There’s a lot that contributes to your business’s success: partnerships, marketing strategy, teams, and analytics. But behind all of these, is an aspect of operations that’s even more foundational: your company’s internal processes.
With effective internal processes, you can achieve new levels of collaboration and efficiency that help your company meet and exceed business goals. In this guide, we delve into the importance of establishing internal workflows, strategies to set you up for success, and tools you can use to improve your team’s internal processes. But first, let’s start by defining what internal processes are.
An internal process is a set of steps that takes place entirely within your organization, without external involvement. Some examples include how orders are processed, how shipments are delivered, how new employees are onboarded, and how teams collaborate to develop great work for clients. These activities don’t require any input or interaction from external stakeholders, customers, or clients.
Businesses deal frequently with external entities, but the operations that remain within your organization are essential. Internal processes determine how effectively you meet client needs.
When internal processes are working well, you’ll experience benefits such as:
Ready to start improving your internal processes? Read on for some strategies to help achieve the benefits listed above.
In order to change your internal processes for the better, you need to understand what is currently in place. Make time to audit your processes and document internal controls to make data-informed decisions.
Ask yourself:
Focus on operations related to specific areas of your business that you’re looking to improve such as customer service or marketing analytics.
Once you have a good grasp of what your company’s internal processes are, it’s time to analyze and determine how to make each one more efficient.
For example:
Work with your team and collect their feedback to help improve workflows.
Sometimes, individual employees are the ones maintaining internal processes — which becomes an issue if they decide to leave. Companies should always establish best practices for workflows that clearly explain internal processes. This documentation can be referenced continually as team members come and go to ensure consistency.
If your company has internal processes that are working well, standardize and establish a practice around it. This way, you can continue to use those processes effectively as your business changes and expands.
Automation is key for maximizing company efficiency. Repetitive and tedious tasks, such as sending meeting reminders or entering data in a spreadsheet, can lower employee morale and take time away from more strategic initiatives.
This also bogs down your processes, making things more time consuming than necessary. With automation handling repetitive tasks, your company can optimize internal processes. Automation can also improve retention because of the benefits it brings to employees like more time back in their day, improved work quality, and less stress over repetitive tasks.
Technology and market conditions are constantly evolving. To increase efficiency, productivity, and quality, regularly review internal policies and implement new practices. Schedule time to review internal processes to stay on top of industry changes.
By identifying and implementing new strategies and technologies, companies can stay ahead of the competition.
Related Read: How to quickly find weak points in your workflow
Let’s take a look at some of the tools companies can leverage to improve internal processes, along with some examples.
This category includes diagramming tools such as Microsoft Visio and Lucid chart. Tools such as Bizagi Modeler, which create models with Business Process Model and Notation standards, are also included. These solutions allow businesses to create flowcharts and maps that assist with developing internal processes.
Automation improves internal process efficiency. When organizations implement automation tools such as Zapier, Kissflow, and ShareFile for document workflows, it saves employees time on manual, repetitive tasks. Staff can then be empowered to use their time in constructive, meaningful ways that make a difference for their organizations.
Collaboration tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams allow team members to communicate more effectively to work together seamlessly on projects. Secure file sharing software is also vital for collaborating on important documents. It improves internal processes by streamlining document-related tasks.
Solutions such as Trello, Asana, or Monday.com can support the efficacy of internal processes, providing a platform where roles and deadlines are clearly established. With automations for reminders and notifications, it’s easier for employees to stay on top of internal processes.
ERPs like SAP ERP and Oracle ERP Cloud can integrate a vast range of business processes into a single system. These tools contribute to the efficacy of internal processes by managing elements of operations such as HR, finance, and supply chain all in one place.
Internal processes are a large part of what defines how your business operates. Optimizing these can boost efficiency and productivity for better client satisfaction.
With strategies to improve how your team manages processes internally and tools to help them succeed, you can establish and maintain workflows that give you a competitive advantage within your industry.