Process Bliss research from earlier in 2019 revealed that 43% of SME employees say their company has lost customers because of failed processes, while the same figure say they have quit a job because of work-related frustrations and stresses that were not addressed by management.

Some of the main causes of this stress were having to chase colleagues for updates, a lack of information or clarity when asked to do something and a lack of guidance/direction from the boss - all issues caused by poor process. 

Process is relevant to most business functions, but two of the most pertinent are employee onboarding and customer onboarding. Both of these are essential to a successful small business but it is astonishing how many SMEs do not have simple processes set up for these tasks.

Every time a customer is signed up or a new member of staff joins the team, there should be steps in place for staff to follow each and every time. Do customers all get a welcome email, thanking them for signing up? Is all the admin and contract detail addressed as a priority? For new employees, will all their IT equipment be ready for them on their first morning? What will their first day look like - have all the appropriate training and introductory meetings been scheduled?

In some instances, this might well happen, but in others it might not. Instead of a customer feeling like they have made the right decision to work with your firm, they could instead be feeling neglected. Instead of a new employee feeling like a valued member of the team, they could be feeling ignored and unimportant.

Getting started with process

But finding the time to get started with process isn't easy. Even capturing process - always the most important initial step - isn't straightforward. It requires someone to write down a checklist of what is required for each task, and for that checklist to be stored somewhere accessible, so it can be changed and improved over time.
Good process also requires collaboration.

Employees are smart and know process as well as anyone, so should be allowed to contribute to the building of process. Ultimately people are smarter than process. If you tell them what to do it demotivates and destroys the creative value people add, so involving them makes perfect sense.

We have recently launched a new process Template Library, which contains the blueprints for the way people perform certain processes in a business. It covers customer onboarding and employee onboarding, as well as many other areas, and is the perfect way for any organisation to get started with process. Each contains a checklist of all the steps that need completing and they can all be personalised according to the specific needs of that SME.

Using process will mean a business will run smarter and more efficiently and will have the foundations to expand and grow - better process should be a priority for any forward-thinking SME.

For more information visit www.processbliss.com