Business Challenges and TouchStone Soultions
Business Documentation
The Challenges:
Can’t Find it When You Need it: Most employers, as systems are created, store their documented processes in a “structure” of file folders on their computer. So often the systems storage structure makes sense when first started, but as more of the businesses processes are documented, and systems become more and more complex, their storage becomes equally as complex and unruly to the point where even the person who wrote the system can not find the most recent version as well as all of its pieces. Or systems are stored on a local area network on network drives that are restricted to some employees. If the systems are printed and stored in three ring manual binders, as the number of systems and their complexity grows, so does the ability to find that specific system in the manual binder. How can you expect your employees to follow a process if they can’t find it? And how much time do you want them to waste looking for it?
Updating as Systems Change: For years we’ve been advocating business owners get their systems written, printed and stored in three ring binders. These “manual” operating manuals are then distributed to every employee in each position in the organization. But as the business landscape shifts so do the systems. Steps in the systems change as they are innovated. New elements are added or changed. With multiple copies of the operating manuals distributed throughout the organization, attempts to keep them up to date are, at best, rare. Usually the systems are simply not kept up to date, the system is out-dated so employees choose not to use it. All the effort expended writing systems is wasted with-in a year of the distribution of the operating manuals.
Consistency: It’s been our experience that employees tasked to document a system will simply use the tool that is most familiar to them. This may be a word processing program, a presentation application like PowerPoint or even an Excel spreadsheet. Sometimes it’s handwritten on a “legal pad”. There is no consistency within the organization and, if it is written in an application that an employee is not familiar with, they’ll tend not to edit the system when they find errors and often choose not to use or follow it.
The TouchStone Solution:
TouchStone is a web based, on-demand application to help organize all of your systems and store them in one central location making them available to all employees who have access privileges wherever there is access to the internet.
All systems are uniquely linked to positions on your company’s organizational chart automatically creating a job description for that position. Click on a position on the organizational chart and the job description is displayed – an index of all of the systems for that position. Click on a system name from the job description and the complete system with all of its system elements and tools is available. System elements, such as sales letters or a customer service script can be hyperlinked to an instructional work plan so they can be found and used quickly and easily.
All systems are created in a uniform and consistent manner making it ever easier to locate and edit for those with editing rights. And because TouchStone is a data base of systems, if a change is made to any system or system element, the change is immediately available to anyone who has access to that system.
As a result, it becomes an extremely easy tool to efficiently and consistently document and organize all of your businesses processes making it easy for all employees to find and follow the systems you expect them to follow.
Implementation and Training
The Challenges:
Tracking Training: Who has been trained and who hasn’t been trained? Which systems have changed and who has not yet been trained on those changes? These are difficult questions for most managers or owners so they don’t even bother. So often employees are not adequately trained in the procedures they are required to follow. As a result, even though there is an attempt to follow the process, the attempt is uniquely individualized and therefore different from another employee who is attempting to follow the exact same process. Training is key and, if you’re managing multiple employees, it’s critical to know whose been trained in which systems. As systems change, that change needs to be communicated to those who follow that process making it even more difficult and important to track who has been in the revisions.
The “I didn’t know we needed to do that” Factor: Most small businesses use the “shadow me” strategy to show their employees what they need to do. There is little if any communication of what results are expected and there is often no follow up to be sure the employee is doing what they are expected to do. Studies show that understanding and retention using the shadow me method is at best about 18 percent. Most employees have no idea what they’re supposed to do, what is expected of them and what happens if they don’t succeed. They’re tasked to figure it out on their own time. Lack of compliance means choices end up being at the discretion of the employee causing a lack of consistency. Lack of consistency means a lack of control, lack of meaningful information and a poor customer experience. The result is employee frustration, manager frustration and general process inefficiency - the employee quits or is terminated, an expensive and wasteful outcome.
