Automating and Adapting Processes With TrustPlace
At TrustPlace we understand the challenge that all businesses face reopening and remaining open safely. There are new rules, new protocols, and all of it has to be done on top of your standard operations. Achieving such a feat can be daunting. We have created an operations management tool to tackle this very task. Our system allows you to input and automate all of your current operating procedures and protocols (not just COVID related), assign them out to your staff, track the status of each procedure, and ensure that it gets done. All of this so you, your staff and, most importantly, your patrons can feel safe in your establishment.
Given that many businesses in some way, shape, or form, have reopened, it’s likely you have a plan in place to keep your operations running. The problem that we have found is manually managing that plan and ensuring it’s followed in a concise and timely manner. With TrustPlace you can enter all of your Procedures and protocols into the system, automate the scheduling of these Procedures, and digitally keep a record of all the work you and your staff are doing.
Setting Up Your Automated Procedures for Success
The core of the TrustPlace system is Procedures, so understanding what they are, how they work, and properly adapting them to fit your needs is key.
Procedures – A Procedure is an actionable statement that is certifiable and contains Checklist Items that must be completed. In order to certify the entire Procedure has been completed all Checklist Items need to be marked as done.
An important function of Procedures is their ability to be scheduled on various cadences. When adapting your plan to Procedures be considerate of which should be daily, weekly, monthly, every “X” days, custom (choosing which days of the week a Procedure Certification will be generated), one time or generated in response to an Event.
The Procedures you build in to TrustPlace should encapsulate all goals and protocols your business needs to complete in order to maintain health and safety compliance. It is important to understand what you need to achieve on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis in order to keep compliant. Everything from cleaning schedules, property maintenance, equipment reorganization, health and safety signage, employee screening, etc has to be considered.
Now, if you are unsure how to properly adapt your new plan to TrustPlace, we have developed our own set of Standard Procedure Libraries that offer dozens of COVID-19 compliant requirements. We have adapted guidelines from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and many other nationally recognized agencies into Procedures. You can use these Procedures as your own or as a foundation to build upon one’s unique to your business.
Principles of Good Checklists
Once you have laid out your Procedures and have an understanding of the goals you want to achieve, you need to put together a plan for how to complete them. That’s where Checklist Items come in.
Checklist Items – are a series of steps within a Procedure that you are required to complete in order certify a Procedure. These are the actual actions or tasks you and your staff will be performing in order to complete the Procedure.
When developing the Checklist Items for your Procedure ensure each necessary task is its own Checklist Item. Avoid combining multiple tasks into a single Checklist Item to prevent missed tasks.
A good series of Checklist Items should be:
- Precise – No need to spell out everything
- Efficient – To the point while being easy to understand
- Brief – 5-9 Items max. More than that and it can become over saturated, distracting, and Users might take shortcuts
Adding Context and Detailed Work Instructions - Reference Cards
The final piece of a Procedure are Reference Cards. Reference Cards provide detailed instructions, context, and other useful information to Users while they certify Procedures. They are meant to accompany Procedures and Checklist Items to aid Users in completing tasks properly.
A Reference Card that might accompany a Procedure or Checklist Item could be a diagram explaining how to properly wash your hands or a list of CDC approved disinfectants.
For the best user experience when viewing and completing Checklist Items and Procedure Certifications, we recommend attaching Reference Cards directly to the Checklist Items.
Divide and Conquer - Checklist Assignment
In managing the completion of any plan or achievement of any goal, division of labor among people and spaces makes for an efficient use of everyone’s time and skill set. TrustPlace offers the ability to take your Procedures and assign them out to Users and/or Zones. This allows you to assign the proper Procedures to the correct employee or group of employees in an effort to increase efficiency and cut down on confusion.
Users
Creating Users in TrustPlace allows you to give employees varying degrees of access to the TrustPlace system based on their role at your company.
When thinking about who needs to be a User, know that each company is going to be different based on size and structure. But, a general rule of thumb for User creation should consider:
- Anyone who will be managing Procedures, Reference Cards or other Users
- Anyone who will be completing Checklists
- Anyone managing the Public Portal(s)
The number of Users who will certify the procedures will likely depend on the structure of the maintenance, cleaning, and security teams. For large teams you may want to designate one or a couple managers/supervisors everyone will report to. Then they’ll certify Procedure completion for everyone. Small teams, can potentially allow everyone to be a User and they can certify Procedures themselves.
Zones
Zones – A logical or physical subgrouping of a Property used to manage operations at a lower level than Property.
Zones allow you to divide up your space into logical areas that are often occupied by employees with differing jobs. For example, a restaurant may create Zones for their Front of House (Dining Room) and their Back of House (Kitchen). This allows them to assign relevant Procedures to each Zone without confusing the staff who they do not apply to.
When developing your Procedures and creating Users, keep in mind what part of your business these Procedures are relevant to and who is going to be responsible for completing them.
Show Your Work and Increase Transparency Into Your Operations
The most exciting feature in TrustPlace is the Public Portal. The Portal is a public facing website where you can publish your Health and Safety Compliance Plan as well as your Status Report against the plan. The Public Portal is fed Procedure Certifications, Checklist Items and compliance information directly from your Procedure Certification Page. It then displays this information in a neat and understandable way for your patrons to easily understand.
The TrustPlace Pubic Portal can be configured in a number of different ways to display all relevant information on the Portal.
Each Procedure has the option for choosing whether or not you would like to display it on the Public Portal. It is, of course, crucial to publish all the work your team is doing to keep the business safe and clean. But, you don’t need to publish your plans for customer outreach or how you want to manage your employee’s schedules differently.
You will also manage when this information gets published to the Portal. Each Portal has an option for Auto Regenerate or Manual Regenerate. Activating Auto Regenerate enables the system to publish your most up to date information once a day, over night. If you would prefer to manage this yourself, you can manually publish your certifications at any time throughout the day and they will show up on the Portal instantly.
