Broken Business Processes and How to Fix Them
It does not matter the size or type of your company, business processes define how work gets done. This is the main reason why having well-functioning business processes is essential for the success and growth of any organization. However, when processes are broken, they can hinder efficiency, damage customer relationships. Fixing broken business processes not only will improve your efficiency, but customer experience and employee satisfaction too.
What is a broken business process?
A broken business process is any workflow method that fails to achieve its intended outcome. These broken processes can lead to mistakes, wasted time, very little productivity, and financial losses.
You may be asking yourself: how do I know if I’m suffering from these broken processes? Here are some of the most common “symptoms”:
- Delayed project deadlines.
- Quality issues.
- High employee turnover.
- You have to duplicate efforts.
- Miscommunication between teams
Fixing broken processes is not just about correcting inefficiencies, but also about ensuring they align with the overall goals and strategy of the business AND your employees.
9 Reasons for Broken Business Processes
As a business owner, you really need to know the main reason why your business processes are not working, you have to be aware of this. Let’s discuss the top 9 reasons.
Process Not Defined or Owned
Effective process management starts with clearly outlining a process, including its customers, suppliers, inputs, outputs, and the tasks involved. Since many business processes are developed on the fly to address immediate problems and then evolve over time, organizations often lack properly defined processes.
Additionally, most organizations operate with a vertical management structure, where the organizational chart highlights a hierarchy of responsibilities and accountability. To achieve meaningful performance improvement, it’s essential to ensure that there is clear ownership of processes that span across these hierarchical boundaries.
2. Process Not Followed
Even if you actually have a good business process, they can still fail if employees do not follow them consistently. This could be due to a lack of understanding, poor training… Sometimes, people can even believe that bypassing the process will save time, with no changes in the outcome.
3. Purpose not understood
We know that a process can be really complex, so, if the purpose is not clearly communicated or understood by those who are involved, it is likely to fail. You have to explain that their actions contribute to the overall goals of the business.
Align every process with the broader company strategy and communicate its purpose clearly. Help employees see how their work contributes to the bigger picture, making the process more meaningful and motivating.
4. Customer and Supplier Not Understood
Each process exists to serve a customer, yet organizations often lack a clear understanding of who the customers of their internal processes are, what those customers require to succeed, and whether these processes are effectively meeting their needs.
Same goes for the suppliers. However, companies typically have limited insight into the suppliers supporting their internal processes, what those processes require from them, and how well those needs are being fulfilled.
5. You are not using KPIs
Without the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), it’s difficult to measure the effectiveness of a business process. KPIs provide a quantifiable way to track progress and identify areas where the process is underperforming.
6. No strategy whatsoever
A process without a strategy is as useless as it can get, since it’s how a leader implements the strategic intention.
If you don’t have a well defined strategic approach, processes can become disconnected from business goals, leading, once again, to inefficiencies.
The very first step to fix this: Establish a clear strategy that aligns with the overall business objectives. Every process should support the company’s mission and long-term vision, ensuring that all efforts contribute to measurable success.
7. Inability to Scale
Your business may be growing, but if your processes can’t keep up, it’s a sign that they are not scalable. Delays, mistakes, and more missed opportunities are the usual consequences, as your employees will struggle to keep up with demand.
As your business expands, evaluate whether your processes can handle increased demand. Automate where necessary, invest in technology if you have to do it, and adapt workflows to accommodate growth without compromising efficiency.
8. Lack of Standardisation
When there is no standardization across departments or teams, processes can vary significantly, leading to inconsistencies and confusion. Different teams may use different approaches to achieve the same goal, resulting in inefficiency and errors.
Standardize processes across the organization wherever possible. Use clear documentation and training to ensure that everyone is following the same methods and that processes are uniformly applied.
9. High employee turnover
Here is what you have to ask yourself: Are my employees happy? Am I supporting their success?
Reminder: frequent employee turnover can disrupt business processes, as new employees may not be familiar with established workflows or may lack the necessary experience to perform tasks efficiently.
You have to keep your teams happy, but you’ve got to offer training for new employees to ensure they understand how you get the job done there.
Here’s a tip for you: from time to time, review processes to make them more intuitive and adaptable.
Don’t Automate Broken Business Processes
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is attempting to automate broken business processes. While process automation can enhance efficiency, it should never be used as a quick fix for underlying other issues within the process. Automating a flawed process can actually exacerbate the problem, leading to faster but incorrect outcomes, reduced flexibility, and increased frustration for employees.
Before implementing any automation, you MUST identify and resolve any issues within the process itself. You need to be sure that it’s streamlined, standardized, and aligned with everyone’s goals. Only once a process is functioning effectively should automation be considered.
Keep this in mind, automation works best when it’s applied to processes that are already optimized. When used correctly, it can reduce manual errors, save time, and provide valuable data insights, but only after the process is thoroughly vetted.
Strategies to Improve Business Processes
Fixing broken business processes requires a combination of analysis, strategic planning, and continuous improvement. Below, we’ll show you key strategies to improve your business process and growth.
First, you can start with a business growth platform. A service like this, can help any company to achieve really good levels of growth, and you will get assistance from digital tools and advisors too. When you are done with this, you can start fixing your broken business processes.
- Start by auditing your current processes to identify where inefficiencies, delays, and other mistakes happen. Analyze each step of the process and determine whether it adds value or not. Here’s a guide on how to analyze a businessÂ
- Your employees are often the ones closest to the processes and are well-positioned to identify pain points. Talk to them, gather feedback.
- Explore new tools and platforms that can improve your efficiency and productivity. Workflow automation tools work just fine.
- Train your teams and new employees. You MUST BE SURE that they have the tools and the knowledge to meet all the deadlines effectively.
- You can also look for opportunities to eliminate unnecessary efforts, automating the most simple tasks where possible.
- Finally, ensure that your business processes are designed with the customer in mind. If you approach it like this, you will deliver ten times more value to the average customer, which will also improve their satisfaction, and even loyalty. We already talked about gathering feedback from employees, but you can do that with customers too! Like this, you can make changes to processes in order to meet their needs.
Broken business processes can significantly hinder the growth and efficiency of your organization. By understanding the causes of these broken processes and implementing targeted strategies for improvement, you can ensure smoother operations, better customer satisfaction, and a more productive workforce.
Remember, while business process automation can be a powerful tool for improving efficiency, it should not be used to mask underlying issues in the process itself. By first fixing and optimizing your processes, automation can then be used to enhance performance and scale operations effectively.
Investing time and resources into refining your business processes will not only streamline your operations but also contribute to long-term business growth and success.