Delegation vs. Abdication: Truly delegating a task means understanding the process as well as what results could and should be expected of an employee following that process - and then clearly communicating how to accomplish the task and monitoring the results. True delegation provides even more control for the owner. However, what happens more often than not is an employee is hired to take on a task that an owner no longer wishes to do and no system has been documented for an effective training experience. Or the owner feels inexperienced and looks to an “expert” to fill the gap. Not understanding how the system works and what to expect of the task done “well enough” can lead to unexpected surprises. Giving the task over to another to figure out is an abdication of responsibility and results in a loss of control.
The TouchStone Solution:
TouchStone provides every manager with a clear understanding of who has been trained in every system. TouchStone tracks which systems and system elements have changed and who has not yet been “cleared” in those changes. The tool instantly makes all of the system changes available to anyone who uses the process. As a result, you know who has been trained and you can rest assured that the most recent and correct processes are being followed; the right sales letters are being mailed, correct scripts are being used and correct checklists are being completed.
Results and expectations for all business processes are a part of every system. As a result, employees understand what they need to do, how to do it and what is expected of them. Clear instructions and tools to be able to follow that process are easily and quickly available to them. There is no longer any need for an employee to have to figure it out on their own and their experience is one of ease and satisfaction.
Management
The Challenges:
Diligence and Perseverance: One of the single biggest mistakes in management is failing to ensure reporting employees truly understand the tasks they have been assigned. Workshops, weekly review and training are absolutely necessary. What usually happens is a manager “assumes” the employee is doing what needs to be done and, feeling like that area of the business is covered, moves his focus and attention on to other areas of the business. The manager fails to spend enough time going over the processes and working all the skill areas required for that employee to succeed in all tasks assigned.
Are Employees Following the Process?: If an employee is not achieving their objectives it can only be due to one or more of three possibilities. Either they are not following the system. Or they are attempting to follow the system and struggling. Or the system no longer works. What so often happens is a manager fails to follow up with a reporting employee until it’s too late. The employee quits out of frustration or is fired for lack of performance. The impact on the company can be staggering. In the United States, the “average” cost of a bad hire is ,000. Lack of training and/or a lack of adequate management or a lack of follow-up supervision is almost always to blame.
Security and Restrictions: As all of the systems in your business are documented, it’s necessary to protect these proprietary processes. Employees responsible for one functional area of the business might need to be restricted from other functional areas of your business. You may not want your sales people, for example, to have access to your financial systems. Creating employee rights and restrictions is cumbersome and difficult to do in a “LAN-based” network of electronic business processes. Most business owners assume their employees will not be interested in looking at the systems in other functional areas of the business only to find out that someone has left to start their own business complete with all of your proprietary systems. Or you may have some employees that are tasked with helping with the creation and editing of systems while others are only given the rights to “read” the systems they are tasked to perform. You might not want a new employee editing a long standing sales process that you know works.
The TouchStone Solution:
TouchStone supports your company’s management structure and style. Systems are categorized in four functional areas; Getting the Business (Sales and Marketing systems), Doing the Business (Client Fulfillment and Operational Systems), Running the Business (Financial and Administrative systems), and Guiding the Business (Leadership, Management and Strategic systems).
Reporting relationships and accountability are clearly defined in a graphic organizational structure that links systems from the four functional areas to create clear and concise Job Descriptions for every employee. As a result, each employee can easily understand what they need to do and how to do it.
Managers can require employees trained in specific systems to follow those processes and a manager can track that each of their reporting employees with TouchStone login access is following the required processes.
Management tools in the “General Process Systems Library” are included and available to all TouchStone users.Only employees with security privileges assigned by the business owner have access to the Company’s TouchStone account. Employees in specific functional areas of the business can be restricted from other functional areas. They can be given access only to those systems that appear on their Job Description. Once access is granted to a specific position, “read only” rights, “editing” rights and system “creation” rights can be individually assigned.
Access to the four functional areas, the database of your business systems, is limited only to those who have “administrator” rights so there is no chance of anyone sabotaging, deleting or stealing your company’s processes.
