10 Tell-Tale Signs You’ve Got Problems With Your Processes
Process ‘problems’ translate to increased costs. They may take different pathways to get to the point of costing the business but they will share that as the same outcome - eventually. Each ‘problem’ represents an opportunity for improvement. However, the first step is in recognising and acknowledging the problem.
If your business is not concerned with cost-containment, then this article is not for you. Ignoring your processes is akin to throwing your businesses money into the wind, hoping that it might blow back at you. Having dealt with businesses across a myriad of industries whilst implementing process improvement tools and methodologies, we have seen and heard first hand the following common indicators of process failure. If your business has one or more of these, we challenge you to pause and take action.
Customer complaints
This has made the first spot in this list as any customer-centric business will testify to. Unhappy customers translate directly to immediate lost sales and future lost business. The most challenging part of unhappy customers is the ‘multiplier effect’ where it is estimated that on average each customer will tell 16 others of bad a single experience. And of course, social media only amplifies this number. Therefore it should be of paramount interest for your business to manage customer complaints in a way which allows the processes resulting in the complaint to be examined and improved.
Unhappy staff, attrition, poor engagement
Staff have made the number two spot in the list for a reason too, as without them there would be no business. Although there are many contributing factors as to why staff may be unhappy and leave the business, poor or no processes is often sited as one of the key drivers. When staff don’t know what they are expected to do and have no baseline to reference from, they become easily frustrated. Of course if the business is not demonstrating a genuine attempt to address these frustrations, that can lead to the ultimate loss of staff. We commonly see frustrated staff who don’t actually leave but become disengaged with the business, which can be argued as worse than leaving as it can also contribute heavily to customer complaints.
No documentation
Do you have process and procedures comprehensively documented? These are the blueprint to your business and if they are not documented, are incomplete, are out-of-date or are not easily accessible; there is a very high likelihood that mistakes are being made on a daily basis which are translating directly to your bottomline. Capturing processes in formats which suit your business provide a standardised reference point to come back to. Why do you think McDonalds (love or hate them) are so successful? Their prescribed method of making burgers sets the standard we all expect and go back for because of. That success is not result of staff having to ‘wing it’ as they go.
No governance
Process initiatives need to be actively managed. This means the business committing to being process-focussed and ensuring a ‘champion’ to act as the ‘rudder’. It is not uncommon for business processes to be documented at haste for a project or as part of a new manager initiative, only to fall away once the project or ‘champion’ is no longer there. The first step in driving a process-culture is to define how and who is going to make sure it stays on track. Behind having no documentation to start with, this is the most common point of failure for businesses of all sizes!
No regular review
Old processes which are no longer working or workable are the single most reason why staff won’t use them. We’ve all had that experience at some time or other in our careers (and if you haven’t yet, standby - you will). Processes which are either not current or which do not state when they were documented and how often they are reviewed do not give staff confidence that they should be using them. It’s like buying a pot of yoghurt in the supermarket which doesn’t state when it was made and when it expires - how confident would you be to buy, let alone eat, that?!
No accountability and responsibility assigned
There are those businesses who do have their processes documented and wonder why they are still having problems with what is being done. More-often the root cause is in who has, or in this case who has not, been defined as accountable for the process and/or responsible for steps in the process. It’s all very well defining the steps in a process but if no role is assigned to doing that step, guess what happens? Not a lot. Similarly process steps assigned to more than one role are likely to create ambiguity as to who should be doing that step which ends up with the similar result of it not being performed.
“It takes ages to get things done”
This is common feedback and source of frustration for staff. Processes which are lengthy and involve multiple hand-offs have the undesired result of creating bottlenecks and slowing down the progress to the eventual output. Often this occurs due to awaiting multiple parties to complete their parts before being able to progress a process to the end. A well-constructed process flow diagram can highlight this very quickly and make it easy to identify where improvements can be targeted.
Steps in process not adding value
This is also known as processes which just perpetuate ‘doing things for the sake of doing things’. Each step of a process should be regularly challenged as to what it is doing and what it is achieving in context of the whole. Is it necessary? Can it be achieved in a more efficient way? Can we make the process simpler, shorter, more succinct? Does it make sense to do it the way it is being currently performed? Six Sigma Daily takes a deeper dive into the 8 wastes and value vs non-value, with waiting time and extra processing among common wastes. For example, that Purchase Order Form which is completed and returned via email only to be then data captured into the Purchase Order System by an administrator back in the office.
No measures or controls
We can’t improve what we don’t measure. This is all about setting benchmarks so that we can identify when we are operating as expected or required. There are those businesses who have their processes documented and managed but are yet to set the measures in place from which to define their improvement as they progress.
Too much complexity
Create a process which is like a maze to complete and it will not get completed. Controls are important so long as they do not constrain the process to the point of non-completion or incorrect completion (due to ‘workarounds’ being preferred). For processes to be adopted and used, they need to balance simplicity and effectiveness. Adopt the KISS principle and there is a much greater chance of positive staff and customer engagement.
Your challenge
We challenge you to consider if your processes are costing your business and take the first step now towards implementing a fix.
If going solo, commit a task into your diary to create a plan to address process improvement. If your business needs some help to get underway, we are only a click away.
