Now that you and your team have decided what initiatives are to be prioritized, implemented or further explored, how do you determine who will be involved in the process?

Who will own and manage the task(s), monitor the success (or failure) of the initiative(s) and make recommendations for the future?

We suggest assigning an “initiative manager” as well as interested team members to each task.

The manager is simply in charge of program oversight. The team should be comprised of members whose work or work area is to be influenced by the initiative and thus have the most to gain as well as the most to contribute to the suggested area or idea.

Let’s use the following example to illustrate:

(Functional Area): Administration/Management

(Initiative): Moving workers’ compensation insurance administration from in-house to an outsourced payroll provider, thereby eliminating the requirement for the annual workers’ compensation audit and saving time.

(Initial Rank): C – Idea has potential, research and evaluate for further consideration.

(Initiative Manager): Firm administrator (because she manages the payroll function). Team member is the CEO, for obvious reasons.

Here’s their research and evaluation process:

Annual worker’s compensation audit requires approximately 3 hours of the CEO and firm administrator’s time. Approximate value of that time in billable hours would be $115/hour x 3 hours x 2 people = $690.

Fee to implement outsourced workers’ compensation coverage: $7/pay period x 26 pay periods = $182.

Cost savings: $690 – $182 = $508

Time savings: 3 hours.

By assigning an initiative manager and team to support them, there is accountability to the task and subsequent buy-in to the research and results allowing forward momentum of the initiative.

In our next installment of “Operational Efficiencies” getting business owners in the driver’s seat, we will explore a process for measuring results.