Does your agency follow specific steps for training employees to execute its procedures?
Has your agency reviewed its procedures to make sure they save time? Are all your employees consistently performing procedures the same way to secure against errors and omissions? Are automation steps and agency procedures included in procedures? These are just a few questions to ask when thoroughly reviewing procedures to make sure they are increasing revenue and not costing your agency money!
Step-by-step procedures are documented in a 'how-to-do' format, instead of by 'what to do.' You can always write down what needs to be done. However, if you plan to train a new employee to follow our procedures efficiently, the steps need to be documented in a how-to-do fashion to save the trainer and trainee time.
Again, analyzing every detail of a procedure saves the agency time. When outlining procedures, explore ways to increase efficiency within the agency and request input from all personnel on each individual procedure. Your employees' time- and money-saving ideas and revenue-building suggestions will amaze you, but reason dictates that your most valuable assets, who stay with you 40 hours each week, would have some knowledge of what procedures are and aren't productive.
The third area to examine is employee audits. Some agencies believe they must complete the procedure evaluation while employees are working at their desk. Supervisors know exactly how each employee is performing and can easily complete a procedure evaluation on any particular employee. Be sure to audit each employee consistently on a semi-annual or annual basis for extra security against costly errors and omissions.
Agencies that have an in-house procedures manual usually rely on their automation vendor's user manual to train their staff on automation procedures. Every agency has different procedures for processing its automation. Automation manuals list one generic way all agencies can process the same procedure. Because every agency is different, your automation steps must be documented in both your procedure and automation manuals. The way in which you process a binder or a cancellation on the computer system is completely different from the way another agency processes the same information. The differences extend down to the prompts if the automation system has been customized for your own agency. Every automation system also has different entries or codes that suit your agency's unique needs and must be included in your manual.
Conclusion
Use how-to-do steps to create your procedures manual; make sure procedures are thoroughly evaluated by employees; have the procedures continually audited by your workers; and do not exclude your automation procedures from the manual. By following such a process, you will save time by increasing efficiency, decrease errors and omissions, and increase revenue.