This is a guest post by Trainual Certified Consultant Adi Klevit with Business Success Consulting Group.

Business systems are vital to keeping everything running smoothly in your company. This is particularly true as you scale your enterprise.

Most businesses are experiencing at least one pain point regarding systematization. The pain points are typically because: 

A. Your company doesn’t have documented processes and procedures.

B. Your staff isn’t following existing business systems. 

C. Your systems are antiquated, and no one on your team is using them because they don’t work.

All of these pain points lead to one result: Your team isn’t using business systems, so actions are less coordinated and efficient than they could be.

Time to start implementing some strategies that can help your team level up the business by simply following your company’s systems. And we’ve got six of them that’ll address two of the three pain points listed above.

1. Commit to using processes yourself.

As a leader, you must show your team that you’re committed to using business systems, documenting processes and procedures, and sharing these systems. You may be surprised to find that you can use processes and procedures to manage, lead, and run your company.

2. Assure accessibility.

All business systems need to be accessible to:

• Team members who will actively be using them to perform job functions.
• Anyone who needs to work in conjunction with a process. For example, if your company is building a bridge, the team members building the road that connects with the bridge also need to have access to the bridge building project. Otherwise, they might make a road that doesn’t connect with the bridge. 
• Management, team leads, and any other leadership personnel.

One of the best ways to ensure documented processes and procedures are accessible is to utilize a process documentation platform like Trainual. With such a platform, you can: 

• Create task assignments that ensure your team has read and understood each process.
• Utilize a variety of media to build a comprehensive process or procedure. 
• Use version control to ensure employees utilize the most up-to-date system.
• Use search to find the appropriate systems and documentation needed.

3. Create a successful rollout process.

Building and rolling out processes and procedures involves your entire team. Here are five steps for a successful rollout:

A. Collaborate.

Ensure process/procedure documentation is accessible to the whole team so they can read what others have drafted and provide input. 

B. Train.

Assign training on the system to anyone in the company who will use or manage the system. Determine a reasonable timeframe for study and get completion reports from everyone who has completed the training.

C. Survey.

Administer a survey to all who have completed the training. Ask what they learned, what’s missing, and how likely they are to implement the processes. This will help you spot any holes in the training.

D. Revise. 

Use the surveys to revise your processes and procedures. A great way to ensure rapid retraining during any revision period is to include the surveyed team members. You can ask them to review the revisions and provide feedback.

E. Clarify.

Ensure specific positions understand how to implement the appropriate systems in day-to-day operations. It is vital that the whole team know and understand the procedures and how they interconnect. 

Finally, if a particular team member isn’t willing to participate in the training or is too busy, get creative. You can have them block off time on their calendar. Another option is to call a group meeting so everyone can learn the processes together.

4. Use processes and procedures in everyday management.

Talk with your team about how they can use the established processes and procedures to resolve issues. This is a great way to engage your staff in using these systems.

You can also use a more concrete method of measuring process execution by using a scorecard. Each process can be assigned a metric or KPI, and your team can track these metrics to ensure the processes remain in place. 

Here’s an example of a scorecard: Let’s say the process that needs to be completed is shipping your company’s product. The goal here would be to ship a product rapidly with no product damage.

The scorecard could measure the percentage of packages successfully shipped within two days of order receipt. Keeping track of this metric can help the shipping team reach its goal. 

5. Regularly review your processes. 

Business systems are dynamic. They must be kept up-to-date. Keep your processes current and relevant by following these steps:

1. Read the process from beginning to end.

1a. If there are specific instructions, follow them to ensure that all steps are still relevant.

2. Review any included media to see if changes need to be made. This includes looking at screenshots, videos, and images.

3. Test all links to ensure they work.

4. Look for workflow improvements or updates.

5. Make a note of any changes that are needed. Documentation platforms make writing notes or comments very simple. I recommend using one.

5a. As applicable, discuss suggested changes with the team.

6. Make edits.

7. Publish the revised version.

8. Send the revised version to the team members who use the process and have them read it.

9. Set a reminder for the next periodic review.

6. Implement accountability.

There are two sides to the accountability coin. One is, of course, consequences. The other is rewards. We often focus on consequences, but creating rewards for work well done is also vital.

So, when implementing processes and procedures, be sure to:

• Set up clear and consistent consequences for not following processes.
• Create a system of rewards for those who successfully follow processes.

Implementing accountability is a collaborative effort. Talk with your team and determine how you can all hold each other accountable and reward one another when a team member successfully follows established processes. If your team implements scorecards, it should be simple to tell who is utilizing systems for greater efficiency and who isn’t. 

To sum it all up…

You can help your team follow your businesses processes and procedures by using six simple strategies:

1. Utilize a top-down approach. As a leader, show your staff that you also use the processes and procedures.

2. Make everything accessible. A process documentation platform like Trainual is the perfect way to ensure the whole team can access and utilize your business systems.

3. Follow the steps to roll out your processes and procedures.

4. Use the business systems in your everyday management and establish scorecards so everyone can track the successful use of processes and procedures.

5. Set up a system for process review to ensure processes and procedures stay relevant and up-to-date.

6. Create an accountability system that everyone can utilize to ensure things run smoothly. This includes celebrating successful process completions.

Ready to get started? Go through the six steps above and decide which you can take today. It may be that you can follow a process or schedule a review of an unsuccessful procedure. You may want to begin with the accessibility piece or start a scorecard system. Whichever step you choose, taking it will help you build better, more usable systems in your company.