Workflow management became more and more important since the emergence of the internet. The workplace has undergone a significant transformation. The corporate world is highly competitive, and new tactics and frameworks are emerging daily.
Many businesses are succeeding by deploying software to assist workflow management systems. This way, they increase productivity and lower stress throughout the entire organization.
What Is Workflow Management?
Workflow management refers to the creation, execution, and monitoring of workflows. A workflow is a set of connected steps that need to be carried out to complete a task. Workflow management systems are used to automate and optimize business processes.
By automating processes, businesses can improve efficiency and productivity. Workflow management systems can be used to manage simple processes. This includes document approvals, or complex processes, such as order fulfillment.
There are several different workflow management software solutions available on the market. Some of these solutions are designed for specific industries, while others are more general purpose. Workflow management software typically includes several core features. Some of these are the ability to create and execute workflows, track the progress of workflows, and generate reports.
What are Some Examples of Workflow Automation?
Induction for a new hire
When you hire someone new it needs to go through an induction process. This kind of process usually consist in some particular steps depending on each company.
For example an induction process can have the following steps:
- Assigning the needed equipment
- Presenting the company
- Becoming familiar with the company policies
- Training
- Giving access to needed resources
- Meeting the team
Each of these steps are repeated for any new hire in the company. This process is repetitive and it’s best suited to be automated. This way each step of the process is completed with much more ease and with less errors.
Someone leaves the company
Same things as in the hiring example apply. When somebody leaves the company they need to go through a certain process. This can involve things like task handover, paperwork, adjusting the employees database and giving back the equipment.
Onboarding for a new customer
When a customer purchases your product they will need to go through an onboarding process. This will also consist in some repetitive steps that you need to make for each customer. It’s easier to automate this process and save yourself some time.
Customer Support
Each time someone reaches customer support they need to solve a problem. And some problems are more common than the others. For this kind of problems workflow automation can work wonders.
The first step would be to identify what kind of problem the customer has. Then you can redirect them to the most common solutions for that kind of problem. If they don’t find what they’re looking for then you can redirect them to a customer support agent from the department with the issue and so on.
This kind of approach has many more benefits then randomly assigning the customer to a help agent that might not know how to solve the problem. Or waste time giving the same information that is available in the common solutions section.
For example, 73% of customer support professionals reported that their biggest challenge is managing time and workload.
The Benefits of using Workflow Management Software
Increased Productivity
Each that most of the repetitive task are automate. This way, people don’t have to go countless times through the same boring steps and waste time on energy on the same repetitive tasks. They can instead focus on more important things. Furthermore they can do work that can have much more of an impact in the company, which in turn motivates them to be even more productive.
According to McKinsey, workflow automation can improve the global productivity growth by 0.8-1.4 % every year.
Improved Quality of Work
In addition to increasing productivity, workflow management software can also improve the quality of work. When repetitive task are done manually, human error si more likely to appear. When you automate tasks you can easily find and fix errors before they become too big. You can also better identify bottlenecks and create a more optimized process.
Enhanced Collaboration
The workflow management software can also enhance collaboration by providing a centralized platform for communication and cooperation. Allowing all team members to see the status of a task or project can help to avoid duplication of effort and improve coordination. Furthermore, giving team members the ability to comment on and attach files to studies can help to streamline the flow of information and make it easier to track progress.
Reduce Costs
To reduce costs, businesses must optimize efficiency and productivity. A workflow management system will automate time-consuming tasks and will help you identify inefficiencies. Also you will not need to hire more people to focus on repetitive tasks that take most of their times.
Increase Customer Satisfaction
Automating tasks and improving communication and collaboration can help businesses to increase customer satisfaction. Moreover, companies can build loyalty and repeat business when they provide a better experience for customers.
The easiest way to achieve this is by implementing processes for handling customers. Then you can update them according to customer feedback to create the best possible experience.
Reinforce Accountability
Using Workflows you can assign tasks and roles in a way that guides all participants through the project’s course. Additionally, you can set expectations to determine success once completed.
As a result, people will have a bigger sense of accountability for their work. Knowing things can help them do their work better and complete it on schedule.
Eliminate Micromanagement
Workflow management systems give businesses a higher level of transparency in work. This transparency can help eliminate the need for micromanagement. Thus, team members can be free to work independently.
Reduce Stress
By automating tasks, providing visibility in inefficiencies, and facilitating collaboration and communication, workflow management software can help to reduce stress throughout an organization.
Assigning Tasks to Suited People
With workflow management you can track the work of each employee and identify their strengths and weaknesses. As a result you can assign tasks to the people that are the best suited for the job and improve quality.
Conclusion
As you can see, workflow management software can bring many benefits to your business. 57% of businesses are planning to use automation tools to increase performance. Furthermore, automating repetitive tasks and increasing productivity are key factors in this day and age. It could as well be the difference between success and failure.
If you are wondering what tool to pick, you can check out our list of the best workflow management software for your team.
Some other articles that may be useful:
