8 Mistakes Companies Make When Creating Process Documentation
You did it! You signed a new project and you need to bring on a specialized contractor to help get you to the finish line. But when you go to onboard the new contractor, you can’t remember everything that needs to happen to get them up and running. Cue searching through all your previous emails/slack messages when you onboarded the last contractor....
This confusion isn’t just annoying, these types of inefficiencies are also costly to your business. What can help? Process documentation. 🤓
Process documentation may sound boring, but it can be so many different things! Documentation can be in the form of written documents, checklists, and also video processes. We need to let go of the image of a binder full of boring instructions. Process documentation is your key to running the business smoothly.
There are countless benefits of why a company should invest in process documentation.
Operational consistency
Faster onboarding
Acquisition requirements
Saves time and money
Reduces errors
Provides a process to improve upon
If you’re getting ready to beef up documentation across your organization you’ll want to make sure you’re being efficient and thorough. It can be easy to make an error! I’ve compiled the main mistakes I see companies make so you can avoid them.
TIP: Read through to the end and I’ll share a link to our Free Operations Manual Guide, an invaluable resource that gives you a head start on awesome documentation!
8 Mistakes to Avoid
#1 - Finding your process docs is basically a scavenger hunt 🚫
In order for process documentation to be of value to you and your teams, you must make sure that it’s easy to find. I recommend using a tool like Notion or Coda which are wiki options for your org. If you don’t want to add another tool, you can utilize documentation in some of your existing suite of tools such as Google Drive + Google Docs.
The important piece is to make sure that your entire team has access to whatever documentation they need and they shouldn’t have to go hunting through various folders for documents.
If you’re using some type of cloud storage such as Google Drive or Dropbox, make sure your folders are organized. Having disorganized folders will make accessing resources difficult for your teams.
#2 - Not prioritizing the right documentation 🚫
You should approach new documentation with one basic question: What will make the biggest impact? I’ve been documenting processes for organizations my entire career and my advice is to document the processes with less crossover training first.
Start with the positions with the fewest people but doing high impact work. Why? Because it’s the biggest liability to your organization. If this person becomes unavailable to do their job, you want to make sure you have an instruction manual to do some of the highest priority items first (e.g. How to run payroll).
From there, you can work outward and document processes for remaining teams with more people.
#3 - Documentation that collects dust 🚫
Low adoption of documentation exists when employees still rely on old ways of thinking and don’t rely on the new process documentation. In order to help combat this, always direct employees to the process documentation to find their answers. It’s easy to forget that information is accessible so a simple redirect often jogs their memory.
“Hey can you remind my how to submit my expenses?”
“Sure thing! Here’s a link to the process in our manual. Let me know if you have any questions.”
Get feedback from the team on why they haven’t utilized the documentation. You may find that the instructions aren’t clear or they didn’t even know it existed in the first place.
#4 - Nobody has ownership 🚫
I recommend dedicating a person to be in charge of making sure documentation is up to snuff across the entire organization. Many times, this person will be someone in an operations role however if that person doesn’t exist, nominate someone who’s passionate about process!
If you’re a big team, you can also designate a person from each department to be responsible for the upkeep of department specific documentation as well as making sure they notify any new people to their department of the documentation.
#5 - Too many cooks in the kitchen 🚫
On the flip side of designating an owner for documentation, having too many people involved in documentation can create massive disorganization as well as inconsistencies with documentation. There should be one person who keeps everything organized!
#6 - Inconsistent updates 🚫
The purpose of documentation is that it’s useful to you and your teams. It should be updated to reflect current processes that your team is currently operating under.
Old processes will create confusion and take longer for new hires to onboard into your company.
#7 - Not enough detail 🚫
I consider a process sufficient if someone else can read through the details and execute the task without having additional questions. It might not be perfect, but it’s not going to leave any gaping holes.
Take the client onboarding process that I recommend agencies document. If you don’t include a checklist of things to cover in the kickoff meeting, this can lead to missed expectations at the start of a new client engagement.
#8 - Not organizing information based on departments 🚫
In order for the information to be easily followed by your team, make sure you’re separating out processes for each department. Otherwise, it creates extra work for people to sift through information that may not be relevant to them.
I suggest breaking out as much information you can based on roles or departments. If it’s a process that may include many departments (such as client onboarding), designate one department to own that process and keep the information up to date.
Here’s one example of a hierarchy for documentation:
We know we talk about process documentation a lot; but it’s important to remember that agencies have so much to gain by good documentation!
That’s why we created our Free Operations Manual Guide, so you can get a jumpstart on quality process documentation. We are passionate about you doing your best work and astonishing your clients. Refining internal documentation will help you get out of the day-to-day weeds and make your agency more efficient.
