Agent *reader*, I call upon you today as we’re at a time of crisis. Humans have annihilated 83% of all wild animals and are disrupting a natural climate balance, throwing us into a projected future that is 4.1 – 4.8°C (39.38 – 40.64 °F) warmer.

It’s our duty, as citizens, business owners, and employees to change the narrative for our children’s lives; to kickstart a transition into a more sustainable future, one that enriches biodiversity and a balanced climate. And for this, we turn our attention to sustainable cities.

According to the World Health Organization, the global world population living in urban areas is expected to increase to 66% by 2050, making cities a perfect place to transform society and support biodiversity and a balanced climate.

In this Process Street article, we’ll become time-travelers, zipping into the future to assess two separate predicted scenarios.

• Scenario 1: The continuation of human activity as normal.
• Scenario 2: Transforming into a more sustainable future, starting with our cities.

Today, we meet at a crossroad, where our future could go two ways. We’ll explore these two separate scenarios, before addressing the role of sustainable cities in creating a more desirable world. We’ll look at how businesses must adapt to survive in a future that is carbon-neutral with rich biodiversity.

After all, who wouldn’t want such a future?

• What are sustainable cities?
• Our future cities are sustainable
• Sustainable cities: Key takeaways for corporate sustainability

Seat belts on, time-machine ignited, to the future here we come!
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Yōkoso!

I apologize for my poor Japanse pronunciation. Pray, why am I speaking to you in Japanse?

Well, for this post, we will be delving into the Japanese mindset for business using Kata.

Kata is a methodology used to make businesses lean. The approach, originally used in martial arts, was developed by Japanese car manufacturer Toyota and has since stormed its way into the business realm churning out results, after results, after results.

For instance, Kata methodology has been shown to cut costs by 41%, and improve business performance by 75%.

I hear you, wow indeed!

In this Process Street article, we take a look at this karate concept and explain how to apply it in a business setting.

Click on the relevant subheader below to jump to your section of choice. Alternatively, scroll down and learn how to perfect the art of business.

• What is Kata?
• The benefits of Kata
• Kata examples from Toyota: Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata
• Implementing Kata: Putting Kata into practice the right way

Kiotsuke! Let’s get to it!
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70% of projects fail, and the cost of this failure is a staggering $50-75 million.

Project breakdown can be mitigated via a project charter, and in this article, we at Process Street will show you how.

By following our Project Charter Template, you will target project failure from the root. Our template will guide you through the recognized process needed for successful project completion.

Click here to access our Project Charter Template!

From this article, you will learn what a project charter is and why you need one. The key elements that make a successful project charter and how you can implement these elements using our free Project Charter Template.

Click on the relevant subheader below to jump to the section of choice. Alternatively, scroll down to read all we have to say regarding project charters.

• What is a project charter?
• Elements that make a good project charter
• Why do you need to create a project charter?
• Project charter examples: When projects go wrong and how a project charter could have helped

Let’s get started!
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This is a guest post by Jory MacKay. MacKay is a productivity obsessed writer and editor of the RescueTime blog. He loves to use data and storytelling to help people take back control of their time.

A recent survey of 850+ knowledge workers from around the world found that 92% of people regularly work on evenings and weekends. That’s a terrifying statistic. And while it’s easy to lay the blame on ballooning priorities and overwhelmed teammates, those are only a small part of a bigger problem.

Poor time management strategies seem to be the underlying issue, and in this Process Street article, we will explain how you can remedy this.

Our days have become cluttered with busywork, non-stop communication, and unclear priorities. We rarely have more than half an hour to focus on any one task at a time and so we end up taking our most important work home with us to make progress.

But as study after study has shown, we need to be able to disconnect from the workday to stay happy, healthy, and productive.

So how can you help your team take back control of their time, make meaningful progress on important work, and still punch out at the end of the day? It comes down to a combination of using the right data and adopting effective time management strategies.

In this article, we will cover:

• Time management strategies and how to prioritize your time with Process Street
• Team time management: The perfect storm of busy work and bias that eats up your team’s time
• How to improve personal productivity and track where your time goes
• 5 time management techniques: Ways to give your team more time each day

Let’s jump straight to it!
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This is a guest post by Tom Siani, an online marketing expert with up to 4 years of experience in the digital industry. He is also collaborating with some well-known brands to generate traffic, create a sales funnel, and increase online sales. He has written a considerable number of articles about marketing via social media, brand marketing, blogging, and search visibility.

With over 50% of the world’s population using social media, a number that is only increasing, you can see how social media marketing is critical for reaching potential customers and driving sales.

With this in mind, in this Process Street article we look at how you can improve your social media marketing strategy to get ahead of the game. Specifically, we turn our attention to social media marketing automation.

