Key Points

• Communication is crucial for the success of any BPR projects you’re undertaking.
• Leadership plays a pivotal role in securing and promoting employee engagement.
• Take the time to involve your employees and get them to see the why behind any newly implemented processes.

What can you do to engage employees in your BPR initiatives? Any sort of BPR effort can be a vast undertaking. When we consider the wider scope of what needs to be done to achieve any sort of success, the odds are stacked heavily against us at first glance. Overhauling a process from scratch is quite the effort, and can be disruptive to a huge chunk of any organization.

Thankfully, there are some practical strategies you can apply to better suit your needs when it comes to any sort of BPR efforts. Engaging employees, getting them to buy in, and fostering a community and culture centered around continuous improvement are going to be your best odds for success. So, let’s dive in and get started.

Communication

One of the big things around any sort of BPR initiatives is going to be maintaining consistent and open communication. Despite what we might think, your entire workforce isn’t going to be privy to the particulars. Further, they might have already been trained and onboarded for completely different workflows that are suddenly going away.

Any BPR effort can seem somewhat threatening at first glance, as the very nature of the work being done is called into question. However, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it allows you to more effectively communicate the intent and purpose behind any BPR initiative.

Getting your team to understand why is going to require clear, open, and honest communication. This isn’t the time to obfuscate or hide away the reasoning. Update your team, keep them in the loop, and allow space to ask questions.

Defining Why

One of the biggest things at the center of BPR initiatives is defining the reasoning behind the decision. While we certainly know that any effort is the result of some difficult decision-making, this might not immediately highlight why.

One powerful way you can define the why behind the decision is to hold a town hall. This opens the floor to questions, feedback, and even allows you to gather ideas from your team. The workforce is the lifeblood of any organization, and this is one vital way to promote engagement early in.

Involvement and Participation

There are quite a few ways to empower your employees when you get down to it. Creating the space and ability for them to collaborate is a fantastic means of fostering this sort of concept. Ideally, you’ll be running cross-functional teams, as this allows for a greater breadth of experience and perspective to take the reins when doing any sort of work.

Realistically, they should see who is being impacted by any of the BPR initiatives in your organization. BPR efforts aren’t going to solely impact one department or area, but rather the whole of the company. Workshops allow teams to generate and tackle challenges and issues that might arise, and can get your team on the path to a greater sense of involvement and ownership.

Process Owners

One of the most powerful ways you can handle navigating the change and uncertainty of any BPR initiatives is going to be designating process owners. A process owner is going to be tasked with the responsibility of managing, overseeing, and ultimately designing a new process. Further, you can take a process owner and let them understand the importance of improving and maintaining a process.

Training and Education

One of the most vital things to keep in mind with any BPR initiatives is the need for adequate training to manage the transition. Training is going to help you to identify any skill gaps or deficiencies in your current workforce, allowing teams to get on the path to better handling the implementation of new processes and the like.

Training and education are vital for the adoption of any new technologies, techniques, and tools you might be leveraging for the new process. If your workforce isn’t on board with the new techniques and tools, it is going to make things far more difficult to effectively manage.

Be Thorough

Before you start embarking on doing anything with your new processes, you want to identify any problem areas. It might be a painstaking process, but you’ll want to be as thorough as humanly possible. Taking the time and effort to make sure everyone is on the same page can be a pain in the neck, but it saves energy and frustration down the line when you’re looking at improving your new processes.

Leadership

Leadership is vital to the success of any new efforts, especially as you’re looking at any BPR initiatives. Your managers and leaders should be readily visible and available whenever problems might arise. As we’ve discussed with other approaches, any effort is aided by leadership adopting it from a top-down approach. As managers walk the walk, going beyond just talking the talk, they’re setting the groundwork for BPR initiatives to be truly successful.

Support as Needed

Teams should be provided with everything they need to succeed. Managers should provide all resources, materials, and training aids that might help with the ultimate success of any new projects. You’ll also want to make sure there is space in the budget to allow teams to explore the new process and get to know it. Reengineering any process is a time-consuming and costly endeavor; allowing management to provide the materials necessary for success is a drop in the bucket over the long haul.

Performance Management

Over time, you’ll want to take the time to gather data and metrics over the implementation of any reengineered processes. Data is crucial for measuring the efficacy of any new processes, and will allow you to see just how things are going with your new implementation. You’ll want to adjust any KPIs or metrics you have to allow for the freshly reengineered process, as you’ll likely have different goals and requirements when it comes to what you’re looking for.

Celebrate Wins

Any BPR initiatives can create a time where things are uncertain, frustrating, and ultimately difficult to navigate. Thankfully, that has an easy enough solution behind it. You can celebrate the wins, successes, and other triumphs, no matter how small. Employee recognition goes a long way toward aiding how employees engage with a newly designed or reengineered process. Further, you can implement rewards to promote more involved engagement while also improving morale on the whole.

Change Management

There is no getting around the difficult transition period of any BPR initiatives. You’re essentially disrupting the day-to-day operations of any organization for the intended purpose of creating a better-performing process. Effective change management strategies are going to aid the difficult transition period. Further, you can hear out the concerns about job security and assuage those fears for any employees are on the fence.

You’re going to be met with resistance; there’s no getting around that. Knowing how to navigate that difficult transition is going to be key for making sure you have real success over time. This is the time when you can highlight benefits and aid your team in adapting to the new requirements.

Guide the Transition

Offering up support systems, resources, and counselors to aid the process of transitioning is going to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to how you’re approaching any reengineered process. There is going to be a substantial upfront cost with any reengineering efforts, but you’re doing this for the sake of gaining better control over an inefficient or ineffective process.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

Looking for something else to go with your morning coffee? You might want to take a closer look at some of the top tools in use for Lean Six Sigma data visualization. It’s a crowded market, but understanding what works best for your organization can go a long way.

Additionally, you might benefit from learning how Hoshin Kanri can benefit your organization. We recently wrote up a piece focusing on how some of the top companies around the world are leveraging it, and you’ll likely find some inspiration from how top brands are using it.

Conclusion

Effectively navigating the changes and difficulties of any BPR initiatives can be a daunting task. However, you don’t have to go about it roughly; this can be a smooth, gradual transition when implementing some of the strategies we’ve discussed today. It pays to be careful, especially when you’re dealing with such a massive undertaking.