Every business owner wants to eliminate inefficiency from their company, and the best way to do this is to build business processes. However, if you've ever tried to document and implement business systems, you know that you might hit a snag if your employees are not on board.
If business processes are not carried out properly, they rapidly fall out of use and become outdated, making them unworkable. This is why business owners have to do more than build processes, they have to create a process-integrated culture.
This is something that Adi Klevit, CEO of Business Success Consulting Group, and Jen Hamilton, Founder and Fractional COO at Hamilton COOs, discussed during a recent episode of the Systems Simplified podcast. Read on to learn techniques for building a process-integrated culture.
What is a process-integrated culture?
Picture your ideal company. Most business owners would agree that, ideally, their company would produce and deliver high-quality products/services consistently and efficiently.
How does one achieve this?
The answer is process implementation.
Documenting and implementing processes makes everything more efficient. Processes provide the opportunity for automation and ensure some departments can increase productivity without the need for additional employees. This sounds great from a high-level management perspective. But how does one translate these benefits to your various teams?
Ensuring your teams benefit from documenting and implementing business systems - and those teams buying in - is the basis of a process-integrated culture.
Building a process-integrated culture
Efficiencies around recruitment, hiring, onboarding, performance, management, training, and operations transform businesses. Processes not only support efficiencies, but they also help employees become more productive without substantively increasing their workload.
On top of that, making your employees' lives easier with processes is one way to make your business more profitable because they can give you their best work and enjoy their jobs every day.
So, how do you do this?
You build a process-integrated culture.
There are two sides of this coin.
One is creating that culture in your business as it stands. The other is recruiting new employees who will embrace processes and continue to run with the business systems you and your existing team have built and implemented.
Creating a process-integrated culture in your existing business
The best way to get initial employee buy-in both in documenting and implementing processes is for the business leaders to do so at the outset. Process building and implementation must come from the top so employees can clearly understand and see the cultural shift.
This also gives you and your team the opportunity to discuss the changes as leadership makes them. Often, employees need different incentives to document and implement processes than simple efficiency.
You can create greater employee buy-in by showing how processes are making your life easier and discussing how it can benefit them in their jobs.
For example, creating efficiencies through process building can make their workday easier, reduce stress levels, support hands-off training and onboarding (so your team doesn't have to train new employees), and support delegation of tasks either to automation or new hires - without eliminating the employee's role or giving them an opportunity for advancement. These factors will make their lives easier and allow them to do their jobs with less stress.
Once you have created buy-in, getting employees to document and utilize business processes is much easier.
From there, you and your team can keep those processes in play by ensuring someone is accountable for implementation and regular process review.
Hiring team members who will embrace your process-integrated culture
Guess what the easiest method of hiring new employees who love to utilize processes requires? A tested hiring process!
Here are some strategies you can utilize to get started:
- If you do not have a hiring process built out, document and create a hiring process that can be used immediately.
- As you move forward, work with your team to modify the hiring process to pinpoint the attributes you are looking for. You can start by surveying your team to find the characteristics that make them shine bright and do such an amazing job.
- Test interviewees for the "soft" characteristics that will make them a good culture fit. For example, find out if they would be willing to apply their existing skills through the lens of your processes or if they will immediately try to change things.
Your hiring process is going to be specific to your company. However, including culture-fit questions and testing will help you hire the best candidate for your business.
Are you ready to build and implement business processes in your company? We are here to help! Contact the experts at Business Success Consulting Group for your free initial company evaluation.
