What is a business owner or manager’s most precious commodity? Time. With countless tasks, projects, and employees to manage, it can often feel overwhelming to divide your time between addressing each area of your business. 

Of course, some things need your attention and can’t be outsourced or passed onto another team member. However, business owners and managers can reclaim a significant chunk of their time by incorporating workflow automation into their strategies.

By leveraging workflow automation, companies position themselves to work more efficiently. Designing effective workflows enables owners and managers to save money, provide a better customer experience, and free up valuable time to spend on growing their businesses. Keep reading to learn more about how workflow automation can help you take your business to the next level.

What is Workflow Automation?

Workflow automation utilizes technology to automate processes and tasks requiring minimal human intervention. Ideally, these workflows can operate from beginning to end on their own. The best tasks to automate include repetitive tasks or streamlined operations, which might include:

• Processing and tracking invoices
• Organizing and managing sales leads
• Inventory management and ordering supplies
• Assigning tasks and projects to individual team members
• Generate data reports to monitor various key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Updating customer records in customer relationship management (CRM) software

The great thing about automation software is it’s easy to update and adjust your process. The more you track the performance of the workflows, the better you’ll understand how effective they are. 

The Benefits of Using Workflow Automation

Once you establish workflow automation for different business areas, you can expect short- and long-term benefits. Depending on your business goals, the effectiveness of each workflow automation may vary, but most companies experience common benefits such as: 

• Increased Productivity and Efficiency: Automating tasks can greatly improve your team’s productivity by assigning repetitive tasks to the automated systems.
• Improved Accuracy: By using automation software, companies can reduce the risk of human error.
• Enhanced Customer Experience: You can answer customer inquiries and requests much more efficiently, ensuring quality customer service.
• Cost Savings: Automation systems help reduce the cost of manual labor and operational costs.
• Better Team Collaboration: Data and documentation are easily shared through automated systems, creating a streamlined approach to communication between teams and departments.

8 Tips for Implementing Workflow Automation

If you want to incorporate workflow automation into your business strategy, you and your team can get started in just a few steps. The initial process is sometimes challenging as you begin designing your workflows, but the results are worth the time and effort. Let’s dive into nine tips you can use to implement automation into your workflow.

Define Goals and Objectives

Every process should begin with clear objectives. Be specific about your business goals, including individual team or department goals. Consider current or upcoming campaigns, product launches, and long-term projects that could benefit from automation. Defining these goals will help shape your workflows so you can curate them for those objectives.  

Take the time to decide what KPIs you’d like to track to help measure the success of each automated workflow. KPIs vary depending on the department and workflow and will most likely change over time as you continue to gather data and insight on performance. 

Identify Processes

Not all tasks make sense for automation, so you must identify which procedures can benefit from automated workflows. The most common processes involve repetitive tasks that are often time-consuming or prone to errors. When deciding what tasks to automate, consider which processes, when automated, will have the greatest impact on your team’s productivity.

Choose the Right Tools

With many automation software options available, it’s important to research what tools best suit your business needs and goals. Some tools may be better suited for small—to medium-sized companies, while others are tailored for large corporations. The same goes for the specific features and types of automation each platform offers—it all depends on your needs. 

For example, a business with a significant social media presence might need a program to assist with automated engagement and responses to their audience. A manufacturing company focused on data management needs a tool to help organize data and scale business efforts.

You should also consider other features like integration capabilities and a user-friendly interface.

Remember your budget. Take advantage of free trials or complimentary demonstrations to test the software before committing financially. 

Outline Processes

Understanding your current workflows is a great starting point as you improve or develop your processes. If you’re updating any systems currently in place, look for areas to enhance the process before automating. This enhancement can help remove unnecessary steps once automation is in place. 

You and your team may find it helpful to create visual maps to illustrate workflows and pinpoint opportunities to implement automation. Experiment with diagrams and flowcharts, creating a master blueprint of your workflows as they are now and as they will be with automation. 

Provide Training

Conduct training sessions to ensure all team members and departments are familiar with these new initiatives and workflows. Hands-on training allows employees to work directly with new software and tools and can also serve as an opportunity to explore learning curves that can assist with future training. 

Beyond the initial training, encourage your team to continue learning by offering ongoing support and access to resources. Create a comprehensive library with training material and tutorials for employees to use. Remember to periodically update the material as your workflows and procedures change so you update everyone on your system’s best practices.

Prioritize Compliance and Security

The automation software you choose should comply with industry standards and security regulations to minimize the potential for security breaches. This compliance will help protect your company’s information as well as customer and vendor data from unauthorized access. 

Many automated processes handle some kind of sensitive information. Everything from collecting customer and lead generation data to accounting workflows and managing employee records. It’s your company’s best interest to safeguard all sensitive data and take necessary measures to prevent data breaches.

Embrace Flexibility and Agility

The most successful business owners and managers realize that the landscape of the market and industry will inevitably change over time. So, it’s your responsibility to prepare for these changes within the industry and continue to meet your market and target audience’s demands. Your agility, or willingness to pivot and adapt as needed, can give you the competitive advantage necessary to remain relevant in your industry. 

Monitor and Measure

As with any business area, you should monitor automated workflows over time to ensure efficient and successful operation. When implementing these workflows, use the performance data you’ve collected and measure them against the KPIs you initially outlined. Find the areas that need improvement and continue to allow the automation to evolve. 

Adopting Workflow Automation in Your Business

Like everything else in your business, workflow automation relies on a little planning that can go a long way. Start by identifying your goals and mapping out your current workflows to see where to improve. By choosing the right automation tools, you can drive efficiency and reduce the risk of errors, supporting a more strategic and streamlined workflow. Successful business owners and managers can leverage this technology to enable their teams to focus on growing the business and boosting revenue. 

Featured image by Andrew Neel on Unsplash