Category: General

Regardless of the type, size or shape, every organizations are defined by their business processes. Business processes are essentially the building blocks of any organization. Because most business processes are created adhoc to solve a business problem and then evolve, organizations need to have their processes adequately defined. When processes work well, they can significantly improve efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction.

However, processes that don’t work or are not well defined can lead to numerous problems. For example

Customers may complain about poor product quality or bad service.
Employess get frustrated.
Work may be duplicated, or not done.
Costs increase.
Resources are wasted.
Bottlenecks can develop, causing you to miss deadlines.

When these problems are encountered, it may signify a time to review or update the relevant process. Also new goals, new technology, and changes in the business environment can cause established processes to become inefficient or outdated, therefore process improvement or re-designed needed. To review or update a relevant process, follow the following steps:

1. Map the process
This involves defining what the business does, who is responsible and what is the standard by which the success ofthe business process can be judged. When mapping a bsuiness, you identify the process to be documented, then gather information from the process participants via interviews or observations. Also identify the start and end points of the process. You can then break the process into distinct tasks and decision points.

It’s important to explore each tasks and decision points in detail, as some processes may contain sub-steps that you’re not aware of. Consult people who use the process regularly to ensure that you don’t overlook anything important.

2. Analyze the process
By analyzing the process, you are investigating the inner workings of the process, using the process map you have created in order, to identify the strengths, weaknesses, inefficiencies and bottlenecks in the process. This enables you to create a framework for your business process improvements.

Speak to the people who are affected by the process. What do they think is wrong with it? And what suggestions do they have for improving it?

Then look at other teams in your organization. What tactics have they developed to deal with similar situations?

3. Redesign the process
Process Redesign is the approach to ensuring that a particular set of interconnected activities are performed correctly, and in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

It’s best to work with the people who are directly involved in the process. Their ideas may reveal new approaches, and, also, they’re more likely to buy into change if they’ve been involved at an early stage.

First, make sure that everyone understands what the process is meant to do. Then, explore how you can address the problems you identified in step 2 (Brainstorming can be helpful here). Note down everyone’s ideas for change, regardless of the costs involved. Then, narrow your list of possible solutions by considering how your team’s ideas would translate to a real-life context.

Start by conducting an Impact Analysis to understand the full effects of your team’s ideas. Then, carry out a Risk Analysis and a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis to spot possible risks and points of failure within your redesigned process. Depending on your organization’s focus, you may also want to consider Customer Experience Mapping at this stage.

These tests will help you to understand the full consequences of each proposed idea, and allow you to make the right decision for everyone.

Once you and your team agree on a process, create new diagrams to document each step.

4. Acquire resources
You now need to secure the resources you need to implement the new process. List everything that you’ll need to do this.
This could include guidance from senior managers or from colleagues in other departments, such as IT or HR. Communicate with each of these groups, and make sure that they understand how this new process will benefit the organization as a whole. You may need to prepare a business case
to demonstrate this.

5. Implement and Communicate Change
It’s likely that improving your business process will involve changing existing systems, teams, or processes. For example, you may need to acquire new software, hire a new team member, or organize training for colleagues.

Rolling out your new process could be a project in itself, so plan and manage this carefully. Allocate time for dealing with teething troubles, and consider running a pilot first, to check for potential problems.

Keep in mind that change is not always easy. People can be resistant to it, especially when it involves a process that they’ve been using for some time.

6. Review the Process
Few things work perfectly, right from the start. So, after you roll out the new process, closely monitor how things are going in the weeks and months that follow, to ensure that the process is performing to expectations. This monitoring will also allow you to fix problems as they occur.

Make it a priority to ask the people involved with the new process how it’s working, and what – if any – frustrations they’re experiencing.

Adopt continuous improvement strategies such as Kaizen. Small improvements made regularly will ensure that the process stays relevant and efficient.

IMPROVING BUSINESS PROCESSES Read More »

Project Management is regarded as a very high priority as all companies or organisations, whether small or large, are at one time or another involved in implementing new undertakings, innovations and changes etc. – projects.

Imagine two teams of equally skilled builders.

They set out to build a house. Each house must look and function the same, be built with the same budget, and be completed by the same date.
Both teams have a manager, but they are not cut from the same cloth.

One manager tells his team what to do, checks that everyone starts on time, and ensures no one leaves early. He also kicks off the house-building project with a team meeting by simply saying, “get it done.”

