Business Process Improvement

If you are part of an organization, you must follow dozens of processes on a daily basis.  You take the same steps to generate a report, deal with a complaint, place a service request, take care of an incident, etc.

I am sure that there have been times that you have come across an inefficient process by running into a wrong report, unhappy clients, stressed out colleagues, increased costs, missed deadlines, and these are only few of the problems that a dysfunctional process can bring about.

That's exactly why it's so vital to improve processes when they are not working optimally. A process can be formal or informal. A formal process is also known as a procedure and is documented with detailed steps.  These kinds of processes are predominantly important when there are safety-related, legal or financial reasons for following specific steps.

Informal processes are a lot likely to be the ones you have created, or have been verbally handed down, and it may not have been written down.  Both processes have one thing in common: they're designed to structure the way that you and your team work.  When they are followed properly, there are fewer delays and errors, there is less duplication of efforts and there are more happy clients and stakeholders.

One method that has worked throughout my years of experience is the incremental process change that is aimed to improve what is already in place. Here are the steps that are taken through this method:

1.     Take a look at where you are in a process and where you like to be.  What is it that needs to improve before you get there?  Document, diagram, use any tools available to see the process visually. Explore each step and phase you are mapping in detail and specify the sub-levels and steps that need to be taken.  Consult the people in the organization that use the process regularly, to avoid overlooking anything important.

2.     Analyze your document and diagrams to investigate the problems within the process.  Things like: where are the bottlenecks? What made the costs go up? Which processes are least efficient? Where do clients or employees are most frustrated? Etc… Do a Root Cause Analysis, Cause and Effect Analysis or the 5 whys to find the origins of the issue.  Talk to those who are affected by this.  What do they think is wrong? How would they improve it? This will all give you the entire informational arsenal you need to tackle the issue in a more informed and efficient way.

3.     Now it would become the time to redesign the process and get rid of the problems that you have identified. It is always best to include those who are directly involved or affected with the process.  They would be more likely to buy into new processes if they are in this with you from the early stages. Of course you need to make sure that to begin with, they understand the process and what it meant to do.  Brainstorm, and narrow down the list of your possible solutions. Make sure not to forget impact and risk analysis of the new process you are thinking of implementing, so to understand the full consequence of the proposed idea. Update your process diagrams as things change.

4.     Secure the resources you need to proceed with the implementation of the new process.

5.     It is more than likely that by improving the process, you will be applying some changes to the existing systems.  In this you may need some new-hires or new software, etc.  The rollout of the process improvement, dependent on its size could prove to be a project on its own.   

6.     After the rollout, a close monitoring of the whole thing is needed in the upcoming weeks and probably months to make sure that everything is as per expectation. This also allows for the on-the-fly tweaks that need to happen. Make sure to ask everyone involved their opinion of how this is working.

Best of luck in your endeavours.

Hire or Contract?

Right off the bat, let me tell you that I am not starting off a war on this topic…..LOL…. but just want to point out what are the thoughts and concerns as the best way to choose, if you are in the decision mode.

So in this article I am aiming to have a quick look at hiring an employee vs. a contractor. When you hire an employee, you have control over that hire – in things like: behaviour, workload, tasks, the order in which the tasks take place, etc… You also pay them a salary, so that means creating accounts and withholding taxes, CPP, EI, and filing the taxes along with benefits and the rise in those costs and so on. This actually is a costly business considering it takes time and expertise to accomplish this all, as well as money.

Contractors in general cost less. A contractor does whatever they are assigned to, issues an Invoice, and then that’s it…there are no employer tasks like taxes, benefits, sick-days, vacation, and training costs. No worries about overtime or retirement or pension costs.

So which one to choose? Well it really depends. What is your situation at hand?

