We all know the feeling. Why does it have to be so difficult to perform a simple task?
Most of us encounter complexity in our daily life, be it at work with challenges getting approval to purchase a paperclip or in our private life around tax season where we have to file our tax return.
Complexity comes in many shapes and sizes, and a lot of times complex ways of doing things, creates frustration and wastes time and/or resources that could have been spent better.
We have worked with a lot of clients in different business segments and we have seen how complexity can have a significant impact on a business.
Studies show that excess complexity, beside reducing the company’s agility, harming the employees’ motivation and wasting resources, could also reduce profits as much as 10 - 40%!
Take a look at these examples.
Missing out on the good candidates
A lot of businesses have set up processes and procedures on how to hire new employees. This is indeed a good thing, as long as they are kept simple and with the goal of getting people hired fast, but many times this is not the case.
We have seen several companies having hiring processes that takes around two months (or more) from the candidate submit their application and resume until an actual hire is complete.
A lot of candidates are applying for jobs at several different companies at the same time, so the company with the most effective hiring process will usually have first pick from the best candidates.
It goes without saying that having a 2 month hiring process does not give you first pick.
Missing out on potential profit
The culture in a company had evolved, so that it was customary for the employees to have a lot of meetings and at those meetings it would not be uncommon, out of courtesy, to invite managers to participate even though the agenda for those same meetings had no value for the managers to participate in.
At the same time management reporting had also evolved into a myriad of different reports, many of which would have almost the same content, just being prepared by different persons for different managers.
Needless to say, the company was wasting thousands of employee hours on pointless meetings and preparing unnecessary reports.
This time could have been diverted into profit generating activities instead.