communicating business process improvements

Many employees are likely very comfortable with the business processes you have in place. Regardless of whether they think these processes should be improved upon, it will take time for them to learn and adjust to the new workflows.

Make sure you communicate any significant changes to business processes before the changes are made, especially when it comes to workers involved with these processes on a daily or weekly basis. In most cases, they will appreciate having a chance to voice concerns or questions ahead of any big updates.

There’s a good chance these individuals already have some knowledge of upcoming changes if you involved them in the process mapping and redesign stages (always a good idea). Any last-minute feedback from employees can help you tweak processes for the better.

Implementing business process improvements

Actually implementing business process improvements could take a matter of minutes, or a number of weeks. It really depends on the extent of the changes being made. For small changes, such as skipping a step in a process or seeking approval from a different colleague, the most important requirements are supporting workers involved with the modifications and perhaps updating formal process documentation.

When it comes to new technology systems, new employees, and/or significant changes in responsibilities, it’s important to allot sufficient time for completing the updates. Regarding technology, it may be wise to run the new system and procedures in parallel with the old system and workflows. This can help establish they work as expected, and produce the desired results and changes.

When it comes to new employees and/or responsibilities, take the time to properly train workers and help them adjust as opposed to expecting immediate perfection and satisfaction. Because these individuals are taking the time to learn new processes, lower your expectations for their overall productivity during the next few weeks. If the improvements have been well thought out, future productivity gains will outweigh any short-term productivity losses.

Reviewing business process improvements

With the new system in place, it’s a good idea to benchmark the old systems and procedures against their replacements and upgrades. Do the new processes fix the problems they were intended to improve?

As with earlier steps in the business process improvement process, poll the people directly involved with the new procedures and tasks. Do they feel comfortable with the changes? Have the “improvements” really accomplished what you and your team set out to do?

Remember that improving business processes isn’t a single static event. It’s a good idea to periodically monitor the processes and procedures that you have in place to ensure that they function efficiently and effectively. By spotting problems early on, you can minimize their impact on your business.

Conclusion

To help ensure the success of business process updates, it’s important that organizations communicate changes to relevant staff before implementation as well as review any changes periodically. Employee buy-in, as well as continual analysis of process effectiveness, are crucial for guaranteeing workflows truly change for the better.

Three Tips for Acquiring Business Process Improvement Resources

by Julie

Some business processes can be improved simply by removing unnecessary steps, or taking advantage of free cloud-based tools like Dropbox or Google Drive. Other business processes have more fundamental issues that require investing in new technology, personnel, and/or employee training. This blog post will provide three tips for how departments can acquire the necessary resources for optimizing business workflows.

Source: https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7252/7027596629_1b17209fa6_b.jpg

Source: https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7252/7027596629_1b17209fa6_b.jpg

Tip 1: Familiarize yourself with the decision makers

Before you can ask for resources, you need to know who makes decisions about these resources within your organization. If you work in a microbusiness, it is very possible the business owner is responsible for most decisions around budgets and spending. But if you work for a larger company, these kinds of decisions are more likely to be made by a department head, committee, or group of executives. The specific kinds of resources you are asking for (e.g., IT infrastructure, additional secretary) may also impact who you approach in the company.

Tip 2: Have a wish list and a backup plan

During the business process redesign stage, you may come up with a variety of ideas for improving that process. Some of these may be easy and inexpensive to implement, while others may involve a heftier price tag. Come up with a list of all the items you’d like, but also have a backup plan (or backup plans) in case your organization’s current level of resources is insufficient for the breadth of your requests. This approach increases your chances of obtaining some level of funding. A similar tactic is prioritizing your wish list. Your organization could start by financing the top priorities, and then move down the list as funding becomes available.

Tip 3: Share your success

Once you acquire resources to address elements of a sub-optimal business process, and incorporate them into the process, closely monitor their impact. Any evidence you can provide to management showing a positive return on investment can help you justify further spending on business process improvement. If decision makers can see, for instance, that new technology led to greater customer satisfaction and revenue, they will be more likely to provide additional funding for business process optimization. Share your experience with other departments, perhaps at a lunch and learn, to inspire them to make their own workflow enhancements.

Conclusion

It’s not enough to redesign business processes. You also need the necessary resources to implement improvements. You can increase your chances of securing resources through familiarizing yourself with the decision makers in your organization, having a wish list and backup plan, and sharing your success with colleagues.

Redesigning Business Processes

by Julie

Once your company has mapped out and analyzed inefficient business processes, the next step is redesigning those business processes. This blog post will provide some key considerations for organizations as they undergo this initiative.
https://static.pexels.com/photos/159822/mark-marker-hand-leave-159822.jpeg

Source: https://static.pexels.com/photos/159822/mark-marker-hand-leave-159822.jpeg

Cutting out inefficient steps

Organizations need to consider whether any steps in a process can be removed to quicken project turnaround time. For example, does a completed deliverable really need to get final approval from a staff member who is often traveling and/or unavailable? Is there anyone else who can provide this level of quality control in a shorter time frame? As another example, does a company really need to hold project status meetings once a week? Would a bimonthly meeting make more sense from a scheduling and productivity standpoint? It’s important to weigh any productivity gains with potential losses in quality to ensure the process meets employee and/or customer demands.

Incorporating new technology

Another way to improve business processes is incorporating new technology into the workflow. Think about whether any low-cost or even free technology exists to speed up the exchange of information as well as decision-making. This could mean a cloud-based tool that lets users access data whenever and wherever they are in the world. Or it could mean electronic signature capability that enables immediate approval of documents. Another example is optical character recognition technology that converts scanned documents into editable and searchable text. Benefits provided by these technologies may be well worth any potential subscription or investment costs.

Adding new staff

Sometimes business processes are ineffective because organizations are lacking staff to perform integral tasks. For instance, companies may be lacking a legal expert to sufficiently review new contracts. Or no dedicated human resources staff may mean new employee onboarding is a slow and error-prone process. Resources in areas like writing, editing, marketing, design, data analysis, software programming, product testing, and accounting may also be necessary for effective workflows. For organizations that can’t afford to hire new staff, alternative solutions include training current employees or rearranging workloads to free up staff for crucial tasks.

Conclusion

Once organizations determine inefficiencies and bottlenecks within key processes, they will need to take time to redesign these workflows. When undertaking this task, they are encouraged to consider how cutting out unnecessary steps, integrating new technology, and adding new staff (or training or freeing up current staff) can help improve organizational productivity as well as customer and employee satisfaction.