How to Save Yourself from Double-checking Work?

30th August 2024

by Craig Willis

People are constantly checking each other’s work in organisations, and it can feel like a real waste of time. Often this is purely due to overly complicated documentation that is difficult to read and understand.

It seems obvious that this is one area that you can focus on to improve efficiency and harmony in your organisation, yet it just doesn’t happen. Let’s take a look at two of the key reasons why, and what simple steps you can take to avoid these pitfalls in the future.

You need to double-check things for compliance

Ok, so this is pretty important. We’re not recommending that you skip this step. It’s mandatory for a reason.

It might be a good idea however, to verify what exactly needs to be checked for regulatory reasons and to understand the recommended guidelines for this. It may be that teams are unnecessarily double-checking everything because it’s not clear what the requirements are in the first place.

There are too many mistakes

This is the biggest culprit. Often there is a lack of trust that things are being done right, so someone has to double-check the work and the quality before they can move on. Historically, on production lines, we needed to check quality (and this may still be the case) but also in our more ‘virtual’ world, we don’t always notice problems until the product or service is delivered to the client. This is always too late.

Rather than double-checking everything, work with your process and your team to understand where vital information is missing. Create simple process documentation that explains what needs to be done and consider the format you display it in. Nothing overly text-based, which can be time-consuming and difficult to read, or anything too technical that users can’t understand.

Don’t underestimate the difference you can make

Often, we react to these errors by instinctively wanting to introduce even more double-checks in a bid to improve our services and products. Before you know it, you need to hire 25% more people to produce the same output.

Instead of just implementing additional training and checks, try to look at the root cause – it could be something as simple as documentation. More importantly, make sure that everyone can easily access and understand it.

To solve this issue, create process maps that visually show the flow of the process and clearly highlight who is responsible for what. Avoid overly technical language or specialist symbols. Keep the processes clean and simple, so they are easy to read by everyone.

We recommend using Universal Process Notation. It’s based on very simple building blocks and is ideal for creating user friendly process maps. Not only can you explain what happens but you can also link to the tools people need and describe how they do it.

Fixing poor process documentation doesn’t require any additional people or training, but it is likely to significantly improve quality and customer experience. This is invaluable for any organisation.

If you’d like to learn more about how Liberty Spark, our process improvement solution, could help you, please get in touch with one of the team today.