There are a lot of processes that are involved in business operations, and one of them is workflow management. This basically refers to the passing of data—may it be in image, document, or whatever else—from one person to another. It may also be passed on through the use of a machine. The key here is that every procedure should be according to the policies and rules that have already been determined, established, and practiced by the organization.
The Use of Technology in Workflow Management
Let’s pretend that you will have a monthly employee evaluation in your team. If you don’t make use of any kind of technology, you may have to let them fill out a survey form, perhaps with boxes that they are going to tick, depending on their chosen or preferred answers. When they are done, you still need to tabulate their answers. If you have 15 forms and it takes you 5 minutes to tabulate each of them, spending more than an hour just doing this menial task. Tabulation, moreover, is not the end of the entire process. You are still going to interpret the results, then submit them to your HR manager. All in all, the entire process is lengthy, time-consuming, and very prone to error.
With the integration of automation tools, however, you can greatly improve your efficiency, accuracy, flexibility, and, most of all, customer service.
The Benefits of Workflow Management
1. You can greatly improve the effectiveness of the business processes. By using an automated workflow management tool, you can get rid of steps that may no longer be necessary. In the example given above, you can perhaps cut down on the tabulation process, as the software may already have the ability to generate results based on the data that you have encoded. You can also skip the use of survey form and allow your employees to fill out e-forms, which could then be connected to your workflow management tool. Most of them can generate reports immediately, so analysis can be done constantly. You can also save these reports in the company portal, to be accessed by your HR manager.
2. It enhances customer service. Because the processes are very clear and are followed properly, customers are more secured that they can obtain precise and immediate answers to their questions. Moreover, the workflow management tool can be used to determine the performance of your sales agents. Since their roles and responsibilities are already streamlined, you can easily determine areas where they need some improvement or training. When your sales agents can better serve your customers, the latter will be more satisfied. In turn, they will be coming back for repeat orders and even recommend your business to others.
3. You can conveniently identify where the process may have gone wrong. A workflow management makes it easy for you to point out where the broken chain is and what could have possibly caused it. Moreover, since the roles of every employee will be more detailed, you can make them more accountable for their own actions.
