Process Optimisation
Ensure your team works efficiently & consistently
It’s called ‘best practice’ for a reason
Just because things have always been done a certain way, doesn’t mean that’s the way they should remain.
As your business grows, and grows more complex, it’s important that time is taken to ensure that processes are fit-for-purpose and are allowed to mature to fit the organisation you are today, and who you want to be tomorrow.
Once that’s figured out? Ensure your team has bite-sized, user-friendly reference materials that show them the official way things are done – not relying on word of mouth.
Inconsistent and complex processes result in bad habits, confusion, mistakes, and wasted time on the part of staff – with a knock-on effect across the organisation and on the bottom line.
Step 1? Let’s map out the way work moves through the business, what tools are used and who’s responsible and impacted by each step. From there, we can identify what’s no longer necessary, what’s unnecessarily complex, and what tools or refined steps can help simplify and speed up the process. This is an important step in modernising any organisation, and is an invaluable exercise to go through periodically.
Once refined processes are mapped out and new tools ready to deploy? Procedures outline the best-practice steps required to complete a module of work, and they can be simple to follow and user-friendly. In fact, procedures can (and should) even tell a story about how work moves through your organisation, from lead and opportunity, through to project initiation, delivery and closing.
In order to have your team work consistently and leverage the benefits that brings, document your preferred ways of working:
produce a central online resource that documents procedures in the same order employees deliver their work. The central resource means people know exactly where to look for instructions, and the logical ordering of the procedures means that you're helping your team understand the flow of work across the business and teams, and ultimately how it gets handed over to the client.
boost the UX (user experience) by minimising written instruction, with short video / screen recordings outlining the steps that need to be taken.
Once you begin this journey, you’re on your way to scale your organisation and will have the confidence that comes with having a single source of truth on how things are done.
The benefits for your team?
Efficiency when you remove complexity from existing processes.
A centralised company handbook; the single source of truth on processes and procedures.
Confusion and guesswork are eliminated.
Being able to focus on their core work rather than correcting costly, time-consuming mistakes.
Colleagues are proactive in sourcing and following best practice, knowing their peers work the same way and reference the same playbook.