CHICAGO — When training new employees or giving current team members information that they will regularly need to call up, process documents are the key to ensuring that the vision the owner has for their company comes through when dealing with both material and customers.
In Part 1 of this series, we examined the need for process documents in drycleaning companies, and in Part 2, we explored the company-specific information that such documents should include. Today, we’ll conclude by looking at how to pull this information together in ways that are clear and will stand the test of time.
Starting the Process
The first steps of creating a process document are the most difficult, says Amy Wischmann, policies and procedures manager at Benzinger’s Clothing Care, located in western New York state, but they are worth taking.
“We’ll have someone who really knows the process take a stab at it,” she says, “literally writing it out. ‘This is what I do. Here’s step one, step two, step three,’ and so on. It’s almost like writing a recipe, where you have to walk someone through it, and you have to write it really clearly.”
Benzinger’s has found that it’s important to thoroughly review the document before calling it “done.”
“We’ll shop that around to the people who are actually doing the work and have them test it, because undoubtedly we’ve missed a step, or the order might not be quite right,” Wischmann says. “So, it’s done a bit by committee. It does take some time, but it is the way to get that procedure written the best possible way that it can be written. And then, if they can translate it into something other than text, they will. But the very first step is literally, unfortunately, writing out that process.”
But once this step is done, the document can be made better and clearer.
“Then, someone might say, ‘Hey, I could put that in a really nifty chart for you,’” she says, “We use a lot of tables and charts because it’s a lot easier to read if you put a graphic here and there and make it more visually appealing.”
However, Jan Barlow, owner and president of Jan’s Professional Dry Cleaners in Clio, Michigan, urges cleaners to never lose track of the goal of the process.
“Have some guidelines about what makes a perfect product,” she says. “Have that standards quality — then it’s drilling down from there about whatever steps you think that need to be done and how you are going to communicate it, whether it’s in words, pictures, videos or whatever.”
Building and Tracking Skills
Another benefit of documenting processes is that it makes it easier for managers to evaluate employees, and for employees to evaluate themselves.
“You’re either a trainee, you’re intermediate or you’re proficient,” Barlow says. “So everybody starts at ‘one’ as a trainee, then ‘two’ means that you can do the job, and ‘three’ means that you can teach the job.”
This process, she believes, clearly indicates both how to do the job and what management expects.
“If we think it’s important for them to learn to increase their values, then we better figure out a way to implement it,” Barlow says. “We’ve got everything written down, but we’ve started our own YouTube channel, and we are putting in more cameras, and we’re literally streaming. We could have an hour or two of straight video to show how to press 30 pairs of pants an hour and do it right. That’s the way they can start to visualize it. They see the difference.”
“If you don’t have any of that written down, and have more of a hodgepodge approach,” Wischmann says, “you’ll have everyone doing things a bit differently. If everyone has their own way of doing something, you don’t have those consistent measures to then evaluate your people and see who is ready to take on a different challenge.”
A Living Document
Part of a successful process document procedure is creating one as clearly as possible and then keeping it current.
“If you are embracing the new technology, then you are eliminating a lot of the problems,” Barlow says. “You have to understand how the equipment functions if you’re going to write a document telling someone how to best use it.”
“Probably the biggest pitfall cleaners find is that the document never gets updated,” Wischmann says. “It’s a big dedication of time, which is a valuable resource. So, maybe it gets partially finished, and then gets stuck on a shelf somewhere. If no one takes the time to make those updates, it becomes outdated, and then it really isn’t a resource for anybody.
“You have to make the commitment to do it and keep it a living, usable document. If not, you’ve spent all that initial time and energy really for nothing.”
For Part 1 of this series, click HERE. For Part 2, click HERE.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].
