3 Strategies to Overcome the Never-Ending Paper Chase
July 21, 2018 | 1807 Views
How many of you are experiencing growing pains? Moving from a small to mid-size company to rapidly building out multiple locations each year? My current growing pain is capturing never ending “tribal knowledge,” information passed down from person to person, which gets diluted over time. My department’s job is to dig into “what do our team members know in our Legacy locations” (that is not found in ANY type of training material) versus “what our team members know in our newest locations.” We strive for what we call “One Habit, One Sound.”
As I continue on my quest for “1H,1S,” I have a few best practices to share with you.
1. Go Digital
Dump your paper manuals, tests, guides, etc. and go digital. When food and beverage, risk, operations, or human resources request to make a change in your training materials, you can make changes instantly. Make sure to have a process in place to notify all stakeholders when these changes have occurred to ensure it gets to the end user. If you currently have a learning management system, updates will also be made instantly.
2. Use a Project Management System
I am a big fan of Teamwork. Other departments within our company use Trello and Asana. It doesn’t matter which system you use, just use one! Tracking where changes need to be made has a domino effect and can be overwhelming. One simple change in cheese used on a Charburger can lead to changes in over a dozen documents.
3. Establish a Version Control System
Establish and maintain a consistent version control system. Everyone in your department needs to use the same system. Don’t delete your last version, archive it in some way. You never know when you will get the question, “Hey, what date did we make that change…” This can definitely help you in a sticky situation. Where possible, delegate one person to make the actual changes.
Consistency in following standards and executing correct procedures is crucial to providing a great work experience for your team members and an even better experience for your guests.