Imagine you’re a senior manager at a manufacturing plant, and you’ve been with the company since the beginning. You saw the business grow from a start-up of just three employees to a corporation of more than 100 employees. But now that the plant has expanded operations with multiple locations in the tri-state area, you’ve been frustrated how sometimes things slog along. Though the company has increased in size, sometimes it seems that things are less cohesive than they used to be, and the company’s profits don’t match how much it has grown within that time.

Does this sound like your company? If so, my friend, you desperately need to add or examine some procedures, processes, and systems at your company so that your employees can be more productive, more efficient, and help the business increase its revenue.

Many leaders realize that developing documented procedures, processes, and systems enhance operational efficiencies and establish outcomes. But did you know that there are so many other reasons that developing these processes and systems can be worth your while?

Here are just three additional reasons that adding procedures, processes, and systems to your business will make your business thrive.

1. They empower your employees to spend more time in their areas of expertise.

To be most strategic with your employees’ time, you want them doing things at which they excel, things that come naturally to them. In short, you want your employees working in their wheelhouse.

However, without clearly defined and regularly audited procedures, processes, and systems, your employees will be spending more time creating reports, outlining project budgets, or correcting errors in how things are done. All this time that your employees are spending in these areas is time that they are not spending in their wheelhouse, which is where they are most valuable, and you are most profitable and innovative.

For this reason, it’s important to develop and document procedures and processes (if you do not have them already) so that you may move toward automating the processes and systems as much as possible. Not only will you see revenues increase, but your employees will be happier, too.

2. They make training more effective and reduce duplicative tasks and rework.

When a new employee starts with the business, having documented procedures, processes, and systems in place can make onboarding much easier and more efficient. Not only will your leaders, trainers, and managers have a better understanding of how to mentor employees who are acclimating to the organization, but they’ll know that these new hires are more likely to be successful in their new roles because they’re receiving more support and guidance.

As employees are acclimating to an organization, having processes and systems in place will also minimize the amount of time that other employees spend on duplicative tasks. Without a clear understanding of who does what, when, and how, you are almost guaranteed to invest twice the man-hours.

Having a checklist, flowchart, or how-to-guide will help all employees get up-to-speed more quickly and complete tasks much more comprehensively, more efficiently, and much more in line with the company’s expectations than if they had been left to float and flounder without something to reference. And, as a result, your more seasoned employees won’t need to spend as much time reviewing, correcting, or re-doing what your new hire produced in the first place.

3. They minimize time spent researching how best to complete a task.

With processes and systems in place and clearly delineated, your employees won’t need to spend their time figuring out the best way to complete a task. Instead, they’ll be able to focus immediately on just getting the task done. For example, if you have a process clearly explained in the company wiki that a project manager needs to notify the Accounting Department using a certain form when a new contract is signed, your project managers won’t continually ask their colleagues what they’re supposed to do in that situation. Because the information is readily accessible and spelled out step-by-step, your team members will be able to complete tasks much more efficiently.

In addition, once your company has documented its procedures, processes, and systems, your employees will much more quickly be able to develop new ideas, projects, and systems that can benefit the organization. Thus, by creating and documenting procedures, processes, and systems, you will help your business grow in multiple ways.

We want to encourage you to be creative with the approach you take to bring procedures, processes, and systems into your business. Sometimes, business leaders think that systems are most valuable for tasks or processes that are exceedingly repetitive or are more administrative. However, if your team members do a lot of writing or design in their position, then having a process outlining how to complete specific projects like blog posts, technical reports, or a web design project can be equally useful.

Even though these tasks naturally require a bit more creativity, having a process in place will ensure that your team members do not need to spend hours online figuring out what to do next. Likewise, by following a process, no key steps and/or elements will be missed.

Did you feel these tips were helpful? If so, contact us today to learn more about how processes and systems can benefit your business.