Impact of Process on Effectiveness at Workplace

 

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The article ‘Effectiveness at Workplace’ defined a high level framework consisting of three critical factors that determine the effectiveness of a person in performing any task at personal level or professional level. The ‘Ability to Work’ , the ‘Willingness to Work’, and the ‘Work Environment’ are further expanded in separate articles. The Environment, Process, Facilities, and Tools & Equipment act as enablers for effectiveness at the workplace. This article focuses on the impact of Process on Effectiveness at Workplace.

‘Effectiveness at Workplace’ model is all about making people effective in whatever they do. They are at the centre and not the Process. 

A well defined and optimised process helps in improving the Effectiveness at Workplace by:

• Organising the work and bringing in consistency

• Eliminating waste of time and resources

• Making the outcome and output predictable

• Automating tedious and unpleasant tasks, thus improving the Willingness to Work

• Creating a healthy work environment that leads to enhanced happiness

• Fostering a positive work culture by fixing responsibility and boundaries of each individual in a series of interrelated tasks

• Timely reviews and quality checks as the work progresses, thus ensuring timely course correction

• Implementing necessary controls and approvals to ensure compliance

• Improving profitability and thereby ensuring sustainability

The processes developed must be aimed at making people more effective in their work, without bringing rigidity in the operations. It must be recognised that the employees need their own work space and personal space at the workplace and therefore, the primary focus should always be the people and not the process. Without that, the employees cannot be creative and innovative and without innovation there’s no improvement or development.

What is a process?

A process is a set of interrelated and interacting activities consistently converting input into output, using resources. The inputs may be tangible like steel, rubber, aluminium etc. or intangible like knowledge and energy. Similarly the outputs may be tangible like a car, washing machine, building etc. or intangible like a registered patent, legal service,  education, and entertainment. The output can even be charity work that does not involve any profit.

The output may be for internal use such as a preventive maintenance schedule generated for the maintenance department, a budget prepared for the finance department, or an engine manufactured for use in a car assembly. The output may also be for external use such as  electricity generated for the consumers, or the aircraft manufactured for the customers.

Although the output generated is required to be for an intended use, there are instances when the output has a component that is unintended and unavoidable. The pollution caused by burning fossil fuels for energy is a classic example of unintended and unavoidable output. A well designed process must ensure that the unintended outputs are controlled and minimised.

The interrelationship and interaction between activities may be simple for processes like approval of an invoice and complex for intricate processes like oil refinery. Consistency of operations is a key ingredient of a well developed process. 

How does the Process impact Effectiveness at Workplace? 

The Effectiveness at Workplace is directly linked to efficient processes. An efficient process greatly enhances employee experience at the workplace, thus positively impacting the employees’ willingness to work. A smooth process flow is like a symphony or graceful ballet moves that every employee enjoys. When processes are inefficient and wasteful, it can become a major cause of frustration among employees, who otherwise have the ability to work and are willing to work. 

Left to themselves, in the absence of a formal process, people would still carry on with their work, but the way each one performs the same task would be different, which can lead to  variations in quality, time taken for completing the work, resources used and the output itself. It’s almost impossible to run complex operations - be it manufacturing or service, without having standardised and documented processes and procedures. The article ‘Developing Effective Process & Procedures’ provides necessary guidelines on this subject. 

A well designed and developed process establishes the critical link between the suppliers and the customers. It ensures that the inputs from the suppliers are of the required quality standard, cost effective and delivered on time thus ensuring that the customer requirements and expectations are met satisfactorily. The input, process and output measurements being key features of a well established process, a continuous monitoring takes place, which enables timely detection of any deviations and necessary corrective actions. Repeated errors and quality issues not only have an impact on the profitability and customer commitments, they also adversely impact the employee morale which in turn affects the Effectiveness at Workplace. 

Documented processes and procedures are a repository of organisational knowledge that is essential for business continuity. They act as a resource for training new employees and a reference for resolving any work related discrepancies. Unlike other knowledge repositories, the process evolves continuously with everybody’s involvement - consciously and unconsciously. This repository of knowledge remains with the organisation, it does not go away with the employees leaving the organisation. The article ‘Understanding Governance Documents’ provides more details about other elements of this repository of organisational knowledge and their interrelationships. 

The processes and the work culture are closely associated. Effective and efficient processes facilitate teamwork, employee engagement, and job satisfaction; thereby reinforcing a positive work culture which is essential for enhancing the Willingness to Work. They bring about clarity about how to do a task, who is responsible for it, whom to report, what resources to be used etc. This clarity in the process puts an end to the blame game that often breaks the team spirit. Lack of clarity can cripple an employee and the indecisiveness can lead to wastage of resources.

Remaining competitive in the market is essential for the sustainability of business. Process efficiency means enhanced profitability, which supports an organisation's competitive edge. It reduces the overall process time, thus generating more output per employee with the same amount of other resources. It reduces the non-value adding activities considerably by eliminating wastes such as errors in data entry, retracking, too many approvals, over consumption of raw material, over inventory buildup, and use of wrong tools & instruments. 

A well developed and managed process foresees the risks and implements preventive measures to mitigate them well in advance. When something does go wrong, a well implemented process facilitates easy identification of causes leading to the failures or non-compliances thus enabling timely and effective corrective actions.

Safety of personnel and property are adequately addressed in a well designed and developed process. This makes the work environment stress free, directly impacting the morale of the employees and thereby the Willingness to Work.

