Business process management is an excellent way to keep your business organized and running efficiently, but BPM implementation can still create problems along the way. The most common business process management challenges are not just software issues. They happen when people misunderstand the system, do not buy into it, forget steps under pressure, or assume responsibility belongs to the process instead of a person.
It is important to recognize what can occur so you can create an environment that prevents those problems from happening. Here are four general problems with business process management, plus practical ways to counter them before they spread through the business.
Business process management does not solve the problem
Remember, business process management is not the solution by itself. It is a tool to assist in solving problems, such as an employee forgetting to follow up with a client after a product or service has been delivered. The BPM system can make the follow-up visible, assign it, and remind the owner, but the business still needs a clear process for when that follow-up should happen and who is responsible for it.
Use BPM as the system it was meant to be. If employees use the system and follow each step every time, they get accustomed to the workflow and commit fewer errors. If the underlying process is unclear, the system will only make that confusion easier to see. Fix the process, then use BPM to make the right behavior repeatable.
Employees do not buy into the system
You may add new employees to your company who think the BPM system is absurd, unnecessary, or simply not how the work should be done. That does not mean the system should be abandoned. It means employee buy-in and change management need to be part of the BPM implementation from the start.
The answer is rarely to fire people and find other employees. Talk to them about the system and figure out how they think you can improve it. You may not implement all the changes they suggest, but it shows that you will consider their opinion. That matters because people are more likely to follow a process when they understand why it exists and have had a chance to improve the way it works.
Under stress, employees ignore or forget the processes
You may see employees under stress because they are trying to meet a deadline for you, for a client, or for someone else, and then they forget a step in the process. This can be difficult when your work environment requires strict deadlines, but it is also one of the clearest signs that process adherence has not been designed deeply enough into the work.
One solution may be to plan more efficiently and give employees more time to complete their projects. If you cannot negotiate with clients on extending deadlines, communicate with your employees and help them adjust their schedule so they can complete the project in a timely manner without having to stress and forget steps. The stronger long-term answer is to put the important checks where the work happens: clear tasks, due dates, approvals, and automation that make the next step obvious when the team is busy.
Lack of assigned responsibility
This problem occurs when employees see the problem or task assigned to the system rather than to themselves. They think, “It is the system, not me, that is not working. The system is faulty and needs to be fixed.” This can be the case, of course, but it may not be. If the system has a previous history of success, the error is most likely human rather than the process.
You should ensure that your system assigns responsibility to individual people, so they know that if something goes wrong, they will be held accountable. Every important task should have a named owner, a due date, and a record of completion. That is how BPM shifts from documentation to process ownership: the work is visible, the owner is clear, and the business can see where a handoff or approval is stuck before it becomes a larger operations problem.
There are several other problems you may run into with business process management in your business. The best thing to do is recognize these as common problems, decide how you are going to prevent them from happening, and handle them as operating signals when they occur.
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