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Business Intelligence: Get with the Process!
October 25, 2006
From the Inside Training Newsletter
By Margery Weinstein
Employees who know how to make the most of automated processes are assets, but what if getting them to use those systems presents yet another hurdle? It could be that your employees either don't find the systems easy to use or easy to integrate into their workflow. Christa Heibel, president and founder of International Falls, Minn.-based business strategy adviser CH Consulting, has a few ideas for avoiding this problem.
Trainers and human resources execs may not be renowned for their technological wizardry, but Heibel says they have an important role to play in the success of any new system rollout. IT makes sure all the buttons and lights are a go, but you need to make sure the users of the new technology are excited about it, and understand how it will fit into their daily work routine. Before the system is purchased, Heibel notes, HR can assist by conducting focus groups with employees and managers to determine what kind of technological help would best suit their needs, and how exactly it would be used.
Too many companies, for example, never had a plan for getting workers to use the customer relationship management (CRM) software they purchased. "Thousands of companies in the nineties started doing CRM automation only to find out that by the time IT directors went out and purchased some sort of software product, the users, in the sales and marketing sides of the house, wouldn't use it," Heibel explains.
Instead of suddenly forcing the system onto workers, the company should have sat down with both the salespeople and marketers themselves, as well as their managers, to discuss workflow. Before a process of attaining and tracking customer information can be improved via technology, the process as it currently stands needs to be evaluated. HR needs to speak with both workers and their managers because often these two groups of employees differ in their understanding of the workflow.
The managers sometimes only know what the workflow is supposed to be, or how they planned it; the employees, who will actually be using the software, know the reality. "Going through a process of either creating or reviewing and automating documented processes brings up a whole slew of potential areas for improvement," Heibel says, and suggests asking: "Did you even have the documented processes? Is the staff all clear on what those work flow processes are? Do they understand clearly what pieces they're responsible for? Do the pieces of the workflow that a staff member or work group are responsible for correspond accurately and clearly to the employees' job description, and how their reviews, as employees, are being conducted?"
The discussion with employees and their bosses doesn't end when the technology is up and running, either. Heibel recommends an ongoing assessment of work process and automation at least once a year. "It's equally about staffing, human resources and automation resources," she stresses. "It's really about saying, 'The way we say we're doing business is that still the way we're doing business—and where can we take some of the more repetitive steps in a process and automate that? And, then how do we realign the human resources that we may gain from that process automation?' "
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