Why Every Business Should Standardise Its Processes
From onboarding to productivity, standardisation improves many aspects of a business. Let me break down some of the ways that I see how most businesses can benefit from it.
Process standardisation is essentially a collection of guidelines, with the goal to create predictable and smooth company operations. It relies on finding the most efficient method for all vital tasks and ensuring those methods are followed as much as possible..
When a business has well-defined rules of how to do things, it can achieve a more consistent quality level and be less affected by human error.
The guidelines (SOPs) should define the method, quality threshold, and process scope for each process in the business. If your business implements standardisation correctly, here are some of the ways you’ll feel the benefit.
Benefit 1: More Straightforward Team Onboarding
New team members will have a much easier time fitting into the business operations if the processes are standardised. If a role entails working within defined parameters, learning the ins and outs will be relatively straightforward.
On the other hand, when there's poor or no standardisation, newcomers will face a steeper learning curve and might take a longer time to grow accustomed to everyday processes. This can cause frustrations on the part of you as the business owner and of the new team member, when expectations are not met on both sides.
Benefit 2: Higher Overall Productivity
Business process standardisation means deciding on the optimal solutions to daily, monthly, or yearly tasks. What makes the solution optimal is the possibility of using it in most cases and making it available to any team member. Some businesses will use SOPs to cross train team members in other roles, as a business continuation measure, so that if a member of the team is suddenly unavailable, someone can help fill that role in the short term..
Using this thinking, it’s important to understand that the optimal solution shouldn’t be tailored to any one specific team member. To be reliable, a standardised process needs to ensure reliable results across the board, regardless of the team member using it.
If done correctly, standardisation will improve the company's overall productivity and make the output easier to predict. This can only be beneficial for you as the business owner, when forming strategies and business plans.
Benefit 3: Easier Future Improvements
With standardisation, even complex operations will be easier to optimise as they can be broken down into smaller, well-defined steps. Efficiencies are normally gained during the process, as you review each stage of how and why things are done in your business. Sometimes these reviews throw up things that you weren’t even aware were happening in your business, such as duplication or double handling of tasks.
Having standardised processes means it will be much more straightforward to re-evaluate and improve them in the future. SOPs should be seen as working documents that are updated and reviewed on a regular basis, as the process or the business changes.
Benefit 4: Your Clients Will Know What to Expect
Business processes are essential to the way a company functions internally, but they also reflect on the relationship with customers.
If your business operates by using standard processes where possible, it will appear more reliable to clients and customers. Building trust and being dependable will attract more customers and turn the existing ones into loyal repeat customers. This can only improve your sales and your profit level!
Is this something you would like to start implementing as your business grows? If so, I would definitely recommend giving Denise at Lalo a shout for support in this as she’s been invaluable in helping me standardise my own systems and processes. You can reach her at hello@lalo.ie
What are your thoughts on creating SOPs in your business. Is this something you do regularly and how do you maintain them?