Tips for Keeping Your Organization Connected
A lack of consistent communication, standardization, and documentation of processes, policies, and procedures within organizations with multiple branch locations is never more apparent than when we begin the discovery process for a core data processing conversion. Maybe we see it more than most because of the nature of our work. To quote our former CEO, “If you want to know what you don’t know that you don’t know…go through a core conversion.”
Picture this: you’re meeting with key management, including branch managers, and ask a simple procedural question which is met with a variety of responses. “Yes,” “No,” “We do it this way,” or “We don’t do that.” Believe me, the inconsistency becomes evident very quickly, and it becomes quite clear the branches are not connected where it matters.
So, I challenge you to ask yourself if your branch is an island. Obviously, that phrase uses the island as a metaphor to symbolize remoteness and isolation. However, we know from experience that your team members and locations need to be connected to thrive!
No judgment here, it’s more common than not and often happens organically as organizations grow. Branches are added through mergers or expansion. There’s employee turnover. Policies and procedures are always evolving etc. There are so many factors that can naturally contribute to this!
But there are also many negative consequences that we’d like to help you avoid and I hope you find this information useful. Feelings of isolation or disconnection can lead to employee resentment, lack of productivity, or even workplace conflict or turnover.
As we saw with the gradual shift to the remote work trend over the last five years, the same concepts for keeping processes, policies, and procedures consistent across your physical branch locations apply. Those key tips include focusing on:
- Having effective communication strategies in place. Maintain regular communication. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that communication is paramount to ensure understanding and alignment across all teams. It also builds trust. It’s never more important than during a special project, like a core conversion, when so many things are changing. Sharing that information is critical. Not to mention effective communication is very influential when it comes to decision-making and problem-solving. Luckily, there are many tools to help with this, like instant messaging software, an organizational intranet page, or even software that allows team collaboration.
- Standardizing and documenting your processes. What good does it do to have standards if they aren’t documented? There are also many tools at your disposal for this…think checklists, flowcharts, templates, etc.
- Defining clear expectations and goals. Make sure you are not only clearly communicating these within your organization but also evaluating understanding. What may seem “clear” to management might not be translating to the appropriate stakeholders.
- Maintaining clear policies and procedures. These should be consistently communicated across all your locations. Don’t “set them and forget them.” These should be evaluated organization-wide periodically to confirm they are being implemented as intended, remain current and relevant, and are having the desired effect.
All of this may seem overwhelming and understandably so. But you must start somewhere and avoiding this is not the answer. Don’t wait until you have a significant project looming or are experiencing issues to tackle this.
Hopefully, you can use the key metrics above to measure across all your locations and adjust as needed to improve your overall organizational effectiveness!
