The larger an organization gets, the more complex it is. More people pulling in different directions creates bottlenecks and slows down an organization’s productivity.

Ideally, human resource departments should be the ones that keep everyone working toward the same goals. Unfortunately, for many companies, HR isn’t working.

According to McKinsey’s 2012 State of Human Capital Report:

• 42% of HR professionals are not taking action against priority areas;
• 65% of HR professionals are not pursuing innovative approaches;
• and 68% don’t have confidence in their strategy.

That’s why, in this Process Street article, we’re going to take this problem seriously and look at:

• What is human resource management?
• The 12 primary focus areas for human resource management
• Automation & data-driven HR
• Modern process management for modern human resources

Let’s get to it.
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As we’ll see, certain elements which we consider part of the normal workplace are being abandoned by experimenting companies in favor of new models.

But why are they being abandoned?

For some, it’s about reducing overhead. For others, it’s about finding new ways to combat the traditional problems a growing company faces. It could be about opening up a broader talent pool, increasing adaptability, or navigating uncertain economic environments.

The ultimate goal is to make the company more successful.

Here at Process Street, we have our own thoughts on that looming forebearer, hierarchical structure, so we thought we’d check out what the Jones’s are up to. This post will look at the organizational structure of four of the most successful startups out there and why they’ve opted to make the long-established hierarchical structure on its head.

• The rise and fall of flat organizational structures
• The Process Street path
• Create the right organizational structure for your business

Let’s get to it.
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Content marketing is definitely in the top 3 spammiest areas of marketing.

Not a day goes by where someone isn’t trying to get me to link to their dodgy looking website or sending me nonsense.

In some cases you just have to respect the hustle. I know the article I was pitched yesterday wasn’t written by “John Smith” because the use of English in the title didn’t make sense. If you’re a non-native English speaker though, you often need to take those risks. I’d do the same.

But content marketing isn’t all spam and nonsense.

Lots of places do great content that’s high quality and produces loads of value for their audience. Outreach, relationship building, and collaborations aren’t always tacky either – they can be great ways to co-create content; media content being a really useful avenue for this.

We’ve created the best process management content on the web for a good while, and people come to us as a trusted source on other areas like onboarding, HR, operations, ISO, and customer success. That stuff, we’re good at.

The second part, though, is something we’ve been working on doing better.

In this Process Street article, I’ll explain how and why we moved to a co-marketing focus to support our SEO and business goals, including:

• Why not just backlink build and guest post?
• How is our relationship management system set up?
• We’re seeing results and our flow is much smoother

Let’s jump right in!
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Writing standard operating procedures is a cumbersome task but a serious requirement for businesses the world over.

In many industries it is important to have documentation which shows you have been adhering to ISO guidelines. This can help you clinch major clients and demonstrate your professionalism.

However, when you’re starting out with your first SOPs it can be difficult to know where to begin.

That’s why we’ve pulled together a range of the best free SOP templates for you to work from.

Simply go through the available SOPs below and pick out the one best suited to your needs. We’ve included Microsoft Word templates and Process Street ones too. You’ll also find a guide for writing SOPs to help you get started.

Given that it can be intimidating writing standard operating procedures, we have provided a number of industry-specific examples plus suggestions for how you can pull together basic SOPs even if they’re not documented according to ISO standards.

Read through the following sections to get completely clued up:

• Process Street helps you effortlessly manage your SOP templates
• Our Process Street SOP template for creating procedures
• Writing standard operating procedures in 16 steps
• Using Process Street for your SOPs
• Process Street SOP templates for every industry and sector
• Free Microsoft Word templates to build your SOPs
• More NHS standard operating procedure templates
• Risk assessment SOP templates to review your procedures
• Pick the right SOP template and get started

Let’s dive in.
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I hate email.

Who really likes answering emails? You get into work, switch everything on, and right off the bat there’s an inbox full of company memos, check-ins from your line manager, updates from colleagues, reminders for meeting after meeting after meeting…

It’s not a great way to start the day, amiright?

