Vendors in the market are increasingly encouraging their clients to develop “flexible” back-office operations, whereby work moves seamlessly between teams based on capacity, rather than based on narrowly defined team functions. Indeed, there are several advantages to adopting flexible work teams, and companies that successfully implement this resourcing strategy have much to gain.
Executives seeking process improvement are adopting BPM solutions in ever-increasing numbers to help automate complex back-office workflows. The promise of streamlined operations is compelling, with BPM solutions offering a sophisticated array of capabilities well-suited to the back office.
Early on in our engagements, the most common fear clients express is fear of publishing individual efficiency results. “We haven’t had positive experiences with displaying employees’ scores before,” is the concern typically voiced.
Employee engagement is a powerful driver of business success. Data from companies across sectors and around the world show just how large an impact engagement makes, and what a competitive advantage it can provide.
An agile back office that can quickly respond to opportunities and threats – what an enticing vision! But how can large companies put this vision into practice and become truly agile?
Vendors in the market are encouraging their clients to implement “blended work teams”, whereby relatively straightforward transactions from the back-office are moved and processed by Contact Center staff during quieter periods.
In many industries,there is an incredible amount of latent capacity that is wasted in the back- and middle-office on a daily basis. This fact is routinely overlooked by the majority of C-suite executives, who are unable to see the extent of unused capacity so deeply hidden within their organizations.
Lured by the prospect of major costs savings and productivity improvements, executives eagerly proceed with Lean or Six Sigma projects. The reality, however, is that most Lean implementations fail to produce the desired results, especially in white collar environments.
Most white collar organizations rely on average processing times to underpin their benchmarks and performance standards. In fact, the use of “averages” in calculating benchmarks is so prevalent and widespread in the white collar environment that executives frequently fail to grasp the serious consequences of using this approach.