2023 Best Guide to Process Management: Examples and Benefits

Every business needs to complete repetitive tasks in order to continue operating.

Think of the quotes and invoices that need to be continuously sent out in order to receive payment for goods or services – the payment collection process. 

Think of all the paperwork, tasks, meetings, check-ins, and performance reviews that need to take place while welcome new team members – the employee onboarding process. 

Work involved in these processes is tedious and employees often brace themselves for how mind-numbing it will be. But it doesn’t have to be so depressing. 

Process management examples can guide employees through this work in a way that isn’t overwhelming or time-consuming. Here’s how: 

What is process management? 

Business process management (BPM) is a strategic approach to ensure business procedures are in place and run efficiently. The goal of process management is to align strategic goals with the way businesses perform their recurring work. 

Not to be confused with project management where focus is on a single project, process management examples handle repetitive tasks that are carried out regularly. Process management examples look at business processes, as a whole and individually. From here, managers plan to work towards a more streamlined organizational structure. 

The importance of effective process management

Effective process management isn’t only about creating actionable workflows that reflect repetitive work. It standardizes all forms of business operations to ensure that they are optimally run. 

When systematically implemented, process management can help companies reduce errors and time wasted on completing repetitive tasks and. Data loss and missed tasks can be prevented when there’s a process in place for stakeholders to follow. 

Challenges of process management 

Process management is all about co-ordinating various resources, tasks, deadlines, and packing this workload into a neat workflow. You’ll likely encounter these challenges if your process management strategy isn’t well-implemented: 

• Time management: You’ll possibly be late on deadlines if your resources aren’t well utilized. 
• Communication: Employees need detailed tasks and a good idea of the process management strategy in order to clearly understand what is expected of them. 
• Organizational agility: Outdated process information will make it difficult for businesses to adapt to any changes the organization might face. That’s why adaptive process management software is a must for bettering organizational agility. 
• Onboarding new employees: The onboarding process involves many different people and tasks, which can be challenging to keep track of. An effective process management system can help streamline the onboarding journey and make it more interactive to new employees. 

Real world process management examples

As I’ve mentioned before, process management needs to embody all aspects of business to be successful. Here are some examples of how business process management is implemented: 

Onboarding new employees

The onboarding process can be time-consuming and chaotic without a proper system in place. Documents, tasks, and paperwork can be completed and submitted electronically when companies implement a process management strategy. 

Effective process management software can be used to filter information, schedule interviews, send messages, and offer an overview of all onboarding tasks. 

Take a look at this employee onboarding example! 

Managing logistics 

Shipping companies often have to make their way through a complex chain of tasks to logistic plan out their shipments. These processes can often involve thousands of people and spread to various locations. 

Process management helps create a single source of truth that can be applied to each shipment to ensure consistent quality service. 

Production, quality control, finance, customer service, HR, and other departments are integrated into the process while data is centralized. This centralized database then makes for easy information sharing during each phrase of the shipping process. 

Processing loan applications

Processing any loans can be done in a shorter time with effective process management. Loan approved becomes more efficient when information is gathered and laid out in an actionable workflow. 

Tasks like document submission and risk and credit checks can be assigned to the right process stakeholders while information can be listed to ensure everyone knows how the work should be completed. Application tracking can also be used to ensure no bottlenecks arise while processing loan applications. 

Compliance management 

The goal of any process management is to standardize the way businesses run their operations. Compliance management involves recurring tasks that often need to be completed annually. 

By applying process management to compliance procedures, businesses can comply to the latest federal and state regulations while completing annual incident response tests, annual disaster recovery plan tests, and other security compliance plans.  

Take a look at this HACCP compliance example! 

Managing customer service 

Customer-centric operations can be documented in workflows. This ensures that procedures around customer interactions are standardized and consistent. 

This process documentation helps unify all departments and systems to ensure customer needs are met. 

Bottlenecks and a lack of transparency between different departments can be identified. Corrections can be made so that the buyer’s journey is streamlined, customized, and customer-focused.  

Take a look at this call center customer service example! 

How you can benefit from using process management

Effective process management will get you places! Here’s what you can expect to gain from implementing robust process management examples into your company: 

Increased productivity 

The goal of any process management strategy is to better utilize organizational resources and capital. This spreads to the human resources (your valuable employees). Effective process management examples empower your employees to work more transparently, which boosts productivity. 

Streamlined processes

To implement any process management examples, you need to define the tasks of each procedure and simplify operations around the entire process. Your procedures are then put into smooth and actionable steps, which you can run each time the process needs to be completed. This streamlines the process and improves your business agility. 

Reduced expenses

You no longer waste valuable time and resources, as these elements are all properly utilized and accounted for in well-designed process management examples. Any inefficiencies or bottlenecks (that cost you money) can be spotted and corrected. 

Integrating your process management plan with software

Like I said above, effective process management can be beneficial. But you can maximize these benefits by using process management software. With effective process management tools, you get to refine the work you do and streamline your experience. 

Automation opportunities can easily be identified within the software. You can set rules that ensure technology completes these recurring tasks and any data-entry work consistently and accurately. 

Analytics and other tracking capabilities allow managers to stay up to date with team progress while bottlenecks can be spotted quickly if there is a delay. Tasks and approvals can be assigned to a specific member of your team, which streamlines the entire process and provides maximum transparency.