We know that as a business owner you have lofty goals for your business. But you may face a variety of challenges in your effort to achieve those business goals, including productivity, financials and customer relations. These challenges need to be overcome to ensure that your business will continue to thrive and grow.
At Blue Ninja we notice that these problems often arise due to awkward processes and procedures. The sooner these problem areas are identified and rectified, the more confident you will be at handling the challenges that come your way.
Here are some of the ways process management can be your secret weapon when challenges arise.
Streamlined Processes and Procedures Help With Productivity
No matter the size of your business, you use various processes and procedures to accomplish a specific goal. This may include a separate process to generate sales reports, produce financial reports, report on website optimisation and analyse social media. However, some processes are too complex, rigid, difficult to understand, or redundant.
These cumbersome business processes and procedures will likely result in slow response times, unsatisfied customers, low employee morale, delivery delays, and increased cost. Process management allows you to analyse each procedure, to weed out unnecessary or inefficient steps and redesign the procedure to achieve a streamlined and more efficient process.
Some processes and procedures may also be automated or semi-automated, resulting in the timely delivery of outputs and allowing employees to focus on tasks that are more productive. By streamlining your business process, you limit the chances of errors and delays, increase production output, reduce waste, lower production costs and improve customer satisfaction.
Clearly Defined Processes and Procedures Manage Expectations
Expectation pertains to the belief that the solution will be delivered as expected, based on the set standards, timeline and cost. Expectations management is a critical element to the successful delivery of solutions.
Business process management allows you to manage these expectations. By having a clearly defined and efficient business processes and procedures, you can confidently set clear and realistic deadlines for each deliverable. A streamlined process provides you and your team more time to focus on the needs of your customers/clients and provide definite answers to their issues and questions.
Managing team expectations, on the other hand, involves clearly defining each role, responsibility and quality of outcome to avoid misunderstandings. It also includes consistent communication and feedback to ensure issues are resolved and poor performance is addressed in a timely manner.
Standardised Processes and Procedures Allow Oversight Rather Than Micromanagement
While it is useful when it comes to overseeing small-scale projects, micromanagement is usually frowned upon as it often results in low employee morale and the manager losing sight of the bigger picture.
Your organisation may instead assign an oversight team that will standardise the processes and procedures, monitor and ensure that they are followed, identify risks and issues and guarantee every step is accomplished according to the set timeline and budget.
Standardised processes make it easier for employees to do their job and for managers to implement checks and balances to make sure mistakes are less likely to slip through, without breathing down their team’s necks and making them feel underappreciated.
Openly Communicated Processes and Procedures Provide Accountability
Critical to the successful implementation of your business process is accountability. Part of business process management includes clearly defining the responsibilities of each team member and assigning people who will be held responsible and accountable for each task and outcome. Also, it is important that each task has a clearly defined next action, ensuring a smooth transition from one activity to the next. This allows for team members to understand their part in the greater process and which team members are affected by the quality of their work.
In short, business process management allows your business to develop and implement robust and clearly defined solutions to everyday challenges. This allows your organisation to achieve and maintain optimal productivity levels, control costs, manage expectations, monitor progress and improve overall performance. Now those lofty business goals will become reality before you know it.
Do you need a hand analysing, streamlining and recording your business processes? Let’s have a chat and see if Blue Ninja is the process management partner for you!
