Understanding the Difference and the Value to Your Company
If you are like most people, you have heard words like “policies,” “procedures,” and “processes” used interchangeably before. And unless you use terms like “SOPs,” “work instructions,” and “job aids” regularly, you could be forgiven for thinking these are all the same. The reality, however, is that there are a number of different types of directional materials and guidelines that govern the way companies, business segments, and individual employees work, and each provides value to the business in different ways. Understanding the differences can give you more than a leg up at Trivia Night—it can help you more efficiently and effectively manage various aspects of your business.
From a performance perspective, these documents or tools are part of the support that is needed for exemplary performance. Each of these elements, when developed and implemented effectively, leads to improved performance at work. Specifically, job aids improve performance by serving as effective tools for onboarding and training, providing on-demand support for employees when they need it most.
Here is what you need to know.
Understanding Business Processes
Business processes are the backbone of any organization, comprising a series of activities, tasks, or steps performed to achieve specific goals or objectives. These processes are crucial for the smooth operation and success of a business, as they directly impact overall performance and efficiency. By understanding business processes, companies can identify areas for improvement, streamline operations, and enhance productivity.
Business processes can be categorized into three main types:
- Core processes: These are the primary activities that drive the business and generate revenue. Examples include manufacturing, sales, and customer service.
- Support processes: These processes provide essential support to core processes, enabling the organization to function efficiently. Examples include human resources, IT support, and procurement.
- Management processes: These processes oversee and manage the core and support processes, ensuring that the organization meets its goals. Examples include strategic planning, performance management, and compliance monitoring.
Effective business processes are essential for achieving business objectives. Techniques such as process mapping, process re-engineering, and continuous improvement can help organizations optimize their business processes and achieve better results.
POLICIES
Policies are “The Rules” that govern the operation of your company and those who work for it. Policies are generally developed by executives (usually with legal advice) during the early days of the company, but they typically evolve as the business grows and changes. Policies cover everything from dress codes to performance reviews, and they are the foundation upon which all other guidelines are built. Almost every business has policies of some sort in place, but often they need to be more regimented about how often policies are revisited and updated with the help of a lawyer.
Example: A company might have a policy that mandates preventive maintenance be performed on all manufacturing equipment so that workers are not at risk and downtime is avoided.
PROCEDURES
Often existing in the form of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) or similar reference manuals, procedures explain how to fulfill a company’s policies in more specific detail. Procedures often dictate “what” must be done and “who” is responsible. If it was company policy that all employees must receive 20 hours of safety training, a SOP would provide detail about how those hours are to be allocated and attained. If you want to improve performance, include specific criteria or standards that help set clear expectations for completing the SOP tasks and measuring the results.
While all companies should have some form of SOPs in place, these are often neglected or nonexistent in companies where everyone’s attention is focused elsewhere. Not every user in an organization follows the same process, suggesting that varying business process flows are necessary to accommodate different conditions and situations.
Example: A maintenance SOP would lay out the process of complying with the company’s preventive maintenance policy, including responsibilities, accountabilities, and specific procedures.
DIGITAL WORK INSTRUCTIONS
If SOPs relay the “what” and “who” of a job, work instructions tell you “how.” These step-by-step instructions tend to be department- or job-specific and explain how to execute SOPs to complete tasks and accomplish specific goals. For example, work instructions explain how to carry out maintenance checks on machinery or arrange files on servers.
When developing work instructions and setting expectations for those doing the work, it is essential to define the output to be achieved (not just the behaviors) and related criteria so a company knows if it was done “well.”
Work instructions typically exist to some extent within a company, but most businesses could benefit from more thorough, better-written, and easier-to-follow work instructions.
Example: Maintenance work instructions would give step-by-step instructions explaining the weekly, monthly, and annual checks and maintenance for equipment. The work instruction aligns with a preventive maintenance SOP.
JOB AIDS IMPROVE PERFORMANCE
A job aid is a specific piece of material intended to help someone execute a task more effectively. While a work instruction could be categorized as a job aid in some situations, job aids encompass more than just directions. Examples include checklists, labeled photographs of equipment parts, company directories, flyers, and any other supplemental material that assists in successfully accomplishing a task. Given the breadth of materials that constitute a job aid, most businesses have these in place, but in some cases ,the company needs to have more technical job aids in place for complex tasks. It is essential to create job aids with clear goals and utilize various tools and software options to design them effectively.
Example: A diagram of a piece of equipment serves as a job aid, supplementing work instructions that explain how to execute a preventive maintenance SOP aligned to a company policy. To ensure the job aid is effective, it is crucial to gather feedback from experienced employees and refine the material based on their insights.
Implementing and Maintaining Business Processes
Implementing and maintaining business processes requires a structured approach to ensure they are effective, efficient, and aligned with the organization’s goals. Here are some key steps to successfully implement and maintain business processes:
- Define the process: Clearly define the process, including its objectives, scope, and boundaries. This helps set clear expectations and provides a roadmap for implementation.
- Identify the stakeholders: Identify all stakeholders involved in the process, including employees, customers, and suppliers. Understanding their roles and responsibilities is crucial for successful implementation.
