Google Site and WIKI for storing business process templates

Good day!

Today I want to tell the residents of Habr about one of the ways to use the well-known Google Site service (Google Sites), namely, about using it to store instructions (job descriptions) describing the steps to perform typical tasks in life and business.

Problem (or where the idea came from)

First example
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Probably, each of us has a router at home, a box with blinking lights that allows all devices in our apartment to connect to the Internet. So, I rarely have to configure the router (less often than once a year), and its setting can be safely attributed to a forced measure (changed the Internet service provider, moved to another apartment, etc.). Most of the time it works properly, and it doesn’t catch my eye (it is quietly gathering dust somewhere in the corner). But nothing can work forever, and once in an indefinite period, the question of setting up an Internet access point has to be resorted to.

And this moment, at least for me, is unpleasant enough. Instead of continuing to work quietly, I had to start climbing forums, read the manual, call up with an Internet service provider, and with incredible efforts to pull the correct sequence of actions from my memory that will make Wi-Fi work again in my house.

Second example

For the needs of the business I needed to open the PI (individual entrepreneur) in my name. And as you understand, accounting for individual entrepreneurs, especially at the simplified tax system, is much simpler, since You pay all taxes once a year. Yes, and insurance fees, etc., you can pay either quarterly or once a year. All the same, though rarely, but it is necessary to do it. If you do not pay taxes, the tax immediately starts litigation and sends you bailiffs, even if the amount of the debt is insignificant.

So, once a year (with insurance premiums once a quarter), I have to do a number of manipulations with the Client-Bank system, bills and other bureaucratic red tape in order to pay all the necessary amounts.

I am a techie and do not want to become an accountant! And if you make a mistake in the payment or sequence of actions described above, you will get a little extra hemorrhoids in your daily life (to count on your memory and hope that you will clearly remember the correct set of actions that you performed a year ago, in this situation is not an option).

Therefore, the conduct of all these operations was also accompanied by calls to the tax and Pension Fund, reading forums, calls to the Client-Bank technical support staff, and for me additional strain.

Example three

Our Internet project is constantly growing and developing, and, as you understand, we regularly need new employees. But not all people who want to work with us, meet our requirements and successfully pass the probationary period. If you tried to hire someone to work, you realize that the first time you find the employee you need is not such an easy task.

Plus, no one has canceled the possibility of an employee to leave our company. Anything can happen in life: I decided to open my business, found a more attractive position, moved to another city, etc.

As a result, time after time, key employees of the organization are faced with the need to train new recruits in order to bring their knowledge to the level we need. Those. Before the employee candidate becomes a full-fledged employee, we teach him everything that he may need in his future work in our company.

Remark : We didn’t immediately come to the need to train each new arrival employee (to bring his knowledge to the required level), but this approach has already justified itself. Training for employees is vital to the success of your business!

And so, from employee to employee, we had to tell the same thing. Talk about what programs we use to work, how to install them, how to use them, tell all the basic rules of work, etc. This training took a lot of time, not only the student, but also the one who teaches. Those. A highly qualified employee spent his paid work time sharing experience with a newcomer, instead of performing his direct duties. And since perhaps the newcomer will not pass the probationary period and will leave our company, then all the effort expended, in fact, could simply fly into the tube.

On the other hand, we couldn’t give the new employee complete freedom and not control him, just like he does. in such a case, the task assigned to him will most likely be simply overwhelmed (or will not be completed at all, or not what was required, regardless of the quality of the writing of the TOR, etc.). Beginner's stress! He has just come to a new place (someone else’s monastery), in which people who are new to him, work, have their own internal corporate rules, etc.

And in the end it turns out that the quality of the services provided by our organization suffers. Our business is not fully managed and behaves not as a system, but as something else that produces unpredictable results.

As a result, having passed the rake a couple of times, we realized that all typical processes should be documented!

All typical steps in business (and life), all business processes should be described using the most detailed step-by-step instructions, the implementation of which will give the necessary quality of work.

A single repository should be created, in which all the necessary instructions will be structured, and at any time from any place where there is Internet, I and my employees will be able to access them (preferably with the division of rights).

And here we are assisted by the well-known “Wikipedia” (WIKI), but not what is written in it, but its structure.

Solution (what we did)

Having approximately understood what we need, we began searching for a suitable IT solution.

The first thing we found was a script that allowed us to create on our site a similarity to WIKI. Put. We looked ...

As it turned out, the script was buggy, strongly confused with the settings and at the same time had one major drawback. Since the script was placed on the site, then the loss of the site (hacking and virus infection, something with hosting, the fall of MySQL-database and other heresy) could lead to complete or partial loss of accumulated materials. And this, as you understand, is simply not acceptable for business! If we make an analogy from the IT sphere, then it is equivalent to the fall of the company's main server and the simultaneous departure of the system administrator - Armageddon will start at the company!

