Dear Dakota: How do I Create a Better Flow for my Employees and Know What They’re Working on So Things Don't Get Missed?
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We recently received this question from an interior designer for our Dear Dakota series:
Dear Dakota: How do I create a better flow for my employees and know what they’re working on so things don't get missed?
The interior designer who submitted this question added that she has built a small team of junior designers, and thought that would automatically make her own work flow soooooooooo much easier. Once you have one or more team members taking work off your plate, you should be freed up to market and build your business.
Right?!?!?
But what this interior designer found instead was that she was spending MORE time communicating with her team members, helping them establish their workflow, training them on new processes, and walking them through novel tasks, keeping them engaged and moving forward, reviewing their work, and tracking their progress on project deliverables.
So essentially, she was NOT being freed up at all. She was being pulled into admin and managerial tasks.
😱
These are standard growing pains with any developing business. But there are very effective strategies to ensure your employees can work independently and autonomously (without you constantly hovering!)
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Here are my tips:
01 | Make Sure Project Data Lives Outside of Your Head
This is critical. MAKE SURE you are utilizing a software program, a digital folder file system, or even an old-fashioned printed binder to house ALL project-related information for each client.
You may have started your interior design business as a solopreneur with a really good mind for details. And that may have worked fine for you, for a time. But with employees in place, it’s critical to have a process OUTSIDE OF YOUR BRAIN for documenting all project-related information. We think Asana and Google Drive are great for this purpose, because all members of your team can access any project-related files in a shared project.
If you use a digital folder system, establish consistent naming conventions for sub-folders and files. For instance, the main folder includes the client’s last name, and then within each project folder, there are subfolders for:
Onboarding data
Programming info and photos
Design drawings, specs, and CDs
Presentation documents
Project close-out
02 | Document Your Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
If you don’t already have this in place, drop everything, and do it now! You should have the processes within all of the phases of your services clearly mapped out. This in itself will train a new employee—on auto-pilot. All they need to do—at any point in the process—is check the SOP to find out what needs to happen next, what tools or templates to use, what the timeline is, etc.
If this is something you don’t yet have in place, I always suggest beginning with the client-facing processes first. Map those out thoroughly, then move on to the back-end operation processes.
An example would be:
An inquiry on your contact form comes through
What email response is sent? Who sends it?
What information is reviewed to vet that client before reaching out? Who does that?
What response is sent next? When, and by whom? (And, of course, all of these responses are templated so that you do not need to compose any original correspondence).
Do you then send the potential client your calendar link to book a Discovery call? What is the timing?
Make sure you have a Discovery call script that you follow, and you have a notes-taking template to record important details during the call.
What are the precise next steps and actions after a Discovery call?
That’s the idea. Every.single.process in your workflow is documented, and each person’s role in each process is detailed. I suggest also including consistency standards: what needs to be included so an action can be considered complete?
If you do not have SOPs in place for your design business, and creating them seems daunting, no worries. Check out our Business Blueprint for Interior Designers. It includes 21 comprehensive step-by-step processes specific to the residential interior design industry, 19 customizable templates for all phases of your process, and detailed best practices to follow for each client-facing interaction.
03 | Have a System for Tracking Team Member Task Status (that does NOT include verbally asking each person!)
You should never need to ask each person where they are with each task. WAY too time intensive. Like, FOR REAL. STOP.DOING.THAT.
This is what software is for. Asana is our FAVE as a task-tracking and team communication tool. Asana is a comprehensive work management tool designed to help individuals and teams keep track of tasks, delegate responsibilities, monitor progress, and communicate in real time.
Using Asana has been a game-changer for our team at Dakota Design Company. Every SOP is mapped out and everyone knows what SOPs they’re in charge of. Team communication and collaboration is seamless and I can log onto Asana and see what’s been completed, what’s still open, and what needs my attention.
Check out our free guide to setting up and using Asana in your interior design business!!
04 | Have Standardized Thresholds for Decisions that Require Your Input and Approval
Develop a matrix that illustrates to your team decisions they have autonomy to make for themselves VS when you need to be consulted.
Having a guideline like this in place will allow team members to know what they can take ownership of. Having ownership within one’s job responsibilities leads to more job satisfaction, so your team will appreciate knowing where they have autonomy. And you can clear your mind of details that don’t require your time and focus. ← this.is.the.goal.
But you want to make sure you are drawn into any discussion where you want to have input. You may provide these guidelines utilizing thresholds:
plan or material changes with no budget impact: junior designers have ownership of
plan or material changes that will impact budget BUT can be offset by making adjustments in other areas that don’t change overall design intent: junior designers have ownership of
plan or material changes that will impact budget: consult with you (the design director)
05 | Make Sure (When Hiring) That Your Job Description Includes Responsibilities Aligned with Points 1 Through 4 Above
If you want a junior designer who is comfortable making independent decisions, list that in the job description for that position. If you want to make sure your team members can track and meet deadlines, be very specific about that expectation.
Then, if you need to converse with a team member about missed opportunities, or when you conduct a performance review, that team member will not feel ambushed by you pointing out where they may have fallen short. They’ll be well aware of the expectation if it’s part of their job description.
The key to both employee job satisfaction and a team that runs like a well-oiled machine is CONSISTENCY. Communicate your expectations clearly. Provide well-documented processes consistent with those expectations. And provide well-defined boundaries that allow autonomy AND alignment with your standards.