We’ll explain the advantages of using social media marketing automation as part of your social media marketing strategy, in addition to presenting you with our top 5 social media marketing automation tools you can sign up and use today. Sound good?

But wait there is more!

To kick-off this article, I present Process Street as your critical social media marketing accomplice.

At Process Street, we have been working hard to provide you with practical template tools to assist you in delivering an optimal social media marketing strategy.

These template resources are listed below. Click on the links provided to jump straight in. Alternatively, scroll down to find out more.

• Buffers Social Media Etiquette Checklist
• Social Listening Strategy Process Checklist
• Social Media Image Design
• Social Media Influencer Outreach Checklist
• Social Media Manager Daily Checklist
• Social Media SLA Management Checklist Template
• Social Media SLA Metric Tracking Process Template

If you want to jump to a specific section in this article, click on the relevant subheader below. If not, continue scrolling!

• Use a social media marketing checklist
• Social media marketing automation: What is it, and the benefits of automation
• 5 Top social media marketing tools

Let’s get started!
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“They’re going to lose their houses, they’re going to lose their jobs…this is like, the end of capitalism, this is like the dark ages all over again” – The Big Short

Debuting in 2015, The Big Short is an American comedy-based drama showcasing the 2007-2008 financial crisis. I remember watching the movie, in quiet disbelief that a financial failure of such magnitude slipped through all areas of caution, potential management, and mitigation.

The 2008 financial crisis was the result of unsuccessful systemic risk management.

A crisis that the Federal Reserve Board estimated to have cost every single American ~$70,000.

For me, this single example communicates the importance of understanding, managing, and mitigating systemic risk items. With that in mind, we begin this article on systemic risk.

In this Process Street article, we will explain what systemic risk is and how it differs from conventional risk. You are given tips to help you identify prevailing systemic risks so you can be proactive, plan for, and manage these risks for your business and line of work.

Before concluding the article, we acknowledge climate change as a potent systemic risk that urgently needs to be addressed and managed. For this, we give you free template resources, uniquely designed to support the movement towards business sustainability. A movement that runs hand-in-hand with carbon footprint reduction.

Click on the relevant subheader below to jump to that section. Alternatively, scroll down to read all we have to say about systemic risk.

• Risk management: Conventional risk vs systemic risk
• Systemic risk: An explanation for the concept
• Systematic risk: The difference and its relation to systemic risk
• Systemic risk examples
• Identifying systemic risk elements: Too big to fail, too interconnected to fail
• Systemic risk mitigation: Approaches to managing systemic risk
• Global systemic risks of today, a new challenge
• Climate change as a systemic risk
• Using Process Street to become more sustainable, mitigating against climate change

Let’s get started!
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“The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement” – Helmut Schmidt

Only 4% of businesses measure and manage their processes. Process improvements are impossible with stats like that.

Why, when doing so provides an avenue for continuous improvement, advancement, and business success?

At Process Street, documenting our processes means we can continuously assess what is working and what is not.

For instance, when I first began as a Content Writer, I found navigating HTML code difficult. Luckily for me, at Process Street we document all of our business processes, creating full transparency over what works and what doesn’t. In this sense, a stronger HTML focus was needed during training. The required changes were made, and our training resulted in major process improvements.

In this article, you will find out how you can do the same. You will learn how to:

• Identify opportunities for process improvements.
• Implement the changes required.
• Measure the success of the changes made.

Think of this article as your ultimate toolkit, to make continuous process improvements in your business. We provide you with 17 free templates, to support you in improving your processes. Click on the links below to jump to the relevant template.

• Business Requirements Template
• SIPOC Template
• SWOT Analysis Template
• FMEA Template: Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Template
• SOAP Note Template
• HACCP Process checklist
• HAZOP Process checklist
• Lewin’s Change Management Model
• Bridges Transition Model Process Checklist
• ADKAR Model Change Management Process Checklist
• McKinsey 7-S Model Process Checklist
• Kotter’s Change Management Model Checklist
• Kubler Ross Change Curve Change Management Model
• Nudge Theory Change Management Model Process
• PDCA Change Management Model Process Checklist
• Satir Change Management Model Process Checklist

Or, if you just can’t wait, check out the first of our templates below to see what we’ll be giving you!

We begin this article by explaining exactly what we mean by the term process improvement, and identifying the three steps you should follow to effectively improve processes in your business. The templates provided above have been carefully designed to assist you with each step.

Click on the relevant subheader below to jump to the appropriate section, alternatively scroll down to read all we have to say.

• What do we mean by the term process improvement?
• Process improvements, step 1: Identifying business opportunities for improvement
• Using process documentation as a business opportunity
• Process improvements, step 2: Implementing changes
• Process improvements, step 3: Measuring the impact of change

Let’s get started!
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As I stood, staring at my big toe which had somehow poked its way through a layer of polyester, it occurred to me that:

1. These 2-month-old running shoes definitely needed to be disposed of.
2. I will not be buying from this poor quality brand again.