Began to look further, and here it is! The decision was at hand, we just did not notice. The built-in Google Site service (simplified hosting based on a structured wiki) suited our goals as well as possible for several reasons:

• The fall and destruction of Google servers, though possible, is unlikely.
• A new site (new volume, instruction for a new project) is created in a matter of minutes.
• The structure of the created sites on Google Site clearly meets our requirements and is suitable for solving the described task.
• For all pages of the site, a very high-quality search is available by Google (customizable option, you can choose a search algorithm).
• Access to the instructions is also controlled (someone from the side will not see them).

In general, based on the above written benefits, the choice was stopped on the Google Site.

Remark : Looking ahead a bit, I’ll inform you that at the moment there are more than 1000 instructions on our Google Site-based Wiki describing certain business processes of our company, and every day they become more and more.

How to create a WIKI on Google Site

Creating a site based on structured WIKI in Google Site is an extremely simple task!

The only prerequisite: you must have created an account in the Gmail mail service (there must be a mailbox in the Gmail mail service).

So, it's time to make your first website:

1. Go to your email account in the gmail service and in the upper horizontal menu select the item “Sites”.



2. On the page that opens, click the "Create" button.



3. On the next page, Google will ask us to choose a template and indicate the name of our future Google Site. As a template, leave the “Empty Template”, and specify the name in Latin letters (for example, instructions).



After all the necessary data is entered, click the button "Create"

4. Google will think a little, and your new site based on structured WIKI is ready!



This preparatory work is completed. We can proceed to the filling.

Tags: google site, wiki, storage instructions

How to use Google Site we

As you understand, the created Google Site acts in our organization like a kind of internal corporate website. It can store various information, for example:

• details of our organization and scans of constituent documents;
• contact information for employees (additionally duplicate from the used CRM);
• contact information on freelancers who regularly have to work with or have to work (for these needs a special document has been created called “Our favorite freelancers”, a kind of mini-database of reliable performers);
• plans for key business events for the current year (we try at the beginning of each year to outline an approximate development plan indicating key points and follow it);
• reports on key business events of the past years (also very useful information, thanks to it, it is possible to analyze and identify the very key actions that lead to the growth of the organization);
• samples of standard documents (acts, invoices, invoices, contracts, statements, questionnaires, etc.);
• step-by-step instructions describing the actions necessary to perform certain business processes.

Thus, our corporate Google Site stores all the necessary information that our employees may need in their work, i.e. the information that should be publicly available to employees of the company.

Remark : The list of the above types of data stored in our WIKI is inconclusive, but sufficient for understanding the purpose of creating a Google Site.

Just want to give a few recommendations that we adhere to when filling our WIKI.

1. WIKI does not store access passwords (store passwords separately, for example, in KeePass).
2. The instructions that you will post at WIKI should be as simple as possible and step-by-step as possible so that even the most unskilled staff can follow them correctly.
3. Try not to overload the instructions. If there is an item in the instruction, the execution of which also consists of a sequence of typical actions, then take these actions into a separate sub-instruction, and add a reference to it to the main one (as in programming, break into separate functions).
4. To facilitate further search in your corporate WIKI, add at least three tags to each instruction (article) at the very bottom of the page. Tags write in italics.
5. Provide instructions with print screens or auxiliary videos (link to youtube). This will facilitate further work with them.

As an example of the instructions, you can look at the process described above “Creating a site based on structured WIKI in Google Site” from the “How to create a WIKI on Google Site” section.

Remark: I would like to advise something else for those who adopt this technique.

Do not try to write a perfectly working instruction the first time. For the first option, something like this is enough:

1. Log in to Gmail.
2. Create a site based on Google Site.
3. Add the first instruction.

Even a simple action plan is better than no plan at all!

What gives the use of Google Site in our business

This approach can significantly reduce the human factor when performing a particular type of work.

Due to the fact that all the repetitive processes in our business (in life) receive a detailed description in the form of step-by-step instructions, it is very likely to ensure that after all the operations have been completed, the desired result will be obtained.

Thus, the examples described at the very beginning on setting up a router, paying taxes, etc. will be carried out clearly, without deviations and ridiculous mistakes.

With regard to employee training, now in most cases, employees receive instructions on which they learn to perform an action strictly in steps. Some moments of learning pass through video lessons, etc. When explained to the first employee, the recording was made or a special training video or course was prepared.

Moreover, slowly, as the business grows, you and your employees describe more and more new business processes in your organization. Your company and your entire business quietly turn into a system in which it is not the level of competence of your employees that governs, but the quality of the description of business processes (the most famous example of such an organization is everyone's favorite “McDonalds”: schoolchildren and students work without losing the quality of service ).

This approach "Business as a system" makes you independent from employees. If someone suddenly quits, it will not affect the work of the organization, just put another person in his place, and he will continue to work according to the instructions.

Remark: The remark is valid when an ordinary employee leaves. If the TOP Manager decides to leave you, his departure will be palpable, but will not be a collapse!

Instead of conclusion

I hope that the method described by me in this article will be useful and useful to the residents of Habr.

If you have any questions to me or comments on the article, then write them in the comments, I will try to help and answer.