Process management: a simple set of documents with attractive diagrams and the promise of business transformation?

Paperwork and pictures have their place. But to make a real difference to your business, you need well-developed processes that highlight the big issues in your organisation and what you can do to change them.

It’s likely your business has problems you’re not even aware of. Whether your turnover is £1m or £999m, the issues are often the same, and revealed when your high-level processes are evaluated.

What should you look out for?

At Propolis Process Solutions, there are four common problems we find in most organisations:

Few, if any, processes

Do you have clearly documented processes in place throughout your company? If not, you’re missing a trick. It’s likely you’re working your socks off to deliver an exceptional product or service, but discovering your customer satisfaction is low.

With poor processes, you’re not keeping track of orders, missing key customer touchpoints, and causing unnecessary confusion.

No understanding of systems

Your systems can be a life-saver, providing you’re using them properly. If you’re not, they’re not being used to your advantage.

You can probably unearth some unnecessary spreadsheets, which are outdated and time-consuming. And, with confusion around your tools and machinery, your team are using manual workarounds that cost money and time along with wasting materials.

Limited new staff training

When you’ve hired a new member of staff to fill a much-needed role, it’s easy to put them in place to hit the ground running. However, if they’re armed with only a job description and a limited amount of training, you’re expecting them to deliver a lot with little guidance.

At best, this leads to low productivity levels. At worst, the work is poor quality and your staff feel undervalued – then move on before they’re competent and capable.

Lack of support for people

Your people are the backbone of your business. So if you’re not supporting them, your business isn’t meeting its potential.

It’s fair to say we unearth some interesting team dynamics. This is often the case when managers aren’t proactive through lack of time, or even ability. Your managers might be aware there’s an issue within their team, but can’t identify the root cause. Or, management and staff might simply not know what’s expected of them, and what they need to do to solve team problems.

How can you fix the issues you’ve found?

Efficient processes highlight the issues your business is facing and show you what to do about them. Identifying the reasons behind problems such as low productivity, poor experiences and high staff turnover helps you create a company with a strong, long-lasting team who are trained well and use systems effectively.

At Propolis Process Solutions, we support our clients to build their systems, support their staff and train their people with solid foundations on which to grow their businesses. To find out more about how we can support your organisation to succeed, contact Sarah: sarahvb@propolis-ps.co.uk