Review what you keep in-house once a year

Key takeaways

Review in-house processes annually: once a year, spend an hour checking what you keep and what you outsource. Items that no longer need protecting can move; new risks may need adding. Review earlier after a big change such as a new regulation, a major client, a new service, a near miss or a change of provider.

• Review the keep list once a year, in about one hour.
• Remove items that no longer need protecting.
• Add new decisions, duties and keys.
• Review early after any big change or near miss.

Why review every year?

Because the business changes. Processes that once needed the owner may now be routine, new regulations may add duties, and provider relationships may have matured enough to raise limits. Without a review, the keep list either grows by habit or erodes by drift.

• Which business processes should you never outsource?
• A never-outsource list that is too long costs you

What should the review cover?

Work through the list item by item.

• Does each item still score a 2 on the five A's?
• Is the owner still right, with a deputy?
• Have any decisions drifted to providers?
• Are there new duties or keys to add?
• Can any limits safely rise?

• The never-outsource test: five questions for any process
• When your provider starts making your decisions

What should trigger an early review?

Any of these.

• A new regulation or regulator contact.
• A major client win or loss.
• A new service or location.
• A near miss, breach or fraud attempt.
• A new or changed provider.

• An outsourcing risk register for each process
• Data breaches: who decides whether to report?

Who should take part?

The owners, the managers who own kept items and, for part of the meeting, your main providers. Providers often know which escalations are unnecessary and which limits cause delays.

• A simple BPO governance model for SMEs
• Document the processes you keep, not just the ones you move

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: an annual review finds a decision that drifted to a provider and two kept items that no longer need the owner. Both corrections take minutes once someone looks.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Annual review checklist

• Book an hour at the same time each year.
• Re-score each kept item.
• Check owners and deputies.
• Look for drift to providers.
• Record changes and the next review date.

• A decision rights matrix for outsourced work
• Document the processes you keep, not just the ones you move

Next step

Put a one-hour keep list review in the diary for the same month every year, starting with the next quarter.