WHERE
C3 is a proactive partnership of 11 organisations in the West of England sub-region. C3 supports social economy organisations by promoting continuous improvement and quality standards.
The partnership is piloting a range of new business support services and providing expert advice in improving the performance of social economy organisations. C3 aims to influence the range of support services delivered and how they are delivered in the future.
Facilitation is provided by advisors from four of the partners: Black Development Agency, Cooperative Development Agency (BRAVE) Ltd, Social Enterprise Works, Voscur.
WHY
This tool was selected to help the C3 partnership’s clients that are involved in performance improvement to look in more depth at their processes.
‘Processes’ is one of the nine areas of the C3Perform self-assessment tool (and the business excellence model) but the model stops short of assessing each process in depth. For some organisations, there is a need to do this. The process flowchart helps to do this.
HOW
Overview of process flowcharting
Definition of Process. Any activity or series of activities, that transforms inputs into outputs, utilising resources and being subject to particular controls. (from the Quality toolkit 1996)
All organisations establish and follow processes, from the more everyday tasks such as ordering stationary to longer-term activities such as developing a new service, strategic planning or performance improvement.
How you define, document, communicate and manage your processes can have major implications on your results. Efficient processes can save you money (thus improving key performance results), reduce your environmental impact (improving society results), improve internal communication and staff moral (improving people results) and improve customer service (improving customer results).
There is potentially a great deal of work you can do to improve your processes. One of the first activities you can do is to clearly define your key processes. Using flow charts can help with this.
They will need to know how that process works and why it works. Processes will need to be reviewed regularly as certain factors change.
Process Flowcharts
Flowcharts can be used to formalise a process. They show the sequence of steps, decisions that need to be made and alternative routes that can be followed. Symbols are given to the different functions, for example, action and decision. The basic symbols are given below. You can use other symbols to make the flowchart more descriptive.
Process flowcharts can help to ensure that all staff and volunteers understand a process, have a sense of ownership of it and play their part in its successful completion. For this reason, it is more effective if the people involved in each process are involved in the flow-charting session.
If you choose to involve a group, it is a good idea to use post-it notes or cards and flipchart paper so that you can move them around and agree as a group on the correct sequence.
Key steps to the process
- Identify the process to be charted, agree a start and a stop position.
- Write down all of the key stages of the process on cards or post it notes.
- Put these in sequential order to represent the process
- Identify key decision points, alternative routes, key communication points and links to key documents required.
- Test it out
- Identify how the process can be improved
- Produce a final version
Experiences - Bristol Community Transport
This tool was first used with Bristol Community Transport to help them to review all customer-facing processes, write a process manual and improve customer service within the organisation. This work sought to address problems with internal communication and a lack of clarity around core processes.
Bristol Community Transport has provided a mini bus service to Bristol’s community and voluntary sector organisations and the general public for 20 years. BCT hires buses (and a driver) to its members (community and voluntary sector organisations in Bristol). It also runs a number of community mini bus services in some areas of the city. This service is for individuals, who are also members of the service. It has more recently developed an income stream providing training to people wishing to learn to drive a mini bus and transport organisations needing to ensure accessibility of vehicles. The organisation has 12 members of staff, a management committee made up of representatives from a number of member organisations, and a strong team of volunteer drivers.
Process flowcharting. The staff set about documenting core customer facing processes using a flow chart model. This has been done in consultation with staff members but the work has been carried out by the customer service manager.
Process Manual. The flow charting work resulted in a comprehensive process manual which uses a flow chart to illustrate each process
How could the process be improved
For reasons of time, one key staff member in BCT was given responsibility for documenting core processes and then consulting with staff. An alternative and perhaps better way of doing it would be to involve all staff in a facilitated session to develop the flowcharts as a group.
Transferability
This is a very straightforward and widely known tool that can be easily adapted.
For more information: Please contact the C3 Partnership via the website.