The changing times of the year 2020 have certainly tested many of us but it has also broken many processes in organisations. With the mass move to working from home it highlighted many processes that were not fit for purpose in the modern world.
Now that things are starting to calm down, organisations are now looking at ways to improve and have greater business continuity to ensure work can carry on no matter what happens. Before business continuity used to be ensuring you had disaster recovery in place and if the buildings were inaccessible for a day that work could carry on. Now its more about processes and looking at ways to remove the dependency on buildings, post, and printing.
The majority of processes in an organisation can be improved during these changing times and digitalised to allow the processes to continue no matter where the employees are based. Additional tools like DocuSign can help remove the need for physical signatures and improve response times for approval or signing processes. Microsoft 365 can be used to automate processes within organisations to allow for employees to focus on more valuable tasks.
After working with several clients there are some key areas in an organisation that can be targeted for process improvement and these include HR and Finance where there are contractual processes, invoices and job offers. If we think about the onboarding process for a new starter there are several elements that can be improved. From the recruitment process there are technical solutions that automate several steps in the process including the scheduling of the interviews, the offer letters being sent out and the acceptance of the offer. The signing of contracts can be digitalised through tools like DocuSign, which can reduce the time wasted between sending out the contract via post and receiving a signed copy through the post, and once a start date is confirmed Power Automate can send tasks out in preparation for the new starter. Tasks like getting a device ordered and accounts being set up can be a manual and sometimes these can be missed until the day the new starter joins. Onboarding tasks can also be digitalised rather than another colleague having to run through tasks that are often printed as a checklist.
Digitalising processes not only saves time and effort, but it also ensures you can operate no matter where employees are working and removes any dependency on a building or location. Most organisations have a desire or objective to move to paperless and reduce the carbon footprint and digitalising processes is one of the main ways to work towards those objectives during these changing times.
