Signposts of an 'ideal' process

Please forgive the lack of references, but I thought it might be an idea to jot down some of my thoughts on the signposts of an 'ideal' process.

1. The responsibilities of all the actors are clearly articulated and represented. I.e., all the relevant people know what they're supposed to be doing (preferably with timeframes noted) and it is obvious who's doing what.
   
2. Work flows seemlessly from one actor to the next as a part of the process itself. I.e., there should not be a seperate system to manage work flow.
   
3. Actor's interactions with processes are highly transparent / observable. I.e., not only is it clear who's doing what now, but who did what and when.
4. Beyond people doing the work required by the process (e.g., making a decision on something) there should be no additional human activity. I.e., seperate administrators should not be required to action the decisions made by others. The decisions should be stored within the processes themselves and actioned by automation.
5. People will easily have all the information required to work on a given process. Ususally this will mean that the information is presented within the process.
6. Working in the process is as easy as possible. I.e., user experience matters.
   
7. The process is as simple as possible.
   
8. Work is be performed along reporting lines and in an actor's key responsibility areas. E.g., if person x reports to y and is performing work on a process that x nor y has no responsibility for then problems will inevitably arise. I.e., responsibilities should not only be clear, but they should make sense.
9. Work is as centralised as is possible / sensible.
   
10. Activity does not jump backwards and forwards between the same actors. I.e., processes should be streamlined.
11. The work done by the process will be self-audited within the process. I.e., activities of manager y will effectively audit the work of manager x and the generation of output b will be the final audit as it is verified by manager x before delivery to employee m.
    

Talent Management - Why Employer Brand is Critical to Retention and Engagement

I recently came across this article at talentmgt.com which does a great job at making the case for the importance of a strong employer as well as consumer brand.
Of course this is likely old hat to you, but the value of the article is in that it outlines some solid steps to strengthening your employer brand. Some ideas I particularly agreed with / liked are:

• Linking an employer brand to your consumer brand
• The usefulness to well-designed onboarding programmes
• Importance of getting performance expectations aligned with brand (i.e., vision + culture + values)
• Value of having employees as brand ambassadors to clients + potentially employees + new hires