Organizational transformation: Simplify the lives of your employees

The current pandemic is shaking up the world of work. However, it allows individuals and businesses to get back to basics. This period is therefore an excellent opportunity to clean up practices and processes, while keeping in mind the well-being of employees.

Simplification is a managerial innovation that can be implemented in this context. The objective is to be more efficient at work and eliminate waste, by reviewing processes, without reducing its value proposition to the customer. This process is deployed when there are too many internal control activities or administrative burden. Furthermore, it can be useful if the company has had to let go of part of its workforce.

Simplification increases innovation, satisfaction, motivation and time invested in value-added tasks, while reducing routine tasks. It can also improve the financial performance of the company.[1]

The three steps of the process are:

1. Reassessneeds and question current operations;
2. Rethinksimpler ways of doing things;
3. Reorganizeresources in accordance with the reflections.

To do this exercise, some companies use the “Stop-Start-Continue” approach.

Tips for implementing a simplification process

Several tips make it easier to implement a simplification process, including:

1. Use the collaboration of all employees to review current processes;
2. Prioritize proposals that affect the greatest number of employees;
3. Empower departments that tend to push tasks to other departments so that they simplify processes;
4. Promote the right to make mistakes;
5. Adopt a culture of continuous improvement oriented towardsLean management.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Your internal resources are the carriers of your product or service and must therefore be at the heart of the reflection. So don’t sacrifice the health and well-being of your employees at the risk of disappointing results.
2. Do not try to fill the time saved with other tasks to maximize your employees’ time at all costs. One of the goals is to help them have a balance at work. Instead, let employees choose how to invest this time.
3. Learn to trust your employees. Complexity often comes from a lack of trust. Complex processes are put in place to prevent situations or errors that, in reality, happen a negligible number of times.

Have you carried out a simplification process in your organization? Do not hesitate to tell us about the advantages and challenges of simplification on our pageFacebook.

SOURCES:

[1]Aigouy, Camille and Granata, Julien (2017). “The implementation of simplification as an organizational innovation and first step in a process of liberation: the case of Volkswagen Group France”, International Journal of Psychosociology and Management of Organizational Behavior, Vol. XXIII, pages 63 to 85