- Map the process: Use techniques such as flowcharts, swimlane diagrams, or value stream mapping to visually represent the process. This helps identify potential bottlenecks and areas for improvement.
- Assign responsibilities: Assign specific responsibilities to each stakeholder involved in the process. This ensures accountability and smooth execution.
- Establish metrics: Develop metrics to measure the performance of the process. This helps track progress and identify areas that need improvement.
- Monitor and evaluate: Regularly monitor and evaluate the process to ensure it is functioning as intended. This helps identify any issues and make necessary adjustments.
- Continuously improve: Use feedback, training, and process re-engineering to continuously improve the process. This ensures the process remains effective and efficient over time.
Maintaining business processes requires ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and improvement. Regular audits, stakeholder feedback, and continuous training and development are essential for keeping processes up-to-date and effective.
Business Process Flow Considerations
Business process flows are a critical component of business process management, providing a visual representation of the steps, tasks, and activities involved in a process. When designing business process flows, consider the following key factors:
- Clarity: Ensure that the process flow is clear, concise, and easy to understand. This helps all stakeholders follow the process without confusion.
- Consistency: Align the process flow with the organization’s policies, procedures, and standards. Consistency ensures that the process adheres to established guidelines and best practices.
- Efficiency: Design the process flow to be efficient, eliminating unnecessary steps or tasks. This helps streamline operations and reduce waste.
- Effectiveness: Ensure that the process flow effectively achieves its objectives. This involves setting clear goals and measuring the process’s performance against these goals.
- Scalability: Design the process flow to be scalable, allowing it to adapt to changing business needs. This ensures the process remains relevant and effective as the organization grows.
Business process flows can improve communication, reduce errors, and increase efficiency. They also help identify areas for improvement and optimize business processes, leading to better overall performance.
Best Practices for Business Process Management
To ensure that business processes are effective, efficient, and aligned with organizational goals, follow these best practices for business process management:
- Define clear objectives: Clearly define the objectives of the business process and ensure they align with the organization’s goals. This provides a clear direction and purpose for the process.
- Establish a process governance framework: Implement a governance framework to manage and maintain business processes effectively. This includes setting policies, procedures, and standards for process management.
- Use process mapping techniques: Utilize process mapping techniques, such as flowcharts and swimlane diagrams, to visualize business processes. This helps identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement.
- Assign responsibilities: Clearly assign responsibilities to each stakeholder involved in the process. This ensures accountability and smooth execution.
- Establish metrics: Develop metrics to measure the performance of the business process. This helps track progress and identify areas that need improvement.
- Continuously improve: Use feedback, training, and process re-engineering to continuously improve the business process. This ensures the process remains effective and efficient over time.
By following these best practices, organizations can ensure that their business processes are well-managed, efficient, and aligned with their goals, leading to improved performance and success.
What Does It All Mean to You?
The most important thing to know about these various directional assets is that your company needs them but may not have them. Standard operating procedures often go unwritten or poorly executed because no one has time to set up or update them. Work instructions are often drafted when someone is asked to “document what you do,” but the results are inconsistent or incomplete. Everyone recognizes that business needs guidelines, but no one knows quite how to create them effectively. These tools are especially crucial for new employees, as they serve as essential resources for guiding new staff through tasks and processes, ensuring they can effectively integrate into the workplace.
These varied directional materials are worth investing in, however. Putting the right policies, procedures, work instructions, and job aids in place can yield performance improvement in the form of:
- Increased efficiencies
- Consistent product/service quality
- Reduced downtime
- Reduced errors
- Reduced employee turnover
- Reduced time to competency for newly hired employees
- Referenceable data for continuous improvement efforts
Unlike traditional training methods, job aids can be developed and deployed more quickly and cost-effectively, providing on-demand assistance to employees and resulting in greater proficiency and better overall performance.
If you take a step back and be honest with yourself about where your company is lacking with regard to policies, procedures, work instructions, and job aids, the good news is there are experienced external resources available to help you get it right.
How Can We Help?
At Radcom, we work regularly with companies of all sizes to create the documentation they need to succeed. Clients chose to work with us because:
- We are dedicated to helping businesses improve performance and helping their employees love their work.
- We bring an inquisitive nature and an outside perspective, taking nothing for granted, recognizing process exceptions, and asking the right questions to create step-by-step procedures.
- We bring consistency of execution, delivering quality materials that align with all applicable standards, regulations, and other requirements. In the meantime, internal resources can stay focused on doing their jobs.
- We are knowledge transfer and process flow experts who can extract information efficiently, will not skip over sub-steps involved in tasks, and will move more quickly than inexperienced personnel.
- We are also training experts, and we can effectively pass on what we learn and develop to clients’ employees. We can also train your people to effectively train others who come on board later, ensuring continuity of knowledge within the business.
Whether you choose to work on updating and creating policies, procedures, work instructions, and job aids with experts or by yourself, just be sure you are consistent. Make a plan to not only make adjustments now, but at regular intervals in the future, too. Change is always a constant, and the more you plan for it, the better off you will be.
Need help working through anything from process flows to SOPs? Contact us to start the discussion.
