CFO Backed Tips For How to Systemise your Business

Why Should You Systemise Your Business?

There are several important reasons why systemising your business is a good idea. First of all, it prevents losing job knowledge. If you have someone who performs a given task more efficiently than anyone else and that someone suddenly becomes unavailable so does the efficiency.

Continuing the subject of efficiency, imagine one of your employees facing a problem that is out of the ordinary. This problem has occurred before; however, only rarely. One of your senior employees know the most efficient method of solving this problem, but that employee happens to be unavailable.

So is the solution to the problem. One final scenario has a customer returning a product. Your employee has a different method than the last employee that helped this customer, and this new method is taking a long time. The customer is now unhappy because of the delay. Same task, two different people, two different methods and one method is clearly inferior.

These examples are a small representation of what can go wrong, and why systematising your business is a good idea. Now that you have an idea why, you need to know how.

 

Systemising Your Business Processes

The first step is to understand clearly each procedure that is part of that specific task. The best way to gain this understanding is by asking the people who actually do the task most frequently. They know the best procedures, most efficient steps, what types of bumps occur, and how to overcome those bumps. These employees also know whom to turn to when something goes wrong to get the fastest resolution. In short, they know everything necessary to create a well-defined set of best practice procedures. 

 

 

For each process begin by defining the parameters of the process. Clearly define the beginning, the end, and the purpose. The start may be receiving an order, or finding an invoice in the inbox. The end may be calling the customer to let them know their order is ready, or forwarding the package to shipping. Your experienced user will provide you with the parameters and the idea is to resist adding unnecessary steps.

 

When Should I Systemise My Business?

The appropriate time to bring together a team of people with experience in this specific process is after mapping the entire process. The team can study the process map, consider any necessary changes, and make a decision.

Consider the needs of the process. If something doesn’t seem to add value, change it. If someone suggests an idea that improves efficiency, try it. Perhaps the whole process would move more smoothly if raw materials were delivered or stored another way, or maybe creating a different method of flagging orders in the system would help. Now is the time to explore options.

 

Process Maps in Business Systemisation

The previous paragraph mentioned storing supplies a different way as an example of looking for more efficient options. The next job for the team is figuring out the suppliers and customers of the process. The customers and suppliers in this context may be external to the company or internal and part of the company. For example, in this context one department may be responsible for a process that supplies something or another department, like order takers supplying information to the department that fill orders. The goal at this stage is defining who needs to work with whom to optimise results. 

Assigning process responsibility is particularly important if the process overlaps several departments. One authority figure that covers the whole process from beginning to end is in a position to make decisions that keep everyone working together to maintain productivity.

Keep the process map simple. The ideas expressed in business processes are often complex. The beauty of the process map is that it is a visual aid, and visual aids are easier to grasp than written instructions. If the map begins to seem overly complex, break it into several parts.

 

Your Employees and Systemisation

If your company has 100 process maps, each employee should be able to recognise what they are reading even if the department is totally unfamiliar. Develop a standard format and stick to that standard across the board.

You may have the most efficient well-designed process committed to paper but if the players within the organisation will not follow the process, the whole program is just wasted time. Get commitment from everyone. Make sure they are all on board and everyone understands what you are all doing and why you are doing it. Have a celebratory formal sign-off session.

Write everything down from the very first moment. Each idea, each conversation, all the brainstorming sessions. Write it down in a flexible way. After finalising the process write the final version down. Create formal documents and distribute them to everyone that needs them.

Instruct your management team to talk to everyone in positive terms. Praise the new plans and tell everyone how it will be to their benefit. Train your people and don’t let up through the transition period. Change is hard for most people, but once the new processes are in place efficiency and morale will increase as everyone knows to expect.