• If you have an ongoing project that needs continual work with no conclusive end date then you may need to hire an employee unless the work requires high skills, knowledge and no direction from you.
• If you have a task list that includes what can be done remotely and if so then a contractor is the way to go for sure. This will free up valuable company funds that will not be spent on cubicles and utilities and other operational costs. Mind you, this can also be the way to go with your full-time employees, as more and more of Global Organizations are realizing and adhering to.
• If you’ve ever had to fire or package an employee for any reason, you know how painful that can be for both the employee and the employer. When it comes to contractors you simply need to cease the workflow.
• Although you usually have to pay more per hour, you will most likely save money overall in hiring a contractor, since it is not needed to pay them any benefits and do not need to commit to a salary.
• You have greater tractability with an independent contractor. When you have an employee that doesn’t work out, you may need to fire or package them, which can be a dragging, long and arduous experience.
• You can contract the right person for the task at hand, with a specialized service. They often come with many years of experience, so you don’t need to train them. Also due to the fact that they have dealt with a variety of situations, they have a shorter span of learning curve.
• Employees have a wide array of rights under many laws, and as such, a variety of legal claims they can potentially bring against their employers for violating those rights. Because contractors are independent businesspeople, they are not protected by many of these laws. Employees can and may be able to sue their employers for wrongful termination. Contractors, however, cannot bring this type of lawsuit to the table.

Hope this has been helpful….

Business Process Management

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” - -- Winston Churchill

Business Process Management (BPM) is about managing change to improve business processes, in which it works hand-in-hand with Organizational Change Management (OCM). BPM offers a single standard in taking care of: Process Modeling, Simulation, Workflow, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), and Business-to-Business (B2B) integration.

Even though the terminology might sound new, all the above-mentioned processes have been around for decades. Business Process Management however, offers a standard for a complete process lifecycle in controlling and guiding the design and execution of business processes. One cannot manage a change process in an ad-hoc manner. Business modelling and execution language standards are much in need, during an organizational change.

In modelling a business process flow, we simply model the events that transpire to start a process, the processes that get executed, and the end results of the process flow. The process flow of course can contain sub-processes.

As you continue down the path of business analysis, you can identify accountabilities and responsibilities, as well as KPIs. For BPM to achieve the set KPIs, the value provided for the client/customer as to be critical and primary. Successfully using BPM usually involves a few steps to be taken:

• Focusing and organizing the process around outcomes not tasks, so not to be derailed from the main objective.
• Being proactive in correcting and improving processes, through deployment of Continual Service/Process Improvement, before theoretically automating them.
• Establishing processes, as well as communication of the processes and assigning ownership to ascertain the quality and integrity of the work.
• Standardization of all processes across the enterprise so they can be more readily understood and managed, errors reduced, and risks alleviated.
• Enabling and encouraging continuous change so the improvements can applied over time.
• Improving existing processes.
• BPM and OCM are not a one-time exercise. Both should be the core of Continual Service Improvement (CSI) initiative, involved in a continuous evaluation of the processes and included in taking actions to improve the total flow and efficiency of processes.

Service Level Objectives - SLO

1.1      Availability Service Level Objectives (ASLO)

Availability Service Level Objectives monitor the availability of a configuration item (CI), such as a service, application, hardware, software, or other infrastructure component.  SLOs report any change to the availability of the CI in incidents, tasks, and change.  ASLO requires the following information to be gathered:

Field	Content	Comments
ASLO ID	Numeric Value
SLA ID	SLA Name
Name	SLO Name	The name must be descriptive, such as: 99% availability required.
Owner	SLO Owner
Description		Additional information about client expectation or requirements outlined in OLAs
Affected CI	The CI related to this ASLO
Required Uptime		Displayed in percentage
Maximum Outage Time		Displayed in percentage. Planned (and approved) outages Degraded service Partial loss of service Slow response time Intermittent interruptions Total loss of service
Schedule	Pre-defined work schedule	This is limiting the availability hours.
Time Zone		This will be chosen within the tool
Alerts	These relate to remaining availability

 

KPIs	Measurements
………

 

1.2      Response Service Level Objectives (RSLO)

Response Service Level Objectives is a rule that describes the maximum amount of time allowed for a response to business event.  E.g. the response times for Priority 1 – 4 incidents.  RSLO rules contain the following information to be gathered:

