With the best of intentions, not every business process can improve. Whether it’s in terms of technicalities, technological issues, or planning, there are many reasons business processes can fail. Let’s highlight the key areas where your business processes might be letting your business down.
A Poor Organisational Culture
The culture can be the overriding reason why processes are poor. In many instances, they can elongate the process to the point where individuals refuse to do things in a certain way and not undertake the task with due care and attention. The way to mitigate the circumstances is to fix the leadership aspect. But failing this, to send a strong message, you could outsource certain duties to external entities. If you have someone who is proving poor in financial management you could contact Archimedia Accountants or an external accounting firm to help streamline the accounts. But it’s also vital to lay down the law. When it comes to business practices, to an extent, we cannot let emotions cloud our judgement. And if you can show the individual that processes are failing because of a certain cultural problem, you are within your rights to put in place stricter measures.
Lack of Support From the Top Brass
If you try to initiate an improvement in your processes without any support from the top, this can likely result in poor outcomes or the initiative failing completely. A lack of support from people at the top can be misinterpreted by the staff as the process not being important. In order to mitigate this, having public support for the initiative on the ground floor is vital. It’s not just about having people verbally agree with you, but ensuring that the research is done and the results can be tangible. When the top brass sees results, they are less likely to back down.
Non-Cooperative Members of Staff
Sometimes, the culture is to blame for this. Other times, it’s down to an individual team member. Maybe they are hostile or less engaged in the overall effort. It always seems that there is one bad apple. But if this individual is causing problems for everyone else, or is causing problems for the process through their actions, such as interacting with customers, this is when you need to find out what the hostility is all about. If you can’t improve the process without cooperation from these individuals, you may need to go one step further and engage with the individual. If this doesn’t work, disciplinary action may be the next port of call.
The Technology Is Not Built for Purpose
Sometimes, it’s not to do with an individual or a group but the fact that the technology is not able to catch up. When you integrate technology (and specifically IT systems), you need to ensure that a chief information officer (CIO) has the intentions of the business at heart. Sometimes it can feel like putting a square peg into a round hole. Certain things aren’t compatible. But this is where proper management of the CIO will point you in the right direction.
Poor business practices can lead to poor business processes. Be aware of this if you are hitting the wall.
