Hello, today we will tell you how to create an effective and working checklist.
The main problem when implementing checklists is their large volume, which can cause incorrect or deliberately erroneous filling out. But this applies more to daily checks, which we carry out systematically and often. If the audit is carried out once a month or more, it should be thorough and extensive to take into account all possible problems and bottlenecks.
How to find the golden mean
If we are talking about a daily checklist that ordinary employees fill out, we advise limiting it in such a way that filling it out does not take more than 10 minutes. Anything longer will be automatically filled in somehow.
If the company does not organize work with audits and colleagues do not understand why they are needed, then even small checklists will not work, employees will put “yes” everywhere, the manager will read it and will not find any problems and everything seems to be fine, but in reality it is not so .
A checklist is not a punishment
It is important that the person to whom the check is filled out does not regard it as a punishment, but treats it as an assistant. The main task of the checklist is simply to guide the person in charge to significant places and form the habit of paying attention to what was not evident before. Being on a 10-12 hour shift, in a constant “busy state” and working with a large flow of clients, we somehow stop noticing minor, and sometimes not entirely, shortcomings.
Remember from your experience, you came for a check, went to the refrigerator to check the temperature, and it was higher than normal. You ask the manager why - and he stands in bewilderment and does not understand how he could have missed such a violation during the morning rounds or during the shift.
The first audit is always together
The first and main rule of the checklist is not to create it correctly (which is also important), but to go through it together with the responsible employee who will have to fill it out or react.
Anyone can simply read questions from a smartphone screen and put “yes” or “no”; you don’t even need an app. Creating a working system and implementing it correctly is the point.
Conduct your audit together with the employee, show what you need to pay attention to, what to look for, when you can skip questions and when not, and most importantly, explain that the final result is not an assessment of his work, but an action plan, then the audits will not cause rejection, and with proper implementation and training, an audit is more of a challenge; colleagues are interested in understanding what has changed and whether they have coped.
Competent formulation of the question
All checklist questions should be as short as possible; there is no need to inflate them into 10 sentences that will not fit on the screen. The longer the description, the more difficult it is to work with such checklists. If you are creating your own template and realize that it is too big, break it down into 2 or 3 separate questions, it will be easier.
In addition to brevity, the question itself should be literate and understandable not only for you, as the creator of the checklist, but also for those who will fill it out. “Refrigerators keep the temperature” and “Refrigerator temperature from 2 to 4 degrees” are the same for an experienced employee, but the formulation of the second question is more specific and will not cause confusion. If an employee has forgotten what the temperature should be, only after reading the question will he remember, and the checklist turns into a kind of manual.
Don't use all restrictions at once
We have developed a system that takes into account the peculiarities of different areas of business, for example, you can require a photo or disable the option to skip a question. But you shouldn’t limit everything at once and for all the checklist questions. 99% created questions can be skipped, do not disable this feature, correctly assess the importance. The same applies to the requirements for photographs, sometimes they are necessary and important, but at some points they are not at all necessary, especially for very general questions, for example, “All medical books are available,” the employee needs to photograph a stack of medical books or each one separately or come up with something else, most likely, instead of what you need, an indistinct blurred “something” will be inserted so that you can move on to the next question.
Create descriptions
Since we understand what checklists are needed for and what sets us apart, we have created a system of descriptions. You can realize any of your imagination, insert formatted text, add images and links - use this opportunity and the test will become a guide.
New employees who do not yet know everything and cannot do everything, filling out such an audit and having the opportunity to refer to the built-in descriptions, will learn as they complete it.
Let’s say there is a question: “The registration log for the initial briefing is complete.” Does anyone other than a labor protection engineer know all the intricacies of filling it out? What can you ask from an employee who already has 2 million tasks, and the magazine is certainly not in first place? when our establishment was left without goods due to a supplier who mixed up delivery dates.
Well, I think I saw this magazine, it’s lying around in a safe somewhere, even if it’s there, I’ll look in the evening, put the answer “yes” - this will be the result of the check. Try to provide such complex questions with clear descriptions, with pictures that will explain the subtleties and this is no longer just an audit, but a textbook. Give it to a trainee for reference and the effect will be much greater than reading scattered instructions.
We break it down into sections
If you have a large checklist with 100 questions, break it up into sections. There is no rule here, for example, section 1 10 questions, you need to start from something else.
Analyze your checklist and try to group the questions into sections, but this is only part of the job. Try to mentally go through the audit yourself and in most cases you will realize that you are rushing around the establishment, moving from question to question. The magazines are in one place, the entrance group is in the same section, and the condition of the hoods on the roof is in the same section. In addition to logical combination, try to organize them also from the point of view of ease of passage.
Create a route that the employee will follow with your checklist, moving from question to question, he will make a circle around the establishment and end it almost where he started. This is much more efficient and takes much less time than running back and forth.
The checklist is part of the job, not an addition
We made our ideal checklist, wrote descriptions, wrote out the questions clearly and clearly, and were even able to organize them into sections that are easy to go through.
What will most likely happen next is that I don’t have time for your checklists, now I’ll sit down, quickly answer everything and send it, the supplier is there waiting for unloading and I already know what problems there are. This does not mean that the employee is wrong, it’s just that when introducing checklists, there is no emphasis on their importance and obligation; checklists should become part of the employee’s work, for which he should have time.
But you shouldn’t go to extremes and set strict time limits, require filling out hourly or 5 times a day, separate your audits. An important large check - once every few days, a standard round of 20 questions - in the morning and in the evening.
If you were looking for a checklist service or you still have questions about the service, write to us in the chat, we will be happy to help.
