Why Documenting your Business Operating Systems Matters

Featured article by Mary Ann Keeling

Let’s face it, documenting your business operating systems can’t be classified as an exciting or creative process. While a little dull and most definitely time-consuming, it’s nevertheless absolutely essential that your business has comprehensive documentation of your business operating systems. And there are more than just a couple of reasons for it.

Your Employee Leaves, Now What?

When you have an employee that knows the ropes, it’s easy to just ‘let them get on with it’. They get things done on time, you don’t have to watch over their performance like a hawk, and they make your job much easier. In that kind of situation, there’s no point in micromanagement.

While giving people the freedom to do their thing in their own way, what’s your backup plan for when they suddenly fall ill, take a vacation, or resign from their position? Not knowing how that person’s job is done is going to leave you in quite the pickle, which is why proper (and detailed!) documentation is a must.

Helping You Compare and Improve

In order to improve your business and drive it forward, operating systems should be reviewed and adapted as necessary. Fine-tuning your procedures will save your employees time, automate aspects of your business, and ultimately improve your bottom line. Standing still and relying on archaic methodology will hamper growth and allow competitors to close in on your business.

So how will you analyse and make changes if you don’t have crystal-clear knowledge of how your business works from top to bottom in the first place? You can only adapt how your business is run if you have documentation to look over. Otherwise, you’re taking a stab in the dark.

Having Standard Business Practices

Ensuring you have clear business operating systems in place means that all employees should know what’s expected of them. Documentation should provide a template on how tasks are to be completed and the standards that your business expects. It sets an expectation for everyone in the organisation, no matter their job title.

Don’t Get Locked Out

It’s surprising just how much control certain individuals have over business-critical accounts, whether it’s the login details to the website content management system or access to the online tax system. If you don’t want to be locked out when someone loses his or her computer, for example, ensure that your login details are accessible from a central location.

Ultimate Training Tool

When someone new joins an organisation, precious manpower is wasted in training and shadowing to help the recruit gets into the swing of things. And while getting some personal training should certainly be part of the process, it shouldn’t be everything.

Documentation isn’t just there to help you in case things go awry, but it can also be used as an effective training tool for both new and existing employees. They’ll be able to easily refer to a standardised set of procedures that are clear and direct, which will help streamline how business is done across the board.

Convinced? Tips to Get You Started

Now that you’ve (hopefully) been convinced that documenting your business operating systems forms an integral core of your organisation, it’s time to exit panic mode and get started with the process. Yes, it’ll be daunting when you get things moving but you’ll quickly realise that the effort is more than worth it. To make the entire operation just that little bit easier, implement some of the following tips:

– Use collaborative tools. Tools such as Google Docs allows you to backup your data online and have it available for multiple employees.

– Make it routine. Documentation shouldn’t be an add-on task, but part of the day-to-day routine. Whenever a new process is introduced or an old one tweaked, ensure employees always document where applicable.

– Be aware of what you need. Don’t just document everything employees do, but consider what items are business critical. Spend a bit of time in getting an overview of what each person does and deciding what elements need to be documented.

– Leverage time-saving services and software. Documentation doesn’t have to be a painstaking process. Audio transcription services, for example, can be used to accurately document your processes without having to write it all down yourself. Third-party products that you use often have in-depth tutorials and documentation that you can integrate with your own seamlessly. Leverage such tools wherever possible!

Not documenting your business operating systems is something you’ll regret and not only has negative consequences for day-to-day operations, but can also severely hinder your organisation’s capacity to do business should an unforeseen problem arise. Protect your company, plan accordingly, and ensure documentation becomes part and parcel of your routine.

Image credit: Pixabay

Mary Ann Keeling is a business consultant and an experienced social media networker from Brisbane, Australia. In her free time she likes to read about interesting social media experiments and listen to jazz.