How to get a handle on employee tasks

There are always things in the office that are "common knowledge," meaning not documented or readily accessible, such as the "proper" way to answer the phone or complete a sales order.

Or perhaps there's a certain employee who everyone turns to when they need help completing a tricky project or task; someone who prides him or herself on being the office's "go-to" person.

These are examples of tribal knowledge, a concept that the valuable information regarding a business's day-to-day operations is stored in employee's heads rather than on paper or electronically.

Tribal knowledge is cancerous for any business or organization because it creates operational inefficiencies. One way to eliminate tribal knowledge is to document your organization's processes. Many organizations lack formal knowledge management systems and processes to identify, capture and share critical data relating to critical daily operations.

Having documented procedures in place increases the value of your business because it means that your business can continue to be profitable even if you are not there. Many business owners procrastinate when it comes to documentation and succession planning, if they bother with it at all.

It becomes more difficult to hire and replace employees or sell your business if all of your day-to-day processes are in your employees' heads. Likewise, it's unwise to have one person perform many essential tasks because it would be costly if that key employee left your organization or became incapacitated. A lack of documentation could cause you and your other employees to waste time scrambling to figure out how to perform that employee's job or, even worse, could halt your business from functioning entirely.

Procedures documentation is not meant to leave your employees powerless. Some employees may fear that "sharing their secrets" will lead to job elimination; after all, we all enjoy the feeling of being regarded as the "go-to" person for specific information, and we don't want to feel as if our expertise is no longer needed. Documenting your organization's processes helps empower your employees to perform at their best by identifying best practices and identifying weak controls.

The first step towards documenting procedures is to have employees create a list of the tasks they perform and how often these tasks are performed.

The next step is to create a flow chart based on the tasks that your employees perform and the way that work should flow through your office.

Once an understanding of the workflow has been obtained, each employee should be observed performing a task. Someone should take detailed notes as he or she performs his or her duties.

Once the documentation satisfies your needs, the next step is to determine the best practices and go through the processes that you want to keep. Share this information among employees and refer to it when training new employees. Don't be afraid to direct new employees to your documentation rather than training them yourself or answering questions directly at first - after all, the documentation is meant to improve organizational efficiency. If a question is asked more than three times, it should be documented.

The process of documenting is not easy and it is time-consuming, but the benefits of documenting this information far outweighs the burden of putting in the time to accomplish it. Tribal knowledge and intellectual capital should be regarded as a true capital expense and considered valuable assets, just as machinery or software.

• Jessica Sul is a CPA in the tax/accounting department at Klein Hall CPAs LLC in Aurora.