The process setup of a company is a long-term matter. It only takes months to define processes. It costs the company a huge amount of employee capacity and of course the company's money. It will take a number of weeks before everything goes into practice and the manager decides something based on the results of the process. To this end, employees often do not even follow the processes, a number of changes take place and the results are skewed. Isn't it better to try the other way around and have the results immediately, to decide on the basis of the current state and to set the processes according to real shortcomings?
The daily operation of the company consists of a number of routine and repetitive activities. These include, for example, the creation of products, offers, issuing invoices, shift planning, reporting, employee evaluation, etc. Where the activity is repeated several times a year, it makes sense to introduce process management. Just find a simple and effective way to process this activity and whenever you just need to do it according to the procedure. Most companies have a whole company's management system based on process management.
How much is a process management
Companies from a certain size apply process management. Workshops are prepared in which entire teams model and look for the optimal variant of setting up individual processes in order to do the given activities cheaply and quickly. They spend a huge amount of time on their employees and external specialists. The result is guidelines that describe dozens of processes. In the best case, it is about setting up an interactive model in a SW tool. Briefly in numbers to prepare a process system means:
company with about 25 employees
about 20-40 processes
processing time of 1 process is 2 - 10 hours
the process is modeled by the owner + 1 colleague + (process specialist or IT specialist - sometimes)
Just calculate the average numbers and you will get to burn 360 hours for 30 processes. You have to do all this for the first time and without lengthy comment rounds. In costs for a small business, this can amount to CZK 180,000. I stick to the ground. In a corporate company, you will get CZK 1,800,000 and more. In other words, it's not a cheap affair.
Problems of process management - or why it does not work
What happens next in practice? Processes will be approved. Other staff will be trained to read and follow the process. And I forgot - sign it to me alibi (means attendence list). And every employee should follow the rules in processes with an area of about 20 pages at best. After the payment of fees for the processing of the system will start to show:
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Employees do not follow the process - they do not remember everything, they do not understand the meaning of the rules, they are overwhelmed by the operation, the boss does not require processes or does not follow them himself, they do not remember at the moment that they have to do according to the process….
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Times have changed - everything changes so fast that many processes need to be updated after they are processed
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Other habits and reluctance to change - the employee did not participate in the processing and is used to work differently. He feels better because he has a routine in it.
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The process is a whip for the wrong job - the process clearly shows how the work needs to be done and thus clearly shows who is doing the wrong thing. Improper pressure on the audit will deepen the resistance to processes and generate a number of alibi why not follow processes.
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There was no visible benefit - workers do not see specific benefits to their work. It didn't save them anything, or no one even showed them.
Start building processes differently
Don't start a series of workshops and prepare a bunch of processes, but try it like this:
1. Process map
2. What we need to decide for our business
3. Modeling of processes according to priorities
The process map will divide the company into smaller parts with clearly defined responsibilities. Each part mostly groups a field of expertise and the specifics associated with it. Requires custom data and kpi. By the way, it is not possible to do everything at once. Few can remember all the context.
Realize immediately that you need to make the most decisions. What information do you need and kpi that will help you in your decision-making. The company's management is primarily about:
| An example of a service company - what I need for quality decisions | |
|---|---|
| Know what happened |
|
| How the event affected the company's activities |
|
| Parts of the company are working properly or are approaching problematic states (which kpi number will alert me to them) |
|
| Predict what might happen |
|
| ... | ... |
If I realize what I need to know and what numbers will help me, then I can do the opposite. First, I write down the numbers and create an idea of what I need - a table, a graph, limit values. I will find out if I am able to take them somewhere now (accounting software, recording of service protocols, navigation,…). I will first compile a report that will help me make decisions and thus manage the service team. Today, there are a number of tools that are able to help you immediately, such as REKAP, Power BI and many others. Where I have a problem with data or I am accumulating problem situations or optimization would help reduce costs, speed up service intervention and then begin to describe the process. If you try this procedure, you will find that the process definition will be fundamentally different. You will already have some data and graphs about functioning and you will not engage in meaningless activities in the process just because someone thinks it is important. I simply will not describe the acceptance of a service request at length in the process, if I know that it will be received by a technician for processing within an average of 10 minutes and none has been lost in the last 5 years.
Start with reports with the numbers (kpi) you need to make decisions and work on setting up processes to achieve the best kpi.
