Why look at our processes?
There are many reasons why you might want to do this but you need to be sure how the review fits in with your institutional strategy. It is also particularly important to understand how a business change project fits in with your institutional culture and values. Methods such as PESTLE and SWOT analyses are very useful in considering the context in which you are operating and the arising strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
A few suggested reasons for reviewing business processes are given below:
To give a better service to your clients and give competitive advantage
This may be two separate reasons or two sides to the same coin. The education sector puts a lot of emphasis on quality and added value but institutions also need to view themselves as businesses looking for a competitive edge. The two approaches aren't necessarily incompatible. The 'edge' you are looking for might be a better rating in your next inspection or quality review.
To ensure your processes fit the principles of how you do business
Any organisation that has been around for a number of years is likely to find it does things in ways that have grown incrementally over the years, often in response to a particular crisis or short-term demand, and rarely been challenged from the perspective of adding value. We hear a lot of rhetoric about moving forward and facing new challenges but this is unlikely to translate into real action whilst the institution is hampered by antiquated administrative procedures that have become inflexible, unresponsive to client demands and, very often, unnecessary.
As a necessary prerequisite to system implementation
This ought to go without saying but all too often institutions spend considerable amounts of money on new IT systems only to replicate their outmoded ways of doing things. They are effectively 'paving cow paths'. It is not always sensible to go for radical process change at the same time you are implementing a new system but if some form of basic process review isn't included in your project scope please think again.
As part of a Continuous Improvement Cycle
With most process reviews, a certain amount of anxiety and fear is unavoidably introduced for the staff involved in the process under review. If it is suggested a process should be reviewed then by inference there is a suggestion that it may not be as efficient or effective as it might be. Just mentioning the possibility that a process might be reviewed will imply criticism to some.
One way to avoid this is to foster a culture of continuous or regular reviews of organisational process. Once reviews are accepted as a routine process in their own right, reaction to an imminent review becomes 'Ah, it's time to review this one again' rather than 'Do they think I'm not pulling my weight?'
We have already discussed above how processes can change incrementally over time. In the majority of cases the focus of the process shifts incrementally from clients to staff as process workers introduce small changes to make their tasks easier. Undertaking periodic reviews helps to keep the focus firmly on the needs and requirements of the client or learner.