Field	Content	Comments
RSLO ID	Numeric value
SLA Name
Name	RSLO  name	A descriptive name: e.g. one hour response required
Condition		This is used to determine if the SLO applies to the application record.  For example which field conditions match this application.  Or what turnaround time matches this priority, etc…
Priority
Category		What category of SLA is this?
Service Area	Application related to the SLO
Initial State		This is when response time is starting to be measured.
Final State		This is when the response time has stopped.
Duration Type	Normal business operation hours	·         Interval ·         Calculation ·         Duration in Record
Schedule	Support team shift information
Time Zone
Alerts	The time remaining on SLO

 

KPIs	Measurements
………

 

 

ROWE

For companies that have put the alarm on snooze, wake up and see what is your competitor is doing.  The old style management of “I wanna know when you take a washroom break” is so passé.  Military style management does not work anymore.  The new generation is creating a different philosophy.  Work does not have to be 9-5 anymore.  It does not have to be within the confines of a cubicle anymore.  Your creativity does not flow when you are trapped in a tiny cubicle that the company pays thousands of dollars for.  Your creativity flows when you are surrounded by what you love.  You start loving your work, when you love your environment.  You become more productive when you have not spent the very first few hours of your awaking moments in traffic or bus, or train or subway.  

You are expected to deliver certain deliverables and whether you do it in one hour or ten, as long as you are on time with your deadlines, and you produce good quality work, all is good. 

There are many companies currently in the market that are adhering to these rules and have had an excellent track record.  Xerox, HP, Dell, Aetna, United Health group, American Express, just to name a few.  Result Oriented Work Environment is a management viewpoint based on the idea that giving employees control over their time is the best way to increase productivity in the workplace.

Basically treating humans like humans.  Managers trust employees to get their work done, and evaluations are based on accomplishments, not how much time they spend looking busy at their desks. In a case like this it becomes far clearer who is actually getting work done and who isn’t. This is the best possible way of measuring performance and capabilities. In an environment like this, teams have a persistent focus on results. 

This kind of management style forces managers and employees to be clear about job descriptions and expectations. Team members learn how to communicate more effectively and plan ahead around each other’s schedules. They also learn to work together and back each other up in new ways.

Result Oriented Work Environment is not just about the employees, but the employer as well. Happier employees produce quality work. There is a balance of freedom within each role.  The availability of chat tools, email, conference calling, video conferencing is all available to almost all companies.  Those who do not take advantage of this, can consider a huge loss in their budget.  They have all they need to stop paying for the cubicles that are non-productive.

Is your company still in dark ages? Are your managers still feel working remote means they don’t know what you are up to? Are you still mistrusted? Voice your opinion on how you feel and let them know they can trust you.  They can show large amounts of savings by cutting the overhead; all in the same time allowing for the employee to be more creative and productive. One last important point to also consider is that sick employees who cannot afford to take a day off and show up at the office, cost thousands of dollars in making others sick who are going to be out of commission for the next few days. 

All big companies with Result Oriented Work Environment have come to this understanding: employees that are not feeling well, if they work remote, they still tend to work.  Their emails are answered even after 10:00 Pm sometimes, because it is hard to see and ignore it.  This is just psych 101.  All the while if they were in the office none of that could happen.  Change your views, save money, become productive, create a work environment that would make you one of the top wanted companies for people to work with.  www.BPMG.guru

What If Joe Quits Tomorrow?

Any business I have had the pleasure to serve, always has one person, one employee, they cannot do without.  Joe knows the ins and outs of it all.  He knows how to crunch the numbers; he knows how the system works. Joe is the go-to guy. Without him, everyone is lost.  When Joe takes a vacation or is sick, everyone panics.  If Joe quits tomorrow and he is dedicated enough to do knowledge transfer, he will take years of experience with him that was facilitating the job and making it seem simple.  He cannot possibly do a knowledge transfer for many years of service over couple of weeks.  Why is this?  You would think that by now we would have learned to do things differently and not have a single point of failure.

We need to ask Joe, to take one day out of each week and document everything. First, Joe is going to list his regular tasks. 

Second, Joe will carefully document the steps. Now you might say, or even Joe might object that documentation is not his strongest suit.  Well then, ask another employee to shadow Joe for that particular task and write it all down in a step-by-step manner.  In a way that someone who just walked in through the door can actually follow. Something like a “Site Standing Order”.

Third, make this recorded data easily available to others in the team.  Create flow charts for the visual people.  Once in a while ask someone else to take care of one of the tasks instead of Joe.