Well – and I am totally going to gloat about this – that’s just not how we roll at Process Street. If you’ve hung around us for five minutes, you’re probably aware that we are Slack superfans here on the Street. All of our company communication happens through Slack, and it’s been life-changing.

I’m not just saying this to stir up envy, though. Being such Slack aficionados, we’ve figured out how to use Slack features to increase productivity, improve collaboration, and just plain make our day-to-day easier.

I’ve broken them down into three easy sections, so no matter your level, you can jump straight to the tips you need – and hey, no one’s gonna judge if you want a little refresher!

• How to use Slack 101: Back to basics
• Taking it to the next level: Slack tips for the already initiated
• Expert tips for the Slack-savvy

Ready to dive in?
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For sales professionals today, only 34% of their time is spent selling.

This begs the question, what are they doing for the remaining 66% of the time?

Sales teams struggling to keep up with data entry, quote generation, and other tasks drag sales reps away from potential leads. As such, 54% are expected to miss their quotas every year.

What you need are optimized sales processes that outline the best sale practices drawing from up-to-date research and findings.

This is where Process Street comes to save the day.

In this article, you’ll find 20 structured sales processes based on industry best practices which you can access for free. Simply click Edit Checklist to add any process to your Process Street account, so you can start supercharging your sales process today!

For a quick taster, check out our MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template below:

Click here to get our MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template!

You can click on the relevant link below to jump to your template of choice.

• The MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template
• Sales Training Process Checklist
• Weekly Sales Prospecting Checklist
• Cold Calling Checklist
• BANT Sales Qualification Call Process
• Sales Presentation Template
• Sales Pitch Planning Checklist
• Closing The Sale Checklist
• Order Processing Checklist
• Monthly Sales Report
• Churn Prevention Checklist
• Cold Email Checklist for Sales
• Company Research Checklist
• High Touch Client Onboarding for SaaS Companies
• Investor Pitch
• Sales Competitive Analysis Checklist
• Sales Forecasting Checklist
• Sales Onboarding Checklist
• Sales Service Handoff Process
• Upselling Process for SaaS Companies

Click on the subheader below to jump to the relevant section, alternatively scroll down to find out all we have to say and perfect your sales processes.

• Sales processes: What they are and why it is important to have established sales processes
• Our top 20 free sales processes
• A quick tour of Process Street and the benefits of using our sales processes

With that said, let’s get started!
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Design is one of those tricky areas of business which some people seem innately good at and others are terrible.

But effective design is crucial to business success.

Here are two key statistics from Adobe which demonstrate how vital design is for your business:

• Design-driven companies have outperformed the S&P Index by 219% over 10 years
• Companies that foster creativity enjoy 1.5x greater market share

In the modern digital arena, customers and users expect excellent design and usability more than ever. Poorly designed websites will put customers off or fail to convert those customers who see past the poor layout. Design thinking is business thinking.

For instance, think of any marketing campaign you’ve run. The choice of the images, the font, the location of your call to action are all defined by thinking in terms of design.

For this reason, in this Process Street article, we give you free access to our top 11 design processes and checklists. Simply click on the links below and be directed to your template of choice.

• Web Design Process
• UX Design Process
• Brand Identity Design
• Header Design
• Engineering Design Process
• Graphic Design Process
• Logo Design Process
• Animation Design Process
• Blog Image Design Process
• Graphic Design Approval Checklist
• Social Media Image Design

Even websites which appear on the surface to be poorly designed, like Craigslist or Reddit, work because the user experience they provide is one that resonates with the user. A solid design creates more than just conversions, it can create brand loyalty too – keeping your customers coming back for more.

Click on the subheader below to navigate to the relevant section in this article. Alternatively, scroll down for a thorough overview of our top 11 design checklists.

• Our top 11 design checklists covering design’s vital areas
• How to create your design processes and checklists using Process Street

Let’s jump to it!
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Understanding quality and seeking to improve it is arguably the core purpose behind undertaking process improvements.

But where did this philosophy of process improvement come from?

