The Streamlined Business Blog is all about getting—and keeping—Operations Under Control by implementing good business systems, processes, and standard operating procedures. Our staff experts blog regularly on a range of topics including: Operations Mapping approaches, systems-based management, standardizing operations, calculating costs and ROI for systems improvements and a whole lot more.
Employee Training
Client Success Story: Bluegrass Community Family Practice
“Having all our standard operating procedures (SOPs) accessible at our fingertips is better for our patients and better for our staff. Zavanta has saved us time, improved accuracy and confidence, and reduced stress,” -Dr. Brian Sosnin In a recent interview, staff at Bluegrass Community Family Practice shared how Zavanta SOP software from COMPROSE Inc has READ MORE
We Have Always Done it This Way
The most dangerous phrase in the language: We have always done it this way! These words, attributed to Grace Hopper offer real insight into patterns that keep businesses stuck. Times change, businesses change, technology changes, and it is important to look at processes and make sure that they still make sense. This is not to READ MORE
Want your New Hires to Stick Around? Train them
A great, quick read from INC magazine by Abigail Tracy highlighting a recent study that argues that new hires are less interested in perks and more interested in trainings. Employees want to be set up for success. Interested? Read More Here Onboarding new hires don’t care about perks The benefit of investing in your employees READ MORE
Employee Training – Are you Setting Your Organization Up for Success?
In a recent INC Magazine article, Jeff James of the Disney Institute shares his philosophy on employee training. Arguing for training programs that cultivate employee growth at varying career stages, he writes: “Training should not be seen as optional; rather, it should be operationalized and embedded into the fabric of your organization.” James highlights three READ MORE
Share Your SOPS How You Need To, When You Need To
One of the key elements to making policies and standard operating procedures actually useful is to share your SOPs with your employees. While this sounds obvious, a lot of organizations create old-fashioned SOP documents and employee handbooks only to store them in a binder somewhere that lives in a file drawer with the extra pens READ MORE
Tip – Avoid Jargon in Your Employee Manuals
Jargon are words and phrases that are common to specific jobs and industries, but that many people won’t understand—also known as “Geek speak”. Examples of jargon are everywhere. For a fun list check out The Original Hacker’s Dictionary. Here’s our favorite new term from that list: “BOGOSITY n. The degree to which something is BOGUS READ MORE
5 Ways to Finally Get Your Procedure Manuals Done
We’re amazed at the number of people who really want to develop better standard operating procedures for their organization, who clearly understand the benefits of standardized procedures and who even have management mandates and funded projects to develop or update their policies and procedure manuals. But–despite all that–never manage to actually do anything about it. READ MORE
Are Your Bank Policies and Procedures Flexible Enough to Handle Exceptions?
Training bank employees and keeping them compliant with regulations is a big challenge. Just about every business is interested in improving organizational performance and with the increased regulations coming down the pike, it is only going to get more difficult to achieve compliance. As we shared in an earlier post, we have been spending time READ MORE
Tip to Keep Compliance Policies and Procedures from Becoming Unusable
Why do so many companies end up writing policies and procedures that are confusing and full of redundancies as well as extremely difficult to update and maintain? The root cause is typically the underlying structure (or lack of structure). Here is a technique that will help. It might seem a little counter-intuitive for some people, READ MORE
3 Ways to Motivate Employees When Everything’s Lousy
According to a Gallup researcher quoted in The Wall Street Journal article, “How to Motivate Employees in Tough Times” there are 3 things organization’s can do to keep employees motivated and focused during tough times. Communicate more—not less. Set clear expectations—make sure people know what they’re supposed to do Show the way forward—focus on the READ MORE