Achieve standardization of sales operations and efficiency of education through the creation of business manuals

Challenges before implementation

Business has become personalized, and the difference in skills and knowledge between veteran employees and inexperienced employees has become a challenge.

At that time, Tokyu Livable had doubled its sales in the office and store rental brokerage business, and the number of sales employees had doubled in 1-2 years. It was urgent to quickly launch the newly assigned sales employees.

The work was personalized, and veteran employees were teaching new employees through oral tradition, resulting in variations in the content being taught. This has become a challenge due to the difference in skills and knowledge between veteran employees and those with less experience.

In addition, even among veteran employees, there are differences in the way they perform their individual tasks and their knowledge, so there is a need to organize the basic approach and progress of work.

We have had manuals created for previous projects, but due to the large number of pages and lack of reference, we have decided to seek the help of a professional manual production company and have consulted with our company.

Human Science Solutions

Conduct an inventory of tacit knowledge, establish business procedures and rules, and create a business manual.

We proceeded with creating the operation manual while conducting sessions with stakeholders using the following steps.

1) Current Situation Survey and Analysis (September 2019)

At the orientation, we heard about the overall picture of the business and current issues. We also conducted research and analysis of existing manuals and materials from other businesses.

2) Business Organization and Optimization (October 2019 - November 2019)

Through three sessions, we interviewed managers and veteran employees to hear about the progress and content of their work, and organized the current flow and content of their tasks. We also took inventory of implicit knowledge and determined the standard procedures and rules to be included in the manual.

In addition, we also interviewed new employees who will be the main users of the manual, and understood their potential needs from a user's perspective.

3) Manual Creation (December 2019 - January 2020)

We created a business manual based on the results of business organization and optimization. First, we thoroughly discussed the image and writing guidelines of the finished product using a sample draft, and then we incorporated Tokyu Livable's feedback to complete the manual.

We have also proposed the most appropriate writing policy and information to be included, taking into account the update and operation phase after the manual is completed.

Customer Feedback

"Through the session, we were able to exchange opinions and ultimately create a satisfactory manual."

By conducting interviews with experienced employees and working together to organize tasks, we were able to take inventory of information related to tasks that had previously been implicit knowledge. Additionally, not only did we incorporate the opinions of experienced employees, but we also received suggestions for information that should be included in the manual from new employees, which was beneficial.

During the sample manuscript stage, we communicated various requests, but by exchanging opinions during the session, we were able to jointly consider the best form for our company's operation manual, resulting in a satisfactory manual in the end.

Until now, there have been opinions from newly assigned employees such as "I struggled because I didn't understand the overall picture of the work after being assigned" and "The way of proceeding with the work and the confirmation items for customers differ depending on the instructor." This time, by creating a manual, we were able to bring the newly assigned employees to a state where they can share the standard flow and progress of the work, which we consider to be a significant achievement.

In the future, we are considering how to get everyone to use this manual and make it more established. We are also planning to hold study sessions using the manual regularly to promote its use.

From Human Science representative

"By third-party intervention, "common" information is visualized, making it smoother to organize business operations."

This is an example of a case where we assisted in creating a business manual.

Not only Tokyu Livable, Inc., but also many other companies have a tendency for their business content and methods to rely on individual staff members, making it difficult to objectively organize the overall picture of their business. In such cases, instead of immediately starting to create a manual, it is more efficient to conduct a business inventory together with stakeholders through sessions like this, and organize the current business and know-how into a visible form, which will help to progress with manual creation.

For veteran employees, it may be common knowledge, but for new employees, it is often necessary information. By conducting interviews from an objective perspective as a third party, our company has many opportunities to discover information and know-how that should be shared within the company.

In this project, we were able to have the Office Store Rental Center Manager attend each session and hear their passionate thoughts on the expectations and ideal behavior for the members. As a company, we have worked hard to respond to these passionate thoughts and create an easy-to-understand manual.

Business manuals need to be continuously improved and operated even after they are created, so we would be happy to continue supporting you in this process.

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