Successful workflow

Workflow management is the smart distribution of work within an organization. Many companies pay little attention to this. As a result, people wait for tasks that have long since been completed or, on the contrary, miss work that requires corrections or adjustment of priorities later in the business process. So in addition to lost time (and thus money), this often results in frustration among employees.

Why get started with your workflow?

With an optimal workflow, information flows through the organization and employees are alerted to the action they need to take. A second advantage is that with workflow systems, information is stored centrally so that decisions are always made based on the correct information, The information is also always current and can be used for real-time reporting. These benefits can be achieved for any organization where collaboration takes place in teams and between departments. Workflow management is therefore used very widely, from industry to construction and project management. In SMEs and multinationals.

What should you pay attention to when setting up the workflow?

If you want to start with workflow management, it is important that you have a good view of the desired information flow within your business process. Think about what information is essential for a proper completion of the business process but also which departments are involved in the process steps. This seems very complicated but employees usually know how to tell you exactly what they need. The golden rules “Begin with the end in mind” and “Less is more” are important principles when setting up a good workflow management process. When starting to use workflow management, first choose a process where there is a lot to gain. In this way, employees will automatically become involved and then other business processes can be optimized.

Tips for a successful workflow

For a workflow to be truly effective, the end user must be able to oversee the entire business process and also recognize their own role in it. To successfully implement workflow, the following tips are worth considering.

• Try to develop a workflow for the process that suffices for a standard process. Expanding it with exception scenarios makes it unnecessarily complex. In addition, it is more effective to discuss exception situations in person with those involved.
• Consider using informational email in the workflow. If substantive information is already provided in the email, it helps the user tremendously in following up.
• Develop the workflow together with the stakeholders; they have the knowledge of the business process.
• Provide a periodic review of your workflow. Internal and external changes can affect your work process. It’s helpful to keep optimizing this.
• Consider using a no code workflow application. This allows you not to depend on an expensive IT consultant but to incorporate your own specific requirements into the workflow.

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