“Unsettling and unfair”: defining workflows

Clearly defined processes, responsibilities and expectations can transform businesses. 

They can help shorten timeframes, make teams more cohesive and allow your people to communicate and collaborate more efficiently across teams. Smoother workflows translate to improved client experiences, higher levels of employee retention and. in turn, improved profitability.

Your people start to step up, too, as TNT Group co-founder Tamara Morey explains: “If everyone in the team knows what is expected of them and what is coming, we see team members taking far greater responsibility and ownership of their role.”

Leaders also benefit from having visibility over practice operations and a mechanism to track, measure and reward individual efforts.

Productivity is boosted as workflows help keep each role focused on what they should be doing. As Morey always says to her clients, “let the advisers focus on the client relationship and nothing more.” 

When you don’t have that clarity

Morey says it’s “unsettling and unfair” for a support team not to have clearly-defined workflows and timeframe expectations. 

If key processes aren’t prescribed, she says, it can waste time across the board; team members end up double-handling tasks or entering information twice and high-value employees spend too much time on menial tasks. 

With unclear expectations, people can get distracted and step in to try to fill gaps. Sometimes, team members “create” what they think their co-workers should be doing, even if it’s misaligned with management expectations. This can breed resentment and has the potential to snowball until a staff member leaves the business.  

“This impacts the culture and hinders opportunities to work together or help each other out in busier times,” Morey says. “And managers can’t easily track where tasks are sitting or how long they’ve been there.”

Three key processes to define

Tamara outlines three processes that should be prioritised, defined and agreed on (that commonly aren’t). They are:

• Review process
• Advice process
• Implementation process

For each of these, businesses need to consider every essential task and any steps involved in those tasks that would need to be tracked.  

“Map out who is responsible for each task now,” Morey says. “Understand the ‘cost’ of every team member in your practice and consider if any tasks they’re completing can be done by another team member or outsourced at a lower rate.”

After that, you can rebuild your processes and workflows within your CRM using automation where available.

Mapping it visually

Jess Lamb, practice development specialist and director of Practice Dynamix, believes that mapping out your process visually is key. 

“Think about each step from start to finish from the point of view of the user experience and client experience,” Lamb says. “Ensure the process is robust to allow for a typical and mostly typical process, but don’t over complicate the process for the really low-likelihood outcomes.”

When helping clients, Jess’s team looks at what the business reporting needs to be throughout the process. From there, they can plan what the best process would look like if everything went smoothly. Then they plan for times when things can change and build flexibility into the process.

Every business has its weak spots, and Morey’s advice is to look at timeframes and identify bottlenecks. She adds that one should speak to staff about their (and their coworkers’) workloads, identifying any skill shortages that may require outsourced solutions.

Who to involve, and when?

Both Morey and Lamb agree it’s important to involve the whole team from an early stage – to get their feedback on what’s working, what isn’t and what would be needed to improve the process.

“Your entire team may not be involved in every step of the ‘build,’” Morey says, “but it’s critical they feel heard and that their views have been considered to get their buy-in.” 

Principals might provide insights into the key outcomes and reporting requirements. Practice managers and operations managers can define the best process based on the business structure. 

“Support staff will know the best way to structure tasks to provide the insights needed to complete the task,” Lamb adds. “They may also be best-placed to confirm where tasks are too manual.” 

She suggests leaving a few people in the business who can examine it in its final stages with fresh eyes “to really stress-test the process.”

How Xplan can help solve inefficiencies

Once you’ve set up your workflow correctly, you can focus on automating it. Lamb suggests using Xplan tools to define key processes and touchpoints and assign responsibilities and timelines.  

She identifies a number of useful functions, including File Note and File Note Templates, Diary and Email Templates, SMS Templates, Client Portal, Tasks, Checklists, Threads, Cases, Case Benchmarks, Opportunities, Xport Reports, Merge Reports and Scheduler. 

“All of these work in harmony,” she says, “typically underpinned by a Case which is the workhorse of a workflow process.”

As a result, practice principals have peace of mind knowing actions are being completed and can be kept up to date via Xplan Workflow reporting. Support staff can be confident they know what to do and when to do it.

Feel the fear and do it anyway 

Some advice businesses hesitate to define and automate processes. As Lamb explains, this often comes from a fear of change; from not knowing there’s a better way or feeling overwhelmed and not sure where to start. Sometimes, she adds, people don’t think they have the time to tackle this process. 

Her best advice is to remember that however uncertain you are, if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll continue to make the same mistakes – and that costs you time and money. 

“Making a conscious decision to invest in your process will be the best decision you make,” Lamb says.

Morey adds: “It can be a big project and you want to make sure it’s done once and done right. Make sure you have the right people on the project and consider outsourcing to consultants who are experts in people and process restructuring.”