The main reasons for improving your workflow is to improve operational efficiency, optimize the employee experience, accelerate return on investments and also help in outlining company’s digital transformation.
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In a digitalized economy, companies strive for growth and excellence, to stay relevant and competitive in the market. Thus, there is an urgent need for companies to employ processes that will not only aid in attaining the company’s objectives but also discard bottlenecks that may impound a company’s success. To realize smooth day to day running of a business, the processes and workflows put in place, should work coherently with the employees.
Workflow refers to the movement of work within a department. It highlights who is accountable for which task, and by when it will be completed. It demonstrates how the work moves through a particular project.
In prioritizing a work flow, the following should be considered;
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Which processes and workflows will make a direct and positive impact on customer service?
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Which processes and workflows align to a company goal or objective for the year?
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Is the lack of any of these processes negatively impacting your business?
However, if the need arises to change a particular workflow process, you should beforehand, gather stakeholders' opinions on the existing workflows. In addition, to improve the workflow in your company, the following guidelines should be considered.
1. Strive for automation
According to a research by McKinsey, automation could raise productivity growth globally by 0.8 to 1.4 per cent annually. Automation of processes could be done using workflows apps and software which work in different ways but have the same end goal. These are the tools which help to automate the removal of lags from documentation to execution. They allow employees to focus on what’s really important. Also, having an automated workflow system, will enable the project manager to communicate problems and arising Developments fast.
2. Avoid Multitasking
As a leader, it’s your duty not to overwhelm employees, not even yourself. You can outsource certain parts of your work to other employees. To ensure an efficient workflow system, it is prudent not to tackle multiple projects at the same time, as that would diverge the attention needed to focus distinctively.
3. Make roles and tasks very clear
Communication is the key to prosperity in a company. Everyone should be aware of what their responsibilities are. Otherwise, overlapping of roles may result into extremely chaotic workflow, which may result in a disintegrated process. For an efficient workflow, you should establish the command center from which all the information and guidelines should come.
4. Utilize the process approach
In the process approach, documentation of workflow process is vital. Companies should prioritize process mapping. A company could decide to manage business processes that directly impact the ability to serve customers. During this, monitoring the results of how the processes add value to a business helps to achieve clarity.
5. Provide a central hub for projects.
Having a central hub for projects makes it easy for access during monitoring, evaluation and implementation. It is important to learn how to streamline processes and improve workflow efficiency. Streamlining of processes begin with having a project manager to oversee the workflows.
In conclusion, the main reasons for improving your workflow is to improve operational efficiency, optimize the employee experience, accelerate return on investments and also help in outlining company’s digital transformation.
