flowchart improvement process (650 words excluding reference)

Flowchart Improvement Process

When it comes to processes in a business there are many different things that come about like reasons. With any process there are many different reason why they are put on place. Some reason could be to make the organization move smoothly others could be to help aid and assign task to which department. When it comes to process they are always made to help with the operations of an organization, but sometimes the process that are put in place can use improvement. This does not mean that processes that were put in place hinder the organization but, since business is always changing process is my sometimes update with the change.

VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System

Currently I am an employee of the education office at the Cleveland VA Medical Center. We have over 5,000 employees and over 13 clinics throughout the state of Ohio. A major part of the education office is to make sure all employees are up to date with trainings, education, and even yearly conferences. The Education department processes over $300,000 of education request per year so, making sure processes are working is key for this departments success.

Current process

Some of the education process is one of the most important one is reimbursement for tuition. When employee decides to go to a conference or get any form of education the education department can reimburse the employee. When in employee decides to finally give for reimbursement there are many processes that come into play when it comes to processing these payments to the employee. The current process for tuition reimbursement is that the employee gives a SF 1164 to the education department. Once the education department received and approved the SF 1164 for the correct amount we send it to fiscal. Once fiscal receives it they audit the supporting documents then sends it to the accounting department. Accounting will process the request and send it to payroll and then payroll will send the requested funds to the employee.

Issues in process

Now with the current process just like any process they can sometimes be flawed. Some of the major flaws that we see with this process is the lack of communication among the department and a disconnect from employee to fiscal. Some of the issue we in the education department sees is the lack of communication. With the current process the education department gives the supporting documents to fiscal via mail. Once they receive the forms fiscal does not communicate if they received the documents or not. This has caused many issues with employees and other departments within this process. This is because fiscal does not have a process for communication in place. Due to a lack of communication, employees will sometimes never receive reimbursement. The cause of this can be lack of proper documents or information and sometimes the misplacement of forms. Even sometimes fiscal when have payroll place funds in closed accounts or unused one, so the employees are unaware of their deposit. Therefore, a new process of communication will help improve and eliminate so flaws we are facing.

Communications Management process

When it comes to Communications Management Processes it is a process in which a set of steps are made to inform others in the organization (Anderson, 2013). With this process we can stop all disconnect we might have in the current process. The steps that can be made can be a generated automatic email to the employee with education cc’d on it. This email will say that all documents have been received and approved or vis versa. This email will also say how many business day funds will be processed and to check all accounts with in those days.

Current Flow chart:

Accounting Department

Fiscal Department

Education Department

Employee