5 Benefits of Formalizing and Digitalizing Your Management System

For the purpose of this article, a management system is defined as the sum of all systems, principles and rules of an organization whether they have been documented or not. Getting these rules, principles and processes onto paper or saved on a file server is one step toward formalization, however, in today’s dynamic operating environment, paper and file server documentation have a very short lifespan. Documents quickly become relics, are forgotten or unknown to most of the organization and do not represent reality. Enter: software. The term “management system” is often used synonymously with software. Software, however, simply represents a single step toward the digitalization of the management system.

One key word in the management system definition is “all”. There are lots of moving parts within an organization that all need to sync together to achieve the best outcome. If only certain parts of an organization formalize and digitalize their parts of the system, silos begin to form, and corporate-wide alignment and communication breaks down. Bringing environmental, quality, safety and energy management systems under one roof leads to the creation of an integrated management system. One key ingredient to management systems are the people within the organization. A system lives and dies by the active use of the formalized and digitalized rules, processes, and principles by all employees. Interaction is key.

An interactive integrated management system can therefore be seen as a documentation and communication hub for an organization. It is a one-stop-shop for information seekers, communication lovers and knowledge owners within the organization. Formalizing, digitalizing, and encouraging engagement with a management system is however only the beginning of the journey and represents an ongoing process.

The efforts taken toward creating an interactive integrated management system are rewarded with numerous benefits. Here are 5:

1. Increased Transparency

Formalizing and digitalizing a management system brings clarity to an organization. Role management, organigrams, goals, vision and mission statements all represent important aspects of an organization. Preparing and documenting this information in an easy to consume manner helps bring transparency to the organization. Understanding who is responsible for what, goes a long way in reducing confusion and conflicts. When top management is transparent with its goals and vision, it encourages communication and knowledge sharing within the overall culture.

Furthermore, when documenting processes and rules, it is important to do so in a drill-down manner. Every worker within the organization should be able to find the level of detail needed to complete a task and be successful. This level of transparency encourages knowledge sharing amongst employees and enables all workers to efficiently and reliably complete tasks.

2. Happier, more engaged employees

Have you heard of the “great resignation”? It has also been called “the Big Quit” and refers to a current trend in which workers have elected to resign from their jobs in droves. This trend started sometime in early 2021 and companies are still feeling the impact today. The reasons behind these resignations vary, but include a feeling of disrespect at work, lack of motivation, toxic work cultures and a missing sense of meaning or purpose. In summary, people are unhappy. As stated previously, increasing transparency can go a long way toward solving this problem, but much more can be done.

One option is to decentralize process and task documentation. Make true knowledge experts responsible for specific sections of the management system. Encourage participation within the organizational culture. Providing employees with the opportunity to share their knowledge and firsthand experience from the trenches will help provide that critical sense of purpose within the organization. It gives employees a sense of ownership and a place in the bigger picture.

3. Efficient onboarding

We do not get a second chance to make a first impression. Drawing on the previous point of the great resignation, an employment relationship is a two-way street and employers are currently fighting to fill vacancies and retain the new workers they hire. One way this can be accomplished is through a successful onboarding process. A clear, well documented onboarding process is especially important for companies in a growth phase. Making new employees feel welcome, ensuring all IT requirements are filled, and equipping them with all the resources needed to be successful will go a long way toward building a sustainable employment relationship.

Turnover happens. Employees come and go. Losses for an organization can be minimized with a well-documented onboarding process within a digitalized interactive integrated management system.

4. The right information in the right place at the right time

Has anyone reading this article ever gone to the local file server and searched for the latest version of a certain document, let’s say an export declaration for a specific country, and the files look something like this?:

While one could be the right version, it is certainly difficult to tell which one it is, especially for new employees. Two files in the example were saved on the same day. As it turns out, the final export declaration files are not found in the “export” folder, rather in the “final” folder. If only a handful of people know this and it is not documented anywhere, that newly onboarded employee is in danger of using the wrong form.

While the file server is an example of “digitalization” it is certainly a long way away from an integrated interactive management system. Implementing a software program allows for the automatic versioning and archiving of old files, ensuring all members in the organization are following the right processes and using the right files in daily business operation. Most importantly, having a well-structured and up to date digitalized management system allows for the reduction of search times.

5. Audit and certification preparedness

Who has experienced stress before an audit? Or perhaps invested hours upon hours into readying an organization for a certification, such as ISO 27001 or ISO 9001? Stress and a feeling of unpreparedness before an audit or certification are symptoms of the management system vicious cycle. All too often, there are discrepancies between documentation and reality. Due to these discrepancies, the management system is rarely used and as usage drops, system updates continue to decrease and the gap between theory and reality continues to grow. However, when it comes time for an audit or certification, these gaps must be accounted for, and this is usually time consuming, stressful, and very frustrating.

All too often, processes and work descriptions are documented in a way that meets the requirements of a norm or standard but miss badly on the reality of the process flow and shop floor experience. A much better solution is to document existing processes and rules as close to reality as possible in an interactive system and create a correlation matrix between processes and norm or audit requirements. This allows for the identification of gaps and the real-time adjustment of processes. Decentralizing this task to process experts and allowing the entire team to create discussions around an existing process will help keep the documentation up to date and the organization ready for its next audit or certification.

Closing thoughts

The benefits listed above can only be realized with an interactive integrated management system. Therefore, next to formalization, the digitalization aspect is a major key to success. There is no getting around using a software tool to create such a system, however, the software is simply the vehicle. The employees must be in the driver’s seat helping to navigate toward the successful implementation of a living, breathing, truly successful interactive integrated management system. Gone are the days of dusty handbooks. It is time to create a participatory culture and bring life to our management systems.

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