In the ever-changing business environment, managers are regularly held accountable for achieving greater results with fewer resources. Ultimately, this accountability is dependent upon the managers' abilities to accurately track, document and communicate their teams' performances. Every aspect of a team's responsibilities and expectations should have quantifiable markers to determine success, improvement and value within specific timeframes (daily, monthly, quarterly, etc).

What are the best tools for your organization to provide the data necessary to demonstrate that the best possible results are achieved?

1. Touchpoint Reviews

In conducting touchpoint reviews, the goal is to identify every step in a process, specifically, the number of times an item is "touched" in the process. The ultimate goal is to identify opportunities to eliminate "touches" and streamline the process. For example, a product is produced in one area and one employee comes and takes the product to another room to be boxed by another person for shipping. Is it possible to have the second person box the product in the same area it is produced and deliver it to shipping, thus eliminating a "touch" and improving the process and reducing costs?

This is a very simple representation of a touchpoint review. Different shapes can be used to quantify the individual steps, such as manual process, decision making, transporting, documenting, etc. Standard "flow chart" shapes are usually used for this purpose.

Items that should also be captured in your touchpoint review are time, distance and staff involved in each "touch." These items contribute to providing a clear visual representation of the process. Obviously, when you are looking to improve a process, you will need to improve the time and decrease staff to achieve results. Once final touchpoint reviews are completed and potential process improvements are identified, they should be shared with all parties involved and reviewed with management for approval.

2. Detailed Policy and Procedures

In the reality of the transient workforce that exists today, it is imperative to create detailed policy and procedures for all tasks completed in your organization. The expectation that someone will stay on the job for an extended period of time and pass along all the details of the daily expectations of their position to their replacement is an antiquated and dangerous path.

It is certainly more likely that the individual will leave abruptly or with little notice, taking all of the knowledge of the position with them. There must be a clear, detailed and complete description of each task. Items that should be defined and listed are purpose, scope, standard, responsibility, procedure and exceptions of the task. The purpose should define the results that are expected when completing a task. For example, the purpose for metering First-Class mail could be as follows: "To accurately and efficiently meter all outgoing First-Class mail within the regulations as determined by the USPS, utilizing compliant digital mail processing equipment."

The scope should define the parameters as well as components that are involved or that could impact the task. For example, the scope for sorting incoming accountable mail could be as follows: "The accurate recording and timely delivery of accountable mail is critical to the efficient processing of checks and documents received by all departments within the organization, most notably accounts receivable."

The standard will identify the quantifiable results of the tasks regarding timeliness and/or quality expected in completing the task. For example, the standard for processing return mailpieces could be as follows: "All return mailpieces must be researched, reprinted and returned to the mail stream within three business days."

Responsibility will identify specific individuals, by title, who will perform the task. Bear in mind that individuals identified must be fully trained in the expectations of the task to be assigned responsibility. For example, the responsibility for an inserter operator could be as follows: "Vendor certified inserter operator and/or trained
 backup or production supervisor."

The heart of the policy and procedure document is to list the steps to accomplish the task in such a manner that anyone can pick up the document and perform the task properly. This creates written steps that will eliminate the "legacy" training that involves "word of mouth." This, of course, is contained in the procedure portion of the document. Procedure should be written in numbered steps, and bullet points can be used to explain any decisions or additional details involved in each step. It is also valuable to compare your touchpoint reviews to your procedure to see that they represent the same steps in the process.

The final item to remember to include in your procedure is to list the quality control steps to be followed. Identifying specific steps to ensure the process is completed accurately sets the expectation for the person completing the task. It also provides documentation that there is a commitment to quality and that the staff will be held accountable to producing quality work.

To complete the document, the final section should include any exceptions related to performing the process described in the procedure. The question to ask at this point is what external or internal events would impact the completion of the process. The following are a few questions that would create exceptions to the process: