Success in problems

They say in good times, challenges are overlooked. In bad times, challenges are accentuated. Why are we not looking to improve our business processes when revenues are up and work streams are running optimal?

This goes back to the broke/fix method of thinking which so many of us have engrained ourselves with. When we break a bone, we go to the doctor. When we are sad we look for comfort. But what if we were able to avoid the broken bone by proper planning? What if the comfort we seek at desperate moments were already surrounding us?
While these examples may seem extreme, they are all within reason. Many organizations I talk with are all in break/fix mode. It is difficult to budget for unforeseen issues in business just as it is within your personal finances. However, proper insight in to how processes are handled, what areas they effect and the understanding of what can go wrong will alleviate most if not all of the breaks in the future.

While looking back at the past few months, it became clear to me that a large majority of companies are looking to improve a process which you would assume should have already been one of the most efficient and effective processes they had. However, the breakdown of the economy, the flex in hiring and the lack of revenue caused businesses to go through numerous layoffs. Now, while the slashing and cuts are over, companies are in hiring mode once again and while under even more scrutiny they have realized that the hiring and on boarding processes they have in place are among the most inefficient and ill effective ones within their organization.

The amount of time it takes to train and educate employees is enormous. The paper process for filing and contracts is manually intensive and cumbersome and the amount of time one spends just to go through the process internally chews up easily a half a day of work. This is a “broken bone” that could have been avoided if this process had been looked at in good times when revenue fell from the sky like rain in Seattle.

However, why would you? Why would you look at a process that “Get’s the job done”? Why would you analyze the cost of on boarding an employee and training them when it is predictable and change may cause a learning curve for employees in their current role? Because a reduction of cost, the streamlining of a manual intensive process and reduction in time consumed getting an employee ramped up is a positive, even if your margins are high and profits good. Oh, and not to mention, the learning curve will be welcome and small, even for your non technical users.

The driving factor for solutions is no longer the implementation time, the ROI, the upfront costs. It is the UI/UX, the User Experiene and companies which focus on this, enable technology to be functional in ways it has not been before. It is how people will interact with the technology. It is how well the solution will be adopted. We are now in a time where compelling interactions and experiences make technology respected and used by all. No longer should there be acceptable reasons why looking at how a business operates in good times or bad. Businesses have learned over the past year how they can be affected by challenges much larger than ones internal to a department. It is time to be forward thinking, proactive and innovative about all aspects of your business. While tradition has its place, technology is not one of them.