When Was the Last Time You Reviewed Your Business Processes? | Part 6

Building Better Business Processes - Part 6

You create a process. It works. Everyone knows what they're supposed to do.

So you move on.

And realistically, that's what most businesses do.

The problem is that the business keeps changing even when the process doesn't.

What Worked Two Years Ago Might Not Work Today

Think about everything that can change as a business grows.

You hire more people. Responsibilities shift. You start using different software. You add services. You have more customers. There are more transactions to manage.

The process you created when the business was smaller might still technically work.

But that doesn't mean it's still the best way to do it.

Maybe the owner used to approve every purchase because there were only a handful each month.

Now there are dozens.

Maybe one spreadsheet used to be enough to keep track of everything.

Now there are three spreadsheets, two people updating them, and no one is completely sure which one is current.

That's usually a sign that it's time to look at the process again.

Pay Attention to the Workarounds

I think workarounds are one of the biggest clues that something needs to be reviewed.

Someone creates their own spreadsheet.

An employee skips a step because it doesn't seem necessary.

People start keeping their own notes because they can't easily find the information they need.

Or everyone technically follows the same process, but they all do it a little differently.

Instead of only looking at the workaround as the problem, ask why it was created.

There might be a perfectly reasonable explanation.

And the person actually doing that task every day may have a better idea of what's slowing them down than anyone else.

You Don't Need to Review Everything at Once

This doesn't need to turn into a huge project.

Start with the processes your business uses the most.

Then ask a few questions.

Is every step still necessary?

Does everyone know who's responsible for what?

Where does the process usually slow down?

Are we entering the same information more than once?

Are people actually following the process we documented?

Has anything changed since we originally created it?

You might go through the process and realize it's still working exactly the way it should.

Great.

Or you might find one or two things that could be cleaned up.

Your Processes Should Change With Your Business

The point of having processes isn't to create a bunch of rules that your business has to follow forever.

They're supposed to make the business easier to manage.

As your business changes, some of those processes are going to need to change too.

You don't have to constantly reinvent the way you do things.

But every once in a while, it's worth asking:

Does the way we're doing this still make sense?