How to minimise bureaucracy

Bureaucracy is big in the charity sector, to the extent that government taskforces have been appointed over the years to try and reduce the administrative burden.

 

When it comes to regulations and paperwork generated by grant funders or local government, charities don’t have much choice but to meet regulatory requirements.

 

But what about the bureaucracy generated internally? Imagine what the sector could get done with less unnecessary processes, bottlenecks, and admin!

 

Bureaucracy is a source of stress and frustration for staff in the sector. Tara Honeywell, Head of Commercial Ventures at Barnardos, who has recently started working for charities following a career in the commercial sector, says: “I’ve encountered so much ‘process in the way of progress’ and yet also experienced so many departments execute ‘work arounds’ that the whole point of the process…is null and void!”

 

There are particular areas where bureaucracy seems to be concentrated. By reviewing these areas, charities could begin to switch the balance from process to progress.

 

 

Flatten hierarchies

 

Hierarchical structures can slow down the process of approvals and decision-making. If every decision or piece of work must be passed all or a significant way up the hierarchy, everything takes longer.

 

A flatter structure can help to save time as approvals and decisions have a shorter distance to travel. Flatter structures can also increase diversity in decision-making and protect staff from managing conflicting opinions between senior decision-makers.

 

 

Sign offs

 

Who really needs to approve and sign off a piece of work? The most valuable input comes from people with relevant expertise and the end-users. It’s impossible to know what your audiences will think of something you’ve created if they only ever experience a watered-down version of it.

 

Often, testing new ideas and evaluating them after they are live rather than before will help speed up learning and progress.

 

Sign off processes for that are enormous and never cut back or assessed if fit for purpose. Also leads to a culture of working below pay grade and a lack of trust

— Henry Rowling (@henryrowling)

Sign off processes for that are enormous and never cut back or assessed if fit for purpose. Also leads to a culture of working below pay grade and a lack of trust

— Henry Rowling (@henryrowling) April 27, 2022

 

 

Review processes

 

Ask staff to share which processes take the most time and cause them the most stress.

 

Visually map out troublesome processes to help identify any problem stages. Using the map as your guide, begin to question why the process is necessary and how each stage could be completed more efficiently or eliminated entirely.

 

 

TOIL

 

If we’re entering a new era of work where staff often work remotely and asynchronously, are ‘time off in lieu’ forms and procedures still necessary?

 

TOIL is tied to the idea of a 9-5, Monday-Friday week. The pandemic has demonstrated that when organisations had to trust staff to manage their own time in order to meet their goals, many were even more productive. 

 

It might seem like a small thing, but having to make formal requests for TOIL irked me a bit when I worked in house. I guess bc it plays into ’presentee-ism’ and having to justify where you are every hour of the day. Better to just agree with manager / team and get on with it.

— Richard Berks (@DrRichardBerks)

It might seem like a small thing, but having to make formal requests for TOIL irked me a bit when I worked in house. I guess bc it plays into 'presentee-ism' and having to justify where you are every hour of the day. Better to just agree with manager / team and get on with it.

— Richard Berks (@DrRichardBerks) April 27, 2022

 

 

Appraisal processes

 

Performance management can be stressful when there are performance issues to work on, but the process itself shouldn’t be the source of manager and staff frustration.

 

Could you use a checkbox system for staff and managers to assess performance against job description tasks and competencies? Or a way of capturing achievements and areas to improve at each 1-2-1 so that lengthy year-long assessments don’t need to be completed at each appraisal.

 

Not cancel but condense our appraisal system.

Had mine last week:

- 20 pages of documents to read
- 6 hours completing my self appraisal section

And…….

That was all before the appraisal meeting itself (which was excellent to be fair)

— Andy Graham (@JustAndyGraham)

Not cancel but condense our appraisal system.

Had mine last week:

- 20 pages of documents to read
- 6 hours completing my self appraisal section

And…….

That was all before the appraisal meeting itself (which was excellent to be fair)

— Andy Graham (@JustAndyGraham) April 27, 2022

 

 

Expenses

 

The legal requirements for keeping a record of expenses are that the date of the expense, the reason, the amount and (if relevant), the receipt are recorded. If a line manager can sign off to say that the expense was necessary and a finance team member can check that all the necessary information has been recorded, the expense can be reimbursed.

 

If your process to do this is taking longer than 2-4 weeks, question whether there are unnecessary steps or restricted access to tools causing bottlenecks.

 

Expenses! Both for staff and volunteers (hello @vHelp1 😊) one charity I worked for took 8-12 weeks to process my travel expenses and you had to print, hand sign and post the forms off 😱 also dropping the need to over-consult internally - trust expert staff to make decisions

— Laura Elson (@LauraEmilyElson)

Expenses! Both for staff and volunteers (hello @vHelp1 😊) one charity I worked for took 8-12 weeks to process my travel expenses and you had to print, hand sign and post the forms off 😱 also dropping the need to over-consult internally - trust expert staff to make decisions

— Laura Elson (@LauraEmilyElson) April 27, 2022

 

 

Invest in tools

 

Investigate digital tools that might help to automate and speed up some of your processes.

 

There are many tools being created specifically for the charity sector as well as tools like Zapier and IFTTT that create micro-integrations to help to automate information sharing between digital services.

 

Jo Warner, Director of Sales & Marketing at Engaging Networks, says: "If you invest in the right tools to get the job done, you empower people to take ownership and accountability for their…results."

 

 

Change your approach

 

Bureaucracy is a real source of stress. Perhaps it stems from applying the procedure-driven approaches that are important in service delivery across the whole organisation, or from the need to protect reputation and manage financial risk.

 

It may seem more cost-effective to run a process cheaply, but that’s a false equation if the value of the staff time spent on the process is excessive.

 

“Bureaucracy often stems from a fear of being blamed for someone else’s decisions, or a lack of focus on purpose. So it’s about changing culture, not just process,” says Nicola Upton, CEO, Age UK Sutton.

 

Charities must question when they are creating bureaucracy when trust is all that’s required.