This helps with one more thing other than just knowing how to do Joe’s job.  During these documentation sessions, we find surprising number of improvements that can improve our team’s efficacy, efficiency and turn around.

This process also allows us to be informed of all that is going on and eliminates the single point of failure.  Everyone becomes knowledgeable and the focus shifts towards process improvement as opposed to constant fire fighting.

We do not need extraordinary tools to carry out a task like this.  We just need a word processor and a database with good search functions to make the documentation available to all.  At the most, you might need to assign one person to act as a custodian or a gate-keeper to this database to ensure the database integrity, document updates and management.  Tallyho!

Hobbies Not Allowed!!!

As a contractor, interviews are a part of the game. Many years of experience, many interviewers, different methods. I, however, went through a unique interviewing experience that was somewhat alarming. This might help some of you guys out there who are looking for jobs.

It used to be, that people with interests and hobbies, were considered to be healthier in attitude, more energetic and motivated in life and hence more enthusiastic and passionate at work, with less noodle-like tendencies. So it was decided that it was a good idea to list your hobbies at the end of your resume. Interests: biking, hiking, reading, writing, photography, drawing, yoga.

To set the scene for you, you need to know a bit of detail. As you see in my profile, I live in the beautiful village of Bobcaygeon. 2.5 hour drive to Toronto. I have lived here and worked in Toronto for at least 13 years now.

About a month ago I was invited to be interviewed by a reputable company in downtown Toronto. So I headed out and got to the place at 9:20 am, ten minutes ahead of the interview. The interview took place on time with a panel of two gentlemen. One quite seasoned.

After the initial pleasantries, they spoke of the role and asked about my background. All normal right? Then they asked about my hobbies and how I could manage my time with all those interests. Well the question seemed a bit odd, as even though I have these interests, hardly ever I carry them out one after the other every day. I may engage in one, this week and another one at another time. Just like any other normal person I assumed.

The hobbies normally have their own timetable in your life. So, the interview, I thought went well and I matched all the qualifications they were looking for. They asked about my daily commute, and I let them know that during work days I do not commute back and forth, but stay at a place ten minutes away from them.

"We will have to interview couple of more people. You were the first one. We will be in touch with you in two days." Was the response.

Two days later as they promised, the answer arrived in the email, that they had decided to pass on me because my many hobbies may present a conflict of interest. Wait.... What? Mmmmmmm! Really? Let's see: biking, hiking, reading, writing, photography, drawing, yoga.

I am in the business of Business Process Management, ITIL, and Organizational Change Management. How can my benign hobbies be standing in the way of my contract? I know for example that the seasoned gentleman as a hobby liked golfing. Should the company terminate his employment for that? Did his golfing interfere with his work duties? If I had golf as my hobby, would that make a difference?

Hmmmm!!! Oh wait.... Think deeper... That's it. I get it. If my hobby perhaps mentioned "driving" instead of “cycling”, that would have helped. Or maybe if I said: "my job is my hobby. I live to work. I have no life other than this". What do you think?

Then I thought, hey, they might be thinking: "she gets up Monday morning and "cycles" to work from Bobcaygeon. In between she might decide to stop at some areas and take a "hike" for an up close examination and "photography". She might even be so inspired to "draw" a picture and or do some internet search to "read" about it. Then still not satisfied, she might "write" about it on the scene, and so that she will not forget a moment of this experience, she will perform "yogic" meditation. By the time she gets to work in Toronto, it is almost the end of the week and now she has to head back and the same process repeats throughout the contract, so in reality, we will be paying her for her hobbies, so NO." or technically I would never be able to start the job.

How did I do this so many years going unnoticed? Can someone tell me if I am the only one seeing the humour in this? Been in business for over 35 years and never missed a day at my work duties due to my hobbies.

What is even more fascinating, is that the recruiter actually puts this in writing. LOL

I think at the beginning of such interviews they need to let you know your rights: "you have the right to remain silent. Any hobbies you have, may override your skills and be held against you!" Or even better yet, when you see someone with hobbies listed at the bottom of their CV, do not even attempt to waste their and your time to interview them.

Cheers!!!