Business processes are designed to help employees reach their goals in an effective manner. Team members from various departments are each assigned a thought-out action plan—whether it’s sales, HR, marketing, production, or even management. But the truth is, effective doesn’t always mean efficient.
Enter process improvement.
Organizations and their teams use process improvement techniques to assess their current processes and make necessary changes. The goal of using process improvement techniques is to improve workflows, and increase profitability and productivity.
Process improvement should be a part of any business practice, because we live in a world of constant change. Customers’ preferences change, the way of doing business changes, and technologies change. It’s vital to adapt and create new processes to complement your organization. Without adapting to change, your company could lag behind the competition, negatively impacting your sales, brand, and reputation.
Here are some business process improvement examples:
- Production efficiency
- Better product quality
- Shorter queues for assistance
- Eliminating customer experience hassles
- Quicker delivery of goods and services
- Cost reduction and financial savings
Process Improvement Tactics:
Brainstorming
Brainstorming sessions can improve communication and collaboration within an organization. In fact, one of the most underrated process improvement ideas is simply gathering company-wide or in small groups to collect feedback, ideas, and suggestions. Information—no matter how seemingly unimportant—can work wonders for process improvement when used wisely. Brainstorming sessions are inexpensive and don’t require too much time from your team members’ busy schedules. Here are a few tips to maximize brainstorming sessions:
- Establish a positive and inclusive environment
- Use colorful and eye-catching presentations
- Set prejudices and personal biases aside
- Determine and eliminate bottlenecks
- Encourage and implement out of the box ideas
- Stay on topic to generate as many ideas as possible
- Review and analyze past sessions
Benchmarking and Setting Key Performance Indicators
Key performance indicators and benchmarking enable companies to track their performance and their team’s improvements and productivity. Take for example, the customer service industry. Achieving excellence in customer service is tough. Customer service agents deal with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of different customers—all of whom have varying ideas on what is excellent customer service.
Studying KPIs gives companies and their agents insight into global standards for average hold time, average handling time, average waiting time, and average time to resolution among many other indicators. To understand more about customer service KPIs, download this free Customer Service KPI eBook. While KPIs reveal team performance, benchmarking specifies how your organization stacks up to competitors. Benchmarking demonstrates opportunities to improve performance gaps and establish a consistent set of metrics and processes. It will also help you lay out your performance expectations, inspire a culture of continuous improvement, and monitor your organization’s ability to adapt to change. Benchmarking and setting key performance indicators are process improvement ideas that can significantly improve your team’s performance and customer satisfaction.
Training
Training plays a vital role in team members’ continuous improvement. This business process improvement methodology gives workers the support they need to achieve their goals. Your training department should evolve alongside your organization. To achieve that standard, include your training department in business meetings, or be sure to provide relevant and up-to-date information needed by team members. While Quality Assurance monitors the performance of teams, the training department ensures teams are properly equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to meet or surpass QA’s requirements. However, training involves much more than simply polishing skills and knowledge. It also includes developing your team members to take on bigger roles within your company. Peak Support’s Emerging Leaders Program or ELP, is a great process improvement project example. Think of ELP as a mini-MBA course. Through our Emerging Leaders Program, Peak Support hones in on team members’ talent and prepares them for more responsibilities as they are promoted into leadership roles. Learn more about the chief analytics officer role and importance for any business.
Get a copy of Peak Support’s Emerging Leaders Program training guide and curriculum today.
Up-to-Date Technology
As technology evolves, we are faced with new challenges, such as phishing, spam e-mails, malware, data breaches, hacking, and server problems. That’s why IT process improvement is so vital to organizations. Forming a specialized IT and cybersecurity team is a great process improvement project example. The IT and cybersecurity group will update team members on the latest tech issues and disseminate valuable information. Another crucial role of the IT and cybersecurity group is to provide helpful tips and tricks so team members avoid becoming victims of cybercrime. Staying on top of software updates and other tech-related products allows companies and employees to work with peace of mind knowing they are protected. If you have a remote team and are worried about device security, consider investing in company-sponsored laptops equipped with security features and software. These security measures will help keep cyber-attacks at bay, minimize disruption of your business operations, and protect your clients’ information.
Overcommunicate
Lack of communication is the biggest pitfall when it comes to collaboration and working towards improving business processes. Create an environment that encourages open communication throughout the organization. Leaders should find time to schedule weekly check-ins with their teams to discuss achievements and setbacks. At bigger companies, information from these check-ins should flow up to leaders of the various company departments. So, how do you overcommunicate without sounding like a broken record? The best approach is to establish clear lines of communication. By encouraging open communication; leaders, managers, and supervisors appear more approachable and willing to accept feedback. Although your company is comprised of different teams with different tasks, you are all working towards a common goal. With that in mind, encourage collaboration across all departments of your organization. Make sure you are asking all the right questions, especially about things you’re unsure of, don’t make rash decisions, and always communicate with your team first before setting something in motion. Lastly, touch base with team leads as often as you can. A quick 15- or 30-minute meeting can keep you up to date on information across your entire organization.
