ARTICLE SUMMARY
Check out the key process mapping benefits you’ll have once a streamlined workflow is established. It’s time to organize and make any process much easier.
Many people believe that process mapping benefits can be summarized just as workflow organization and better visibility of the whole chain. While that’s part of the benefit you’ll get there’s much more to it, and that’s what this article is all about.
If you have questions about how to begin your process mapping, don’t miss our process mapping complete guide with details about how to perform a great process mapping.
Complex processes demand the cooperation of more than one department. Also, when they’re not properly mapped, steps can (and most likely will) be missed and the ultimate result won’t achieve the expected standards. That’s ok, and it doesn’t mean your department is broken, it just means your processes are lacking the necessary organization that allows you to identify where something went wrong (when it does).
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Process mapping brings everyone together
One of the process mapping benefits is getting everyone on your team involved in this particular process and gathering each person’s point of view on the executed activities.
The very first step for mapping a process is making sure everyone’s on the same page when it comes to input, process, and results. If people are expecting different results or a different type of execution, they won’t possibly be able to agree on the same steps.
So, let’s take a look at some process mapping benefits that get constantly overlooked:
1. Helps everyone involved see the big picture
Process mapping helps people shift the focus from the teeny tiny details and see the big picture. Of course, Worrying about details and specifics is an important part of process mapping. However, it must come after people have properly outlined process inputs, general process steps, and process outputs.
Seeing the big picture helps to clarify how each person’s work impacts the overall dynamic of the process, so teams will be aware of how any delays at the stage they’re involved in can impact all subsequent steps.
2. Lets everyone know how important they are
This is one of the main reasons why process mapping must be a collaborative activity. By involving each and every person in the process mapping and improvement processes you’ll empower each of them to make positive changes in your work environment.
It may sound too obvious to even mention, but people need to know they belong and that their opinion is important. The more people you involve the clearer this benefit will become.
By involving everyone we’re talking about physical presence other than just digital communications. Getting everyone together in a room creates a sense of equality and urgency no other methods can.
3. Makes best practices a common knowledge
By mapping and creating visual, accessible representations of your processes you’ll make information a lot easier to spread all through the company.
These visual representations also make it a lot easier for people from other departments, even the ones that aren’t directly involved with it, aware of how other departments are dealing with each particular situation.
4. Improves and refines your processes
When mapping a process and studying all of its steps you’ll have the perfect opportunity for inspecting each of those steps and analyzing how important each of them is. This is yet another process mapping benefit.
Process owners are able to evaluate which of the steps are really needed, which generate value, and which are repetitive or time-consuming. With a clear view of these process insights, teams have a better understanding of how to best refine and optimize business processes.
Process mapping also helps identify which steps may already be (or have the potential to become) bottlenecks so that you and your team can come up with ways to fight them even before they become a problem.
5. Makes your employee onboarding more effective
It’s a lot to expect that newly hired team members be able to understand complex processes upon their arrival (or even during the first week, month, etc.).
While expecting people to learn how processes work on their own may be helpful in exercising their understanding of the whole scenario, letting them lose too much time trying to understand a complex process is a waste of time.
Having a detailed, accurate process map makes it visually a lot easier to understand and invite these new team members to participate and provide a fresh point of view on how things are done.
Mapping and managing your processes don’t have to be hard. Using a process management tool, such as Pipefy, allows teams to map their processes on the go, creating execution standards people will always see each time they’re executing a task on the said process. Pipefy is customizable for processes of different areas, such as:
- Finance
- Human Resources
- Customer Success
- Marketing
- Information Technology
- Development
Even though creating a visual map is important, having a tool that supports this map’s steps and standards on a daily basis is essential to ensure the expected quality of execution. Pipefy enables visibility, control, and standardization across all your processes in an easy and fast way!
