“Now that you know better, you’ll do better.” Maya Angelou

Last week we discussed the first two characteristics of an effective corrective action system — efficiency and accountability. Today, we’ll discuss the last two — transparency and legal protection.

For corrective action to really function on a brand level, decisions and actions need to come from the top down (from corporate headquarters to stores), instead of from the bottom up. What I mean by that is in too many franchises people do corrective action on a store-by-store basis — putting out fires as they happen — instead of being able to see trends of problems across the brand and putting preventative measures in place to fix problems before they occur. For this to happen, there needs to be transparency.

3 – Transparency

To make decisions from the top down, corporate headquarters must receive all evaluation data in a timely way, have a way to quickly analyze it, and then make corrective action decisions across the company. Talk to any senior executive in a company about opportunities for improvement, and they’ll quickly rattle off their top five actionable items. They realize there are inefficiencies, but rarely know which stores are specifically experiencing these problems and which managers need more training. And why don’t they have this information? Evaluation information is often stuck in an endless loop of emails and spreadsheets that never go anywhere, which cuts off the stream of data to corporate headquarters. There has to be a way to get information out of the email loop and into the hands of those who have the ability to make effective changes.

Solutions: An effective system will have:

1. A centralized hub of information, where people all along the evaluation chain can log in and see pertinent information.
2. Real-time data, so decision makers can solve problems before they turn into brand disasters.
3. Auto-generated reports, so people can spend less time crunching the numbers and more time making sure changes are implemented correctly.

With these key components in place, a system can make sure the organization has transparency from top to bottom to ensure the right people get the right information to make the right decisions.

4 – Legal Protection

One aspect of the corrective action process often gets overlooked. There is a tendency along the evaluation chain for people to not report violations that could come back to haunt them. For example, say food is left out and is not maintained at the temperature OSHA demands. With the old evaluation system, a report like this could float around, without being attached to the report of corrective action performed to remedy the situation. This old system of evaluations puts everyone involved at a legal risk, leading some people to hesitate to report it at all.

Solutions: To protect your company from these kind of regulatory and legal problems, you must utilize business performance software. RizePoint’s software technology allows you to document corrective action — preferably with pictures and work orders — and attach it along with the original evaluation. This way, companies can show due diligence should questions ever arise.

In summary, our system checklist of solutions:

1. Efficiency — mobile evaluations, automated reports sent to the correct people
2. Accountability — an automated system that reminds each individual of their evaluation and corrective duties and alerts upper management if those duties are not performed
3. Transparency — centralized information and auto-generated reports that are sent to those in authority to make changes
4. Legal Protection — a system that allows stores to connect evaluation reports with corrective action reports for future reference

As executives keep these key characteristics in mind, they’ll be enabled to choose the most efficient corrective action platform available.

One last thought: it’s vital companies recognize and reward those who are compliant and who enter corrective actions on time. When your corrective action system is operating correctly, it becomes an important tool in your toolbox to support the field team. Those who use it well should be recognized. Many companies today even tie financial bonus and incentives directly to the corrective action process. On a higher level, it’s also helping to strengthen your corporate culture.

I hope you enjoyed this two-part blog on corrective action.