The Economy

How effected are You?

Is your business adversely affected by the current economic climate? Not all are and some are thriving from changes in buying patterns and the like; if you are in that position, this article is not really aimed at you, although you should still find it has something for you.

If you are experiencing a downturn in business, there are probably a number of actions you are taking: stepping up sales and marketing, or reducing your cost base, for example.

Well, I'm going to suggest that there is something else you do now. It probably won't have occurred to you and, if it is on your radar, you probably haven't given it any priority.

Getting it right

Whilst you may need to work hard to get through these difficult times, I believe that you also need to look further ahead and to consider what you are going to do when business picks up. Business is going to be very competitive and customers likely to be price sensitive. You don't want to have to reduce your prices if possible, because of the impact on profits, but you also need to think carefully about putting them up. So, to maximise profits, you need to make sure your operation is efficient. You also need something other than price to give you an advantage over the competition; this could be many things, but quality of product and service is a no-brainer and something you cannot afford to get wrong.

There is a common element that affects both efficiency and quality – your processes and underlying procedures. As it's quite pointless being efficient at achieving mediocre or patchy quality, let me consider an important aspect of quality first - consistency.

To achieve consistency, you need to ensure that all staff are performing their functions as required, with minimum variation, day in and day out. You may have an accredited audited quality system in place and therefore think that you've taken care of this – after all, you get ticks in sufficient boxes once a year to retain that accreditation. Don't assume any such thing; it's quite possible to pass such an audit without really addressing the nitty gritty of what is happening in detail at the coal-face.

If you have several people performing the same or similar functions, the natural tendency is for them all to do it differently to some degree or other, even if they are all good people who have worked for you for some time – this can be a good thing, but you need to manage such variations to derive any benefits that might result. The occurrence of inconsistency will be greatly compounded if you are taking on new staff as you expand your business when you are able to benefit from an upturn in the economy, or if you are experiencing staff "churn." When expansion is through opening a new facility or franchising, this introduces another level of opportunity for inconsistent working practices. Perhaps you could deal with this by getting your core of experienced people to pass on their knowledge to new staff? You should never underestimate the opportunity for folklore and misinformation to develop under these circumstances; it's amazing how many fundamental misunderstandings are perpetuated in this way.

So, what should you be doing?

The first step is to identify your core processes – the ones that are all about what your business does to make money. Then, these, and the underlying procedures and working practices, need to be documented, which is best done by largely graphical means, such as flowcharts and similar diagrams more specific to process documentation, or mapping. This will form the basis of what you need to instruct all applicable members of staff in performing these processes correctly and consistently.

Do It Yourself?

Are you thinking now. "Well, this does make sense and, although I really don't want to spend time doing it, I know the business better than anyone, so it's going to have to be me?" Or, you might be considering getting some of your core experienced people to do the job, especially if you are struggling to keep them fully occupied and see this as an opportunity to capture their knowledge. After all, you or your experienced staff must be the best people to create this material, right?

Actually, WRONG! Don't misunderstand me – your knowledge and that of your best people is invaluable in this exercise. However, neither you nor they are the right people to create your own process documents because you know the processes too well. Almost certainly, you will overlook apparently obvious steps or make other assumptions, so that a new starter trying to follow the process document will be confused and make mistakes, perhaps serious ones, and you have sown the seeds of a new bit of folklore.

You need the services of someone whose core business is producing documentation, which is what we do at The i–Team. (You must have known this was coming!)

We have particular expertise in mapping business processes to create process documentation, with team members experienced in Business Process Re-engineering. Almost without exception, the process we follow to create your documentation will highlight anomalies and discrepancies which will need to be resolved. When you come to review the documents, when you see what you do described, you may well say, "Yes, that's an accurate representation of what we do, but we really should do it slightly differently." We may raise the same point during our production. In either case, we can assist in adjusting your processes to remove these anomalies. Where appropriate, we can also create checklists and similar to help ensure that steps in the process are followed and allow this to be Verified.

What now?

Now you have the processes documented, what should you do?

At a minimum, you should ensure all relevant staff are made aware of the documents, have read them and sign that they have read and understood them. I think we all know that this might not be enough. The i-Team can create assessments which allow you to check that staff have assimilated the content and demonstrate that to a third party, such as a professional institute.

A step further than this is actively to train staff in the processes, for which The i-Team can create training material; we can provide trainers, too. However, you might find that delivering classroom-based or one-to-one training can be inconvenient, impractical or disruptive, particularly with staff "churn" or in a franchise environment. The i-Team can create self-paced, computer-based training delivered via a Learning Management System which staff can access over the Internet on an as-required basis, with a payment structure to reflect that, so that your up-front investment is minimised. The course can include assessments, redirect students to repeat material as necessary and create a personal certificate for the student upon achieving a pass.

Further improvement

I've talked about the "spin-off" improvement in processes that can be achieved during the mapping and documentation activity, which offer the possibility of improvements in efficiency, in addition to the quality aspect of greater consistency. The i–Team can offer more than that. Our specialists in Business Process Re-engineering can look again at what you need to achieve and design new, more efficient processes. Where appropriate, we can also play a part in automating these to offer further improvements in quality and efficiency.

Get in touch

Isn't now the right time to consolidate the core skills and expertise of your business by streamlining your processes and positioning yourself to expand with the minimum pain when the opportunity arises, so you steal a march on your competitors? Let The i-Team become part of your team to ensure you achieve that.

Why not get in touch, for a chat about how
The i-Team can help you prepare for prosperity? Please visit our website, www.the-i-team.co.uk, for more information and contact details, or phone Tony Watkins on 01963 440394.