Maintaining Processes Through Transition

Whether being affected by the ‘Great Resignation’ (The unprecedented period starting in 2021 of workers voluntarily leaving their jobs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic (Chugh, 2021)), or not, turnover is a fact of life in all organizations.

In our organization, we found that units that own processes that have data dependencies don’t always understand processes or the impact of the processes, therefore it is not a priority for them to ensure that processes are maintained, especially in times of staff transition.

Define the problem

In defining our problem, we started out with the concept that as a large unit, we are struggling with maintaining internal processes that have external impacts across changes in staff.

By outlining the situation, who is involved, and the environment, we were able to identify our problem:

Units own processes which have data dependencies, but don’t always understand the impact on dependent processes, therefore it is not a priority for them to ensure that processes are maintained.

Empathize

Through the use of an Empathy Map Canvas it was posited that one of the issues is that the staff members who do the hands on management of the processes are coordinators who are managed by fundraisers. Through the empathy map process, it became clear that fundraising, bringing in donations and meeting with potential donors, is the top priority for the fundraisers. Maintaining data, and possibly even training their staff, are not top of mind or something they want to spend a lot of time or energy on, when it can be seen as taking time away from their true purpose.

Ideate

Through the brainstorming process, there were three categories of possible solutions raised: Technological, Organization structure, and behavioural.

After some debate, the organization structure ideas were abandoned, as we do not have influence at this time to look at moving coordinators our from under the fundraisers and into a central unit, where they can be uniformly trained, have mutual support and back up and report to a manager that doesn’t have other primary responsibilities.

The remaining concepts of technology and behaviour came together nicely in the concept of creating a database of processes that integrates with the staff directory. The database would contain basic information such as the process, the name of the process owner, their email address, how frequently the process is to be completed, and the last time it was completed. This information along with the integration with the staff directory would allow us to easily generate push notifications to the process owners (as well as their supervisors, if necessary).

Prototype

Once there is a database that is populated with the processes that need to be maintained, the owners, the frequency of update, and the date last updated — and it is connected to the staff directory in order to identify changes in status and owner supervisors, it is possible to develop a system of push notifications.

Mobile devices are part of most people’s everyday life, many of us are never without them — some of us even feel phantom pings from time-to-time. Many of us are also already using either business provided devices, or in some cases even personal devices for some business processes such as Multi-factor Authentication. Research has shown that notifications can have incredible reception rates with up to 90% of messages being read in a short period of time. (Hackmer, 2018)

Another key part of this solution is the ability to quickly and easily act on the notification. Once the notification is opened, the call to action must be clear and easy to follow. The prototypes above show the simple database, as well as some pathways for actions following the notification. If the notification is for a process being due, the message will notify them of the process that needs to be completed and the expected completion date. From there, the user has the option to go to instructions on performing the process, or they can defer the notification and be reminded later. The second path is for a supervisor of a former owner, where the role is empty. This notification indicates the previous owner of the process, the due date of the process and that they are the new owner until there is an update. In this case the user can choose to update the owner, or be reminded at a later date (while maintaining ownership and getting process updates until the process is completed or the owner is updated.

Conclusion

By empathizing with the fundraisers who are managing coordinators who are responsible for processes, determining the true problem, ideating and prototyping, we were able to design a relatively low-weight, maintainable process which will to make it easier for stakeholders to manage processes that are not top of mind or their top priority. By making it easier to get the information that is needed to perform the processes and keep accountability for the processes, everyone wins.

References:

Chugh, A. (2021, November 29). What is The Great Resignation and what can we learn from it. World Economic Forum. Retrieved June 15, 2022, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/11/what-is-the-great-resignation-and-what-can-we-learn-from-it/

Hackmer, M. (2018, August 13). The Power Of Push Notifications In Internal Communication. LinkedIn. Retrieved June 18, 2022, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140917103027-1270932-the-power-of-push-notifications-in-internal-communication/

Originally published at https://medium.com on June 21, 2022.