There’s no question that small-business owners are always looking for ways to grow their businesses. Whether that means increasing revenues or hiring more employees, the goal is always the same: to be bigger and better than you were yesterday. But as your business grows, so do its headaches. You may struggle with processes that are not documented clearly because you’re too dependent on a single person’s knowledge. Trainual’s Small Business Report highlights what they know about small businesses and training. We’ll explore why companies need to value documentation so they can start contributing value immediately and stay long-term.
Is Documentation the Key to Growth?
Documentation is key to scaling your business. When you start, you can get by with some simple spreadsheets and Google Docs. However, as your company grows, you will need more formalized processes. This includes processes for managing tasks and various elements of your business, including sales and onboarding.
Tip: We LOVE working on Trainual to organize and build our documentation!
Documentation also helps protect your business from growing pains. For example, when new hires jump into a culture without proper training or guidelines, they hurt productivity. This is especially true if they don’t understand their role’s goals or expectations regarding process adherence or client relations. The best way to avoid this kind of confusion is through documentation. Expectations are set up front so everyone understands what needs to happen in any given situation.
Documentation also helps cultivate a culture of ownership among employees as it shows how every person contributes to achieving company goals. Increase your company’s growth by outlining how each person fits into the company’s goals and plans. And then document how each team member’s contributions add value over time toward reaching those goals.
Businesses that Document Processes, Policies, & Operational Knowledge Protect Revenue & Improve Performance
Documenting processes, policies, and other operational knowledge is a great way to protect your business from legal issues. If you can show that you followed the documented procedure, it will be much easier to prove that an employee was negligent or not following protocol.
Documentation also makes training new employees easier. With all of your rules and procedures in one place, they are easily accessible to everyone on your team. In addition, having all of this information in one place makes it possible for new hires who have just started working at your company to understand how things operate before they begin working with any clients or customers. This helps them feel more comfortable as soon as they start their first day on the job and helps build accountability within teams across different departments within an organization (e-mail marketing vs. sales vs. customer service).
Documentation Helps Both New Hires and Existing Employees
Documentation and training are the perfect tools to quickly help you get new hires up and running while providing a valuable resource for existing employees. They can use the documents as a reference when needed. They can also learn from the documents by reviewing them every so often. Either way, documentation is an integral part of any business culture that should be taken advantage of whenever possible.
Training and Knowledge-Sharing Help Increase Retention
Training and knowledge-sharing help increase retention as systems constantly evolve. Companies that hold frequent and continual training sessions and devote resources to employee development experienced significantly longer employee tenure.
Why? Training can help employees learn new skills, understand the company’s culture and goals, and even gain an understanding of the organization’s values. If your employees can gain more skills and increase their potential for promotions, they’ll stick around!
Training is essential for more than just improving the performance of employees. It also helps to keep them engaged, motivated, and incentivized, which can improve employee retention. According to a study conducted by the Corporate Executive Board, companies with high-engaged workers are 23% less likely to experience turnover than companies with low-engaged workers (and those same companies are 14% more profitable).
Why Do Business Owners Underestimate the Time It Takes to Get a New Hire Onboarded & Trained?
The big reason why small business owners underestimate the time it takes to get a new hire onboarded is because they have their hands full with so many other responsibilities, and “they’re not the ones doing it as the company starts to grow.”
As your business grows, you’ll need to delegate tasks to others. This means having employees take over some of your duties, including HR, hiring, and onboarding. Document job expectations, processes, and policies to implement a successful systems mindset.
When you’re a small business owner, it can be challenging to take the time to document processes and policies when there are so many other things on your plate. But to protect your business from growing pains, it’s essential to take the time to document processes, policies, and operational knowledge to manage workflow better. So, here are a few tips to help you document your processes! Documenting your processes and systems enables you to cultivate a culture of ownership and accountability, improve new hire performance, improve retention rates, and fill gaps in knowledge when employees leave.
If you’re struggling to keep up with the growth of your business, it might be time to take a look at how you’re doing things. If some processes or policies don’t have documented procedures, then it might be worth taking some time to write them down before they become too difficult to maintain. Likewise, if there are processes in place but your staff doesn’t follow them, that needs fixing too! Taking time out of your day to do these things will help ensure that everything runs smoothly and efficiently throughout your organization.
Check out our YouTube video on Maintaining a Systems Mindset!