Efficient process also reduces wastage of other resources, reducing the overall cost considerably. Every employee wants to be associated with a successful organisation that ensures future employment and employability. This reassurance positively impacts an employee’s work effectiveness. 

A process oriented organisation regularly reviews its processes and updates them incorporating the latest technology and industry best practices, which in turn improve the working conditions, eliminate waste and increase output per employee - making an employee more effective.

It is said ‘What cannot be measured, cannot be managed’. One of the features of a well developed process is measurement and monitoring of input, process and output, which enables effective and timely decisions and corrective actions when things tend to go wrong.

The ISO 9001 quality standard states that “Understanding and managing interrelated processes as a system contributes to the organisation’s effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its intended results”. The organisation’s effectiveness is a reflection of the collective effectiveness of all its employees.

The process centred organisations are flatter and better manageable compared to functional organisations

Key characteristics of a process for Effectiveness at Workplace:

Like everything else, in processes too, there are good processes and bad processes. The following are few characteristics of well designed and well implemented process that enhances Effectiveness at Workplace:

End to end - A well designed process must be end-to-end, covering all functions of an organisation.

Integrated - All processes and systems must be seamlessly integrated ensuring close coordination, collaboration and communication between various functions. A system of well integrated processes is like a well oiled machine that runs smoothly, positively impacting the Willingness to Work. In the absence of an integrated approach, what appears to be an  improvement of the process in one section can have an adverse impact on the process in another section negating the overall benefit to the organisation.

Standardised - Standardisation is a key feature of a well designed process. Standardisation of key terms, measurements, KPIs, data definitions, material, sub-processes are all part of a well designed process.

Optimised - To be effective and efficient, a process must be optimised. Optimization means elimination of all wastes like redundant operations, retracking, men and material travel time, waiting, and too many approvals and unnecessary controls. 

Involvement of key stakeholders - However well designed a process may be, ultimately it's the employees that operate it. Therefore it is important to involve key stakeholders in the development of a process and take into consideration their inputs and the pain areas identified by them. Lack of involvement of key stakeholders at the development stage can lead to resistance during implementation and sometimes outright rejection. Well designed process is developed by involvement of all key stakeholders including the process owner and actual people operating the process.

Ensures compliance - An effective process ensures and enforces compliance not only with the process itself, but also with legal and regulatory requirements. The compliance is also necessary with the corporate and product/service certification standards. Necessary controls for compliance are part of an effective process.

Customer focussed - When a process is customer focussed, it automatically takes care of the quality and delivery expectations of the customers.

Communication - Effective communication is part of an efficient process design. Necessary data must be captured as the work progresses and key stakeholders must be notified to ensure smooth operation of interlinked and dependent processes. The data captured must be adequate for measuring KPIs linked to an organisation's strategies and mission, and measuring their performance. Effective communication integrated with the processes can drastically reduce the need for frequent meetings, making the employees more productive. 

Rationalisation - Rational thinking must go into the design of a good process. Making employees perform non-homogenous tasks hinders specialisation, making employees less effective. For example, if an employee in a fabrication shop has to do all operations involving shearing, bending, drilling, welding, painting etc., his/her Effectiveness at Workplace becomes much less compared to the one performing one or two tasks.

Documented, approved and published - The processes must be documented, approved, and published so that they are available at the place of their use. This is also a requirement of all quality management system certifications.

Training - Effectiveness of a process requires training of involved personnel. Learning often involves unlearning and giving up old habits. Without adequate training it may not be possible to achieve desired Effectiveness at Workplace, even if the processes are well designed. Ensuring compatibility of knowledge and skills of employees with the process is essential.

Automation - Appropriate level of automation of a process ensures elimination of duplicate tasks, redundant data gathering and processing, and takes away the boredom of performing tedious and unpleasant tasks manually. The automation also ensures that risk to employees and property is minimised, making the work stress free and thus enhancing the Effectiveness at Workplace.

Periodic review and upgrade of process

Processes developed for a set of working conditions support employee effectiveness until those conditions remain unchanged, but the business environment is always dynamic. The customer expectations, government regulations, skill levels of the employees, the operating environment, the automation and systems used, the raw material used, the product and service design all change over a period of time. The work culture also changes silently without anyone noticing. It is therefore important to review and update/upgrade processes periodically in order to ensure that they continue to support employee effectiveness. A high rejection rate or wastage of raw material, frequent customer complaints, loss of market share, change in customer’s perception about the product or service etc. are all triggers for a process review.

Before embarking on actions such as a major automation drive, implementation of BPR, or ERP, it is essential to check whether the processes are archaic. Standardising and optimising the processes is an essential pre-condition for the success of such initiatives. The system upgrade or ERP implementations must always look at process integration across functions and departments to ensure enhancing employee effectiveness.

Along with periodic review, there must be a system for the employees to report any process or system issues in a timely manner and corrective actions must be prompt. There can be an employee suggestion system for improving the processes. 

Symptoms of a bad process

While reviewing or developing a process, there are some telltale signs that one must look for, that are symptoms of a bad process. The following are few examples:

• Reduced profits or pressure on bottomline

• Frequent customer complaints - missed deadlines, delay in delivery, poor quality, high cost

• Employee dissatisfaction and poor morale

• High attrition rate

• Increasing rejections and quality issues

• Too many approvals and delays in approvals

• Poor scalability

• Increased risk, not effectively mitigated

• Excess inventory of Raw Material (RM), Work In Progress (WIP), and Finished Goods (FG)

• Decisions are ad hoc, not data based

• Systems and processes are not integrated

• High manpower needs