How to Standardize Processes

How do I standardize processes?

Standardizing a process means creating a consistent and repeatable method for completing a task or achieving a specific outcome. This can help improve efficiency, reduce errors, and ensure everyone involved in the process is on the same page. Lack of standardization leads to mistakes, long cycle times, inconsistent results, negative impact on the bottom line, employee dissatisfaction, and poor customer service.

When standardizing processes, the first step is often creating standard operating procedures or SOPs. SOPs improve operational efficiency and ensure consistent processes are followed. When employees perform their efforts in an SOP within an automated workflow, their work is more accessible, faster, and contains fewer errors.

Every SOP includes the following:

1. The Purpose of the SOP

2. Steps required to complete the procedure

3. The role(s) responsible for performing each step

4. A description of the situation(s) or condition(s) that require the use of the procedure

5. A description of the results of the successful execution of the procedure

6. Any supporting notes, tables, drawings, or pictures that clarify the procedure

Some of the other standardization activities include:

• Process Mapping

• Identifying Repetitive Tasks

• Setting Task Priorities

• Identifying Stakeholders

To learn more about business process standardization, download our free Business Process Management Guide.

Standardizing your processes means less disruption, greater efficiency, and increased assurance that the business complies with all legal and regulatory requirements. Companies now have an excellent alternative for reducing reliance on human compliance with SOPs—workflow automation. 

What are the benefits of process standardization?

Standardizing processes can increase efficiency and consistency, improving quality and reducing errors. As you continue standardizing manual processes, you’ll see that it becomes easier to see what’s working and where you can improve. Another critical benefit is your processes will function predictably each time and achieve expected outcomes.

Additionally, it can make it easier to measure and compare performance across teams or locations. Standardizing and automating operating procedures is the best way to improve operational efficiency.

Process Standardization Key Benefits

• Improved Customer and Employee Service

• Higher Productivity

• Process Improvement

• More Efficient Operations

• Improved Transparency

• Easier Reporting

Evaluate the Effectiveness of Standardized Processes

Once you’ve standardized your processes and procedures, you can begin to evaluate how effective they are. Set a timeline for an effectiveness review based on how often the process is used. For instance, if it’s a frequently used process, you might only need a few months to gather statistically significant data.

Collect data on process performance.

Most process tools provide reports, KPIs, charts, and dashboards that you can use to measure the effectiveness of your processes. For example, you might want to know if the turnaround time on a process section has improved with the changes. You can set a KPI to monitor how quickly steps are transitioning. Or you might want to know if the overall turnaround time of the processhas improved.

Analyze data to identify areas for improvement.

Once you collect the data that matters to you, identify any bottlenecks, missed hand-offs, common errors, etc. These analyses should be done transparently with all process stakeholders, discussed for context, and used to put together an improvement plan. This might mean changes in task assignments, changes to forms used, additional notifications, reminders, escalations, etc.

Make changes to procedures as needed.

Now that the areas for improvement are identified, and an agreed-upon plan is ready, it’s time to implement the changes and set another check-in time. Once again, you’ll review effectiveness and iterate again as needed.

Frequently Asked Questions about Process Standardization

How does workflow automation help standardize processes?

Workflow automation platforms provide a framework for defining tasks, data points, and workflow, giving you and your organization a standard set of coordinated steps to follow. These processes are accessible by anyone in the organization and provide clear, visual explanations of how your processes work. More importantly, they ensure employees follow the correct procedures once a process begins.

Where can I find more information about creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)?

We have an entire article about standard operating procedures that contains more details about how to create them and how they can be used.

How do I document my processes?

We also have an entire article about writing process documentation with helpful resources.

Examples of Processes to Standardize

Client Intake

The Client Intake Process sets the foundation for the ongoing relationship between the client and vendor. It’s a critical step where client and project information is collected and used throughout the lifecycle. It’s possible your organization still relies on manual intake forms, emails, phone calls, and file storage to manage the intake process - although it’s apparent that the importance of having a consistent, standardized method for handling this process would be more beneficial. 

With automation, you can ensure your process for onboarding new customers meets your organization’s needs. Client intake forms and routing could all be standardized and done correctly every time. Depending on the complexity of the client intake processes, there may be more routing of information, forms, approvals, etc., involved. But with automation, all of your organization’s needs will be met. Nutrient Workflow allows a completely scalable and customizable platform for building forms, processes, and portals for client intake or other workflow needs.  

Hiring

The New Hire Management workflow is often an inefficient and manual nightmare. It’s time to wake up and smell the flowers that workflow automation can provide! Without standardizing this process, there is no efficient way to notify relevant staff immediately and track when tasks are completed. Duties could include ordering supplies, performing background checks, choosing benefits, etc. Many of these tasks are unattended to and neglected, to no fault of the user, but because there needs to be more transparency.

Using an automated new hire process tracker, Nutrient Workflow drastically reduces the need for HR and managers in the field to call everyone for status updates, cuts approval time for new hires from weeks to days (sometimes hours), and eliminates errors in the process.

Employee Onboarding

As remote work becomes more popular, it’s essential to have a seamless Employee Onboarding Process. According to a study from CareerBuilder, more than 30% of employers don’t have a structured onboarding process for new hires. The onboarding process is critical and is your first opportunity to set the tone.

Employee onboarding software automates the onboarding process, providing a standardized, consistent, and company-approved approach. This makes it easier for hiring managers to work with new hires. Customized employee portals include intake forms and automated workflows that route information around the organization. 

Employee Offboarding

The Employee Offboarding Process is a systematic way for organizations to manage an employee’s departure, ensuring consistency and reducing organizational risk. Many organizations handle offboarding or termination through loose, manual processes like phone calls, emails, or in-person meetings. These could be dangerous as it only takes one poorly managed employee offboarding procedure to cause severe disruption and financial loss to a business. 

There are several reasons why automating the employee offboarding process is essential. It ensures that all necessary steps are completed consistently and accurately, reducing the risk of errors or oversights. Also, it can help to protect sensitive data and ensure compliance with regulations by ensuring that all necessary data is adequately secured and disposed of. Ensure safety, security, and compliance when offboarding an employee with an automated employee offboarding process.

Credentialing/Training

The credential or training processes are time-required conditions upon hire that have the candidate take a course to receive certifications, licenses, or educational certificates before being hired. Most organizations that require such credentials manually do this process with back-and-forth emails to the candidate to send in their documents or bring a paper copy on the first day. When collecting data like this manually, there is a risk of misplaced or lost documents or not getting the record. 

With automation, you can have your candidate attach a copy of their certificate before their hiring process continues to the next step. Then, you’ll have a documented audit of everything from that particular hire available at any time.

How Nutrient Workflow Helps Companies Standardize and Automate Processes

Nutrient Workflow allows you to design an automated process to match your department or organization’s work. Nutrient Workflow will create a standardized, automatic process that helps ensure that the activities required to complete tasks successfully are performed consistently. 

Learn More About Process Automation

Nutrient Workflow offers flexible automation solutions to use within any area of your organization. Learn more about how you can adapt our solution to fit your business environment by scheduling a demonstration of the Nutrient Workflow platform.

2-Minute Demo

The following video provides a quick overview of the Nutrient Workflow workflow automation platform. For a more extended version, visit our full video demo.

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