Employee workflows are the lifeblood of business operations. They allow you to keep projects flowing, meet customer expectations and move your business forward.
So why do some companies still lose up to $1.3 million a year to inefficient workflows?
Despite new technologies and options for optimizing employee workflows, challenges remain. But thankfully, there are easy ways to overcome them. Keep reading for a deep-dive look at the importance of effective workflows, along with steps you can follow to make the most of them within your team.
What is an employee workflow?
An employee workflow is a structured sequence of tasks, processes and activities employees follow to complete their work and keep projects on-track. An important part of project management, it defines how information, data and responsibilities flow between people and systems within an organization.
For example, a new hire onboarding workflow might start with processing HR paperwork before moving onto IT to set up accounts and then to the employee’s manager to prepare training materials and oversee orientation activities.
What is employee workflow management?
Employee workflow management is a systematic approach to improving employee productivity by optimizing the flow of day-to-day tasks and responsibilities. It’s an essential part of team leadership, as it helps ensure employees work efficiently toward shared goals. It’s not uncommon for workflows to slow or stall due to delayed approvals, longer-than-anticipated reviews and other hurdles. Regularly evaluating your team’s workflows allows you to reduce errors, remove unnecessary steps and make the most of workflow management tools.
Why is effective workflow management important?
The importance of managing workflows cannot be overstated. Employee workflow management lays the foundation for stronger employee engagement, higher customer satisfaction and greater team productivity. It keeps critical business processes moving forward, and allows you to adapt quickly to market changes and shifts in the competitive landscape.
Benefits of employee workflow management
Good workflows help standardize processes, reduce errors, improve efficiency and ensure consistency in how work gets done. Whether you manage them with simple checklists or sophisticated workflow management software, proper workflow design leads to all kinds of benefits, including:
- Fewer errors: Proactively managing employee workflows makes it easy to spot and reduce errors, improving the overall quality of work.
- Faster progress: Evaluating and optimizing important workflows is one of the best ways to help your team save time so they can get more done, faster.
- Greater productivity: Workflow management boosts employee productivity by eliminating time-consuming, repetitive tasks. This is especially true if you use workflow automation tools.
- More collaboration: Workflow management empowers you to break down silos and improve cross-team collaboration, streamlining processes across the entire organization.
Challenges in employee workflow management
While the benefits of employee workflow management are significant, expect to face some challenges. For example, many managers struggle with:
Workflow integrations
In the era of hybrid work and distributed teams, digital workflows are crucial. But to be effective, any workflow management systems you use must integrate with your other tools. The easier it is to integrate your applications, the faster you’ll be able to build efficient workflows. However, according to a recent survey, 89% of organizations face data integration backlogs. Don’t add to the mess — before you invest in new software, check to make sure it “plays well” with your existing tools.
Using the wrong technology
It’s not just processes you need to evaluate. Having the right workflow management platform in place is crucial. Make sure any system you use not only integrates well with other tools but also makes sense for your team members. For example, many decisionmakers are attracted to robust features and capabilities. But if your team only needs two or three, the extra bells and whistles may add complexity unnecessarily.
Resistance to automation
One of the biggest benefits of workflow management? It helps you identify routine, repetitive tasks that are easy to automate. However, many employees are resistant to the very AI-driven tools designed to make their lives easier. In one recent survey, 41% of workers say they worry AI will take their jobs. When reviewing and optimizing workflows, take time to explain how automation frees your team members to focus on high-value work.
Signs it’s time to manage employee workflows
So, how do you know if it’s time to proactively manage your employee workflows? Here are a few signs it’s time to implement the steps below:
- Your team frequently misses deadlines. This indicates current workflows are not as optimized as they could be.
- Employees spend too much time on low-value work. If the bulk of routine, repetitive tasks aren’t yet automated, it’s time to look for ways to put them on autopilot.
- Team communication is lagging. If your team members don’t communicate regularly on shared goals, your workflows will suffer. As a manager, it’s important to step in and look for ways to re-open the lines of communication.
- Too many steps slow projects. Workflows don’t need to be complex to work. In fact, the simpler the better. If your current processes are unwieldy, it’s time to reevaluate.
How to perform employee workflow management
Implementing workflow management may seem daunting, but following a structured approach simplifies the process. With careful planning and the right tools, you can facilitate a smooth transition from traditional methods to more systematic workflow strategies. Follow these steps to establish effective workflow management in no time.
1. Assess your current workflows
The first crucial step is to evaluate your current workflows. How much time do your team members spend on skilled, strategic jobs? How much of their current work could be automated? Are the right people assigned to the right responsibilities? Answering these questions and others like them brings clarity to your current workflows — and helps you determine what needs to change. When in doubt, use workforce optimization software to see how team members currently spend their time.
2. Engage your employees
Once you’ve gathered initial data on current workflows, seek input from team members. They’re your best resource for understanding existing processes. Ask what roadblocks they face, how they feel about workload distribution and what suggestions they have for making workflows more efficient. Then turn that feedback into a list of improvements you’ll make when managing workflows moving forward.
3. Identify the right tools
Effective workflow management hinges on your ability to identify the right technology. From project management software like Trello to communication tools like Slack, each app plays a role in moving workflows forward. But too many tools cause complexity. To keep this from happening, make a list of all the tools your team currently uses. Then rank them. Does each one serve an important purpose, or are some tools unnecessary and distracting? If you have trouble answering these questions, use these SaaS app visibility tips to find out which tools keep work flowing — and which ones don’t.
4. Apply proven strategies
By now you’ve examined your current workflows, gathered employee input and evaluated your tools. Now it’s time to optimize. From the agile approach to the Kanban system, researchers and productivity experts have identified countless methods for improving workflows. For example:
- Use the lean method to remove unnecessary steps and streamline tasks. This is a great way to free employees to focus on high-value activities that move the business forward.
- Try the theory of constraints to remove bottlenecks. With this approach, you look for the biggest limiting factor — such as too many review cycles — and then seek ways to remove it.
- Apply the Kanban system to help team members work faster with visual cues. This approach relies on digital cards employees move and rearrange as they complete tasks.
5. Measure, monitor and refine
As a manager, it’s your job to continually improve team dynamics. And workflows are a big part of this process. Is each task assigned to the right person? Are roles properly aligned? Is work distributed fairly across all team members? You might think you know the answers to these questions. But to find out for sure, you have to measure team productivity. Whether you use productivity management software or collect ongoing feedback, take time to understand what your people need to make workflows as efficient as possible. Then do it again…and again…and again.
Streamline employee workflow management with ActivTrak
Effective employee workflow management is the foundation for higher employee performance and productivity. And applying the above steps is the best way to get started today.
To streamline the process even more, ActivTrak’s workforce optimization software quantifies all kinds of employee productivity metrics — the kind that help reveal workflow management opportunities you might not recognize on your own. It collects and analyzes daily employee activity data for you, then analyzes it to deliver insights on productivity and performance. More than 9,500 customers currently use ActivTrak to improve workflows, remove productivity blockers and improve employee well-being.
Create your free account to start using ActivTrak today. And if you’d like more tips and best practices, get in touch for a personalized tour of the most popular features.
