The Workflow Safety Net

Every small business relies on certain key people to keep things moving.  Maybe it's the dispatcher who knows every client by name, or the tech that understands your systems better than anyone else.  What if that person is sick, or on vacation, or tied up with other work?  Does your entire operation slow down?  A workflow that depends on a single person is a workflow with a single point of failure.

A workflow safety net ensures the business runs at peak efficiency no matter who's available.  It's not about replacing people, but building an internal architecture where work doesn't bottleneck when someone steps away. 

Your first step?  Identifying single points of failure.  Think about what tasks would grind to a halt if one person weren't around.  These show you where the workflow is fragile.  Once these are identified, documentation of each critical process becomes a priority.  No need for lengthy manuals or extensive explanations, just a short guide that can help someone jump in when needed.  Be sure to store this documentation somewhere that is easy for people to access when needed. 

Cross training makes the safety net and your company as a whole that much stronger.  When multiple people, at least two, know the basics of a specific task, it removes that potential point of failure.  The backup person doesn't need a PHD in the process, just enough familiarity and access to documentation to keep things moving in the absence of the primary person.

Speaking of documentation, centralized document storage is key.  Files, notes, customer information, and other key documents should live in a shared, organized system rather than a sticky note or in someones head.  When information is easy to find, it makes keeping operations running that much easier.

A simple absence plan brings all of this together.  When someone is going to be out, having a plan as to "who" is covering "what" reduces last minute scrambling.

By building and practicing these redundancies in your workflows, you reduce stress on your team, provide more consistent service to customers, and make your business more resilient.  When you're less prone to bottlenecks, your operations stay steady, even when life gets unpredictable.

Would you like to implement redundancy for your business, but don't know where to start?  Feel free to hit me up at aaron@flworkplace.com or schedule some time on my calendar here

Cheers!

Aaron