Improve people's knowledge of the process

What to do and why
Never assume that people know what they need to do or understand the consequences of their actions. How many times have you heard "if only I'd known". This applies equally to what they need to do and to the impact if the task is done incorrectly. 

What you can do
List the key areas of the process that people must understand. This should include their own and down/up stream activities. These key areas could relate to:

• Process steps
  
• Tax or legal considerations
  
• Product, service, customer, vendor, country or site knowledge

Now list the names of the people within your organisation who are involved in the process.

Then list against these names the areas of the process you think they should know about.

Now develop a short quiz on these areas to test people’s knowledge:

• No more than 20 questions, multi-choice if you wish – it is not intended as a major exam, just something you can use to judge the extent of people’s knowledge. 
• You can test them verbally if you want.
  

Test the people and use the results to determine if they have the knowledge you expect them to have. Make it clear you are doing this to assess training needs. People are wary of managers who test their abilities - they will always ask why.
 
If you are happy with the results, great, move on. If not, then:

• Ensure your process documentation is up-to-date
  
• Arrange for some training

Training can consist of:

• Getting someone in to give a short overview of the areas where knowledge is required. This person could be Internal – from another part of the organisation (ie: from the warehouse, a site, sales, finance or somewhere), External – from outside the organisation (ie: a customer, vendor, a specialist, I've even had the taxman in)
• Giving people something appropriate to review - process documentation, a book or manual
• Visiting a customer, vendor, branch, another department or somewhere appropriate. It is amazing how a day out of the office can energise a team. It also has the addedd benefit of building relationships
  
• Sending them on an appropriate training course 

Once the training is completed quiz them again to check that they now have the knowledge they need.