Process mapping your organisation has many uses, but one of the most self-evident is to help in the training of new employees.
The process map is a step by step, simple language approach to defining how a job or task is performed. It is simple to attach screenshots, additional documents, or written procedural breakdowns, to provide all the extra context and guidance you think necessary to explain how a task should be performed.
Control What is Being Taught
This ensures the way someone learns isn’t dependent on the person training them, since the diagram defines the standard. You establish a single known way of doing things that everyone is working from. It prevents ad hoc variations being passed from person to person and increasingly diverging the as-is way your organisation functions from the ideal and predictable.
Trainees can refer back to them as memory aids, rather than needing to refer to someone else on the team. Departmental or enterprise wide maps can also be provided, if appropriate, to give them a clearer notion of who around them does what, and why.
Not Just for New Staff
You can also use them to train existing staff in new or updated procedures. Some software we use has the ability to generate storyboards which walk users through particular processes, and staff can be asked to sign off when they’ve understood it.
Training isn’t only for new employees – partners, other departments and sub-contractors may need to be educated about how you work. When you’re looking at using offshore resources, for example, your processes can be ‘lifted and dropped’ into the new location not only to train new staff, but also to alert you to issues arising from the move, such as new legal constraints. In moves entailing many operational changes, it is hard to see how you will track which have been addressed and which have not, unless you start with a checklist of process maps.
If you want to review the way you communicate your processes within your organisation, then contact us to discuss how we can help.