A Study in Systemisation and Planning

I have returned from helping out at my youngest son’s Year 6 camp, totally exhausted but impressed with the organisation and how the kids coped. The tiredness came more from a lower fitness level than I would like and sharing a room with 4 other snoring fathers. A couple of good night’s sleep and I will be more alert. The lack of fitness will take a bit longer to address and is something I will work on over the next few months!

The kids had a ball. Many were challenged beyond their comfort zone......as were many of the adults. All were well fed and watered and kept busy every waking moment. The satisfaction level came in no small part to the planning and systemisation that went into the whole exercise. The school runs the same camp every year, but with new parents coming along and also new teachers from time to time, the success depends on the processes being well documented and improved upon each year with a review of “what can we do better next time”. To have about 100 kids organised from 7am to 10pm to be at the right place at the right time, fed good food in sufficient volume and supervised to ensure safety needs a list of checklists, procedures and forms somewhat akin to Desert Storm.

Could your business operate as smoothly if you or some of your key staff were to change suddenly? Would all that knowledge walk out the door, or do you have your procedures and processes well documented?

Your Operations Manual
To improve the operational security of your business and to increase its market value, I recommend that you put some serious effort into producing a clear operations manual. To create your business manual, think of it as “the book of your business”.
If writing it is likely to take too long use a dictaphone to record “what” (the system) you do and “how” (the procedure) you or your team do a particular thing in your business. Then have someone type that up for your manual. This then becomes your “living document” which can be changed or improved as circumstances dictate.

All areas of the business can be covered. People ask me sometimes, “Where do I start?”. I usually suggest with basic opening and closing procedures for the business and go from there. Other areas you may want to cover can include:-

Business Management

• Reports generated — daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually
• Accounting practices
• Banking procedures
• Payroll procedures
• Regulatory requirements — GST, PAYE, Fringe Benefit etc

Daily Operating Procedure

• Business appearance standards, procedures for achieving standards
• Opening and closing procedures
• Acceptance of credit procedures
• Procedures for cashing out register

Administration

• Employee scheduling — details shifts, how allocated
• Computer operations
• Accounting and payment systems

Emergency procedures

• Cover fire, and medical
• Accident procedures

Kitchen, staff room and toilets

• Daily procedure for keeping clean and tidy
• Cleaning/hygiene standards and procedures
• Procedure for replacing consumables

Sales/Customer Service

• Telephone manner/scripts
• Procedures for meeting, greeting & fare welling customers
• Procedures for interaction with /serving customers
• Procedures for up-selling, cross-selling
• Handling complaints
• Sales targets and recording procedures

Under each procedure you need to cover:
Who, What, Why, When, Where, How for all of the systems and procedures that you include in the manual. Then schedule some time each year to keep the manual up to date, make improvements to procedures and documents and cull out of date stuff. Keep back-up hard copies and soft copies.

A well documented company manual will become a company resource of significant importance and will add substantial value to your business. It will also make it easier to induct new staff and identify weaknesses in the business.