We all create certain routines in order to be more effective and efficient.  They can be personal or professional. A personal one could be your morning routine – wake, shower, coffee, and then the family wakes up (yes this is mine). A professional one can be to review your to-do list each morning, go through emails, and meet with your team.

The question becomes, are your routines still serving you? For example – annual performance reviews. Many times this is a routine company’s complete each year like clock work. It starts like this, send email to all informing them “it’s review time”, managers and employees collectively grunt, everyone tries to avoid doing it, more emails about due dates, and eventually each person goes through it reluctantly. Process done and forgotten until next year.

Why?

“We have always done it this way?”

Ok, however is it still serving you? Is the time and energy put into the process giving you desirable results? Is it moving the company forward? Is it developing your employees? If you answer “no” to at least one of these – time to reconsider or modify. There are good alternatives depending on what you are trying to achieve.

What other routines do you have that are not achieving the results you desire? Take a look around and ask yourself “What does this accomplish?” or “Am I getting the results I want?”

If you are not sure which routines or processes may be hampering the businesses, ask your newest employees. These are the folks who will most likely question processes/procedures that don’t make sense. A fresh pair of eyes can open up a lot of possibilities.

Also take a look at your bottlenecks – the one point where everything seems to come to a screeching halt. What is the cause? What modifications need to be made?

Remember you don’t have to have the answers. Work with those closest to the situation and give them the responsibility to find a solution.

Unsure about your HR routines? Get in touch – we have can review your processes.  Reach us at [email protected] or 773.531.8199.