The second manager creates a written charter to clearly articulate the purpose of the project, identify stakeholders and their expectations, list major assumptions and constraints, and capture project requirements. He works with the team to build a detailed and sequenced project schedule, identify and evaluate risks, set quality standards for all tasks and deliverables. Finally, he evaluates if outside support is necessary and builds a detailed and scheduled project plan.

Of course, during the actual building of this house, team one is running around doing what they can to hit their goal. Everyone is smart, motivated, and has good intentions, but no plan for what they will do next and no formal way to share the plan in each of their heads with each other.

In other words, team one is just “making it work.”

Team two, on the other hand, is carefully monitoring each task while using their formal communications plan to share information with each other and all identified stakeholders. They are watching that their costs stay aligned with their budget while keeping an eye out for new risks. Finally, their manager focuses on removing progress-stalling impediments while protecting the project from ballooning requirements.

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Finally, when the the last nail is hammered in, team one cleans up and celebrates while team two verifies that all requirements have been met, gains consensus on project completion with all stakeholders, and captures and shares all lessons learned with other house-building teams in their company.

Which Team Would You Rather Have?

Project Management aims to give your organization focused communication, prioritized work deliverables, a stress-free and stable work environment, and control of your projects destiny.

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Project Management certifications like PMP helps the managers in gaining basic knowledge of these dimensions on which Project Manager is supposed to work.

WHY IS PROJECT MANAGEMENT IMPORTANT FOR AN ORGANIZATION? Read More »

Benefits of Employee Certifications for Organizations

As global organizations continue to hunt for professionals with particular skills, certification provides a clear cut way to ensure employees – current and future – have the knowledge and talent needed to help progress their career transformation.

Given digital’s incredible rate of progression and the current expansion of workforces, incorporating certification into a workplace means introducing consistent, measurable and industry-recognized standards. Employees know what to expect and how they measure against their peers while employers gain a workforce that feels invested in resulting in increased sales and repeat business. As work environments continue to evolve –e.g. Flexibility, mobility, leadership development and performance management – learning is one of the biggest factors to the culture of an organization.

According to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2016 more than 8 in 10 executives view learning as an important or very important issue. Employees at all levels now expect dynamic, self-directed and continuous learning opportunities.

Despite this many learning and development organizations are struggling with internally focused and outdated platforms and static learning approaches.

This is not only a problem of skills development, but also one of engagement. In today’s highly competitive global economy and intensely competitive talent market, companies that do not constantly upgrade skills and rapidly build leaders will not be able to execute their business plans.

For high-performing organizations that are adapting to this new learning culture, their L&D teams are building internal knowledge sharing programs, developing easy-to-use portals and video sharing systems and promoting collaborative experiences. A big part of this is continuous learning and professional qualifications that can go some way to improving employee learning and provide long-term success through:

Improved staff efficiencies: Certified staff are more conducive and perform better. A recent survey that explored the value of IT certification found that those with a certification were 90% more productive and 60% more efficient compared to those without.
Improved productivity and reduced cost: Employees with certifications tend to stay with organizations longer, reducing hiring costs and minimizing disruption to the business. With 41% of companies3 stating a bad hire can cost at least $25,000 while a quarter claim that figure is more like $50,000, a qualification can go a long way to mitigating those type of losses.
Invest in an employee’s future: Offering learning and development opportunities that add value to an employee’s skill-set and knowledge places value on their future.
Enable employees to own their career development: A continuous and flexible program that leads to certification can enable individuals to own, self-direct and control their learning. By supporting a self-directed program that caters to an individual’s needs you will develop the talent of your business which will allow your organization to innovate.
Promote wellness & trust : A study by the American Psychological Organization found that while the majority of workers were satisfied with their job overall, only half said they were satisfied with the growth and development opportunities (49%) and employee recognition practices (47%). This indicates that employees that feel valued by their employer are more likely to be engaged in their work and ultimately are more willing to stay.
Create brand advocates: Employees that are valued and happy in their jobs can become valuable assets to an organization. Employee advocates that share news of the organization across social media networks and promote the working environment, learning programs and culture can not only help to retain existing employees, but also help to attract new and skilled talent.
Superior business agility: Up-skilling staff with professional certifications makes an organization more agile and serves to improve performance. With digital transformation now a priority for many companies rather than an add-on, staff that respond quickly, keep on top of trends and embrace shifts in technologies are key.

CERTIFICATION FOR ORGANIZATIONS Read More »

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