In this scenario, I had fallen victim to poor quality control measures.

Purchasing a pair of running shoes not robust enough to meet my needs meant I, as a consumer, was not satisfied and did not repeat my custom with the given brand.

This reaction is to be expected.

A study by Psomas et al, detailed on Emerald Insights, concluded that effective quality control measures, in the form of Quality Management Systems (QMS systems), directly improve employee benefits, business performance, and customer satisfaction.

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives” – William A Foster, Forbes Quotes

In this Process Street article, we take a look at what quality control is, and how you can implement effective quality control processes in your business today.

You will be presented with 19 free templates, ready and waiting to be used right away. These templates will help you build and audit your QMS systems, to meet the needs of key stakeholders in your business.

1. ISO 9001:2015 Internal Audit Checklist for Quality Management Systems
2. Financial Audit Checklist
3. Environmental Accounting Internal Audit
4. Environmental Management Self Audit Checklist
5. Management Systems Audit Checklist
6. ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 Integrated Management System (IMS) Checklist
7. PPC Audit Checklist
8. Google Analytics Audit
9. Technical SEO Audit
10. UX Audit
11. ISO 27001 Information Security Management System (ISO27K ISMS) Audit Checklist
12. SQL Server Audit Checklist
13. Firewall Audit Checklist
14. Network Security Audit Checklist
15. ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Audit Checklist
16. Diversity Management Monthly Audit
17. Hotel Sustainability Audit
18. Laboratory Safety Procedure Audit
19. Retail Store Audit Checklist

Sound good?

Click on the relevant subheader below to jump to that section, alternatively, scroll down to read all I have to say.

• What is quality control?
• Create your quality control systems in Process Street
• Audits: What are they and why they are needed for quality control
• Audit processes: Incorporating audit processes into a QMS

Let’s begin!
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This is a guest post by Derek Jones from Deputy, a global workforce management platform for employee scheduling, timesheets, and communication. With a focus on Emerging Retail, Derek helps business owners and workforce leaders simplify employment law compliance, keep labor costs in line, and build award-winning workplaces. Derek has over 16 years’ experience in delivering data-driven sales and marketing strategies to SaaS companies like MarketSource and Griswold Home Care.

One of the many factors that can help guarantee the success and growth of a business today is employee performance.

Most organizations know this. Therefore, they want employees that are as efficient as possible. However, that is easier said than done, especially in industries where activities often run at odd hours or even 24/7.

For such industries (like healthcare, hospitality, and retail in particular), one of the most important things they’ll need to manage is shift work scheduling.

Through optimization, the task of scheduling shift work will have a structure to minimizes employee burnout and improve overall performance.

Employees that work in an enabling environment have a higher chance to properly complete all important tasks – on schedule.

In view of that, in this Process Street article, we will:

• Discuss some of the issues and challenges that surround shift work.
• Take a look at up-to-date research regarding employee performance.
• Summarize 3 shift-work goals you can incorporate to optimize your shift work schedule.
• Give top tips on shift work scheduling to maximize employee productivity and retention.

Click on the relevant subheaders below to jump to that section, alternatively scroll down to read all, and find out how you can optimize your shift work schedules today!

• Schedule optimization: Using BPM in shift work
• Shift work scheduling: The top 3 shift work issues
• How do common shift work issues impact employee performance?
• Schedule optimization: 3 goals to optimize your shift schedule
• Shift work scheduling: Scheduling tips and tricks for shift work

Let’s jump right to it!
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This is a guest post by Angelina harper, a tech writer at Really Simple Systems interested in cloud technology, digital marketing, and ephemeral content. You can find her most beloved articles on her Twitter account.

Thanks to the realization that retaining existing customers is five times less expensive than obtaining new ones, businesses began exploring ways to improve the success rate of their customer interactions. This is termed customer success. What we wanted to find out is: How do you optimize customer success?

To answer this, we turn our attention to SaaS (Software as a Service) tools, begging the question: What are the top SaaS customer success tools out there?

SaaS customer success tools are an integral component of the modern business tech stack. These tools enable a business to understand what their customers want in terms of service, so they can provide it in an automatic fashion via the tool.

Customer success tools generate positive customer experiences at scale. SaaS companies often need to scale their customer success operations, and their software solutions should reflect this.

With that being said, customer success is a relatively new concept, and many businesses are still learning how to tackle it effectively.

In this Process Street article, we will present you with our top 5 customer success SaaS tools. But before all of that, let’s find out exactly what customer success is and why it is important:

• What is customer success?
• Customer success best practices
• How to improve your customer success process?
• SaaS tools: The most efficient customer success tools

Let’s get started! Continue Reading