One key person is William Edwards Deming – sometimes referred to as Edward W. Deming. He’s principally a statistician, but one could even call him a philosopher of science.

Deming’s goal was to reapply the scientific method to business processes, and has left us with two main variants of his thinking: PDSA and PDCA.

In this article we’ll outline:

• What the Deming cycle is, with its history
• How to apply the Deming cycle to improve your business processes
• The important distinction between PDSA and PDCA
• How PDSA is employed in the medical field

Deming’s approach is not just about improving processes, but about improving a whole business.

In a recent meta-study from the British Medical Journal, researchers found only 2 out of 73 studies had applied PDSA in a way which fully met criteria. Commenting:

To progress the development of the science of improvement, a greater understanding of the use of improvement methods, including PDSA, is essential to draw reliable conclusions about their effectiveness.

And that’s why we’re writing this article!

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🟢✅ Bonus material: SOP Structure Template to help you write perfect procedures

Whether you’re starting a business or trying to improve an existing one, you have to understand how things are going to get done.

What tasks do you need to do? Who needs to do them? What are the best ways to approach these tasks?

Working out how these questions can be answered is the first step toward systemizing your business. The creation of processes and workflows will define the way in which your day to day activities function.

One popular approach to this is the creation of standard operating procedures. The simple definition provided by IBM for standard operating procedures is:

…a set of instructions that describes all the relevant steps and activities of a process or procedure.

Simple.

But how do we create these SOPs? What we need are standard operating procedures for creating standard operating procedures – and some standard operating procedure software. And that’s what we’re going to give you.

We’ll look at:

• How to create a set of standard operating procedures
• Some advanced techniques for improving your SOPs
• Why Process Street is a useful tool for both mapping and following your standard operating procedures

Read through these sections to get clued up:

• Use Process Street to manage your standard operating procedures
• Writing standard operating procedures: a quick how-to guide
• Step 1: Understand how you are going to present your SOPs
• Step 2: Gather the relevant stakeholders
• Step 3: Work out your purpose
• Step 4: Determine the structure of your SOP
• Step 5: Prepare the scope of the procedure
• Step 6: Use a consistent style
• Step 7: Use correct notation, if applicable
• Step 8: Work out all the necessary steps of the process
• Step 9: Try to assess potential problems in the process
• Step 10: Determine metrics against which the SOPs can be judged
• Step 11: Test the process
• Step 12: Send the process to superiors
• Step 13: Clarify the method of optimizing the process
• Step 14: Run a risk assessment on your process
• Step 15: Consider creating a flow diagram
• Step 16: Finalize and implement the SOPs
• Examples of Process Street’s fully-written and usable SOPs
• Ensure your SOPs adhere to ISO standards

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This is a guest article by Alexa Lemzy – customer support manager and blog author at TextMagic, a bulk SMS solution for business. She helps businesses take advantage of mobile and spends hours reading tons of content about customer retention and business workflows.

Modern consumers are used to having the option to contact businesses on social media and other public forums as well as traditional contact methods. What’s more, customers are sharing their opinions and interactions across the internet and social media more than ever. Today, customer service is a major part of your brand image.

This has blurred the lines between marketing and customer service. Consumers want your business to be consistent from marketing and sales to customer support.

Great customer service is also an effective form of marketing, keeping existing users loyal and attracting new leads.

Strengthening the relationship between marketing and customer service can have a big impact on customer satisfaction. By creating processes for collaboration and feedback, you can increase retention while attracting new clients.

In this article for Process Street, we’re going to look at a series of factors which you have to get right to provide a unified marketing and customer service strategy:

• Customer service reps act as brand ambassadors
• Bring customer support into your social media strategy
• Gain product marketing insights from customer service integration
• Excellent customer service is an underrated marketing channel
• Holistic approaches to customer interactions means consistent communication
• Keep customer service in the loop with marketing promotions
• Better inform your audience personas
• Get content ideas and inspiration direct from customer needs
• Understand whether you’re setting the right expectations
• Improve your customer service strategy with Process Street

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