Key takeaways
- Staff work reporting is the most effective way to keep track of employee productivity, performance, and resource utilization.
- Changing workforce and work environments (read hybrid work models) make it challenging to collate data for staff work reports.
- Although reporting is essential, organizations face a variety of challenges in generating these reports due to a multitude of reasons.
- From poor data quality to inadequate data practices to the lack of proper reporting tools – organizations face several challenges in preparing staff work related reports.
- Moving away from conventional manual reporting and adopting advanced automated reporting tools holds the key to effective staff work reporting.
Staff Work Reporting – a Few Points Shy of the Perfect Report
So, what does a perfect staff work report look like? An employee productivity report can be considered as a scoreboard of how well a team or employees are performing. Essentially, the staff work report must include details like number of tasks completed, time taken for each task, quality of work, and any discrepancies in work. But, in reality gathering data for each employee can be challenging when conventional methods are followed.
Manual methods of gathering data for preparing staff performance reports cannot scale to increasing business operations and expanding teams. Other challenges that come in the way of preparing the perfect staff work report include – poor data quality, lack of data security, static data, poor report layout, lack of integrated systems, long reporting process, lack of reporting SOPs, and improper baselines.
Do any of the above scenarios sound similar to the situation at your organization? The good news is that the perfect staff report is not elusive anymore! The right reporting tools can help create real-time, accurate staff work reports. Reporting tools can automate the entire process of gathering data, categorizing it, and creating a comprehensive report. Read on to understand the challenges faced in report generation, and the role of workflow automation in creating the perfect staff performance report.
Table of Contents
Current Scenario in Staff Work Reporting
Creating accurate staff work reports is critical to organizations. Accurate reporting helps organizations stay on top of employee performance, identify areas of improvement, and optimize resource utilization. Whether you are a manager incharge of a team or a team member, you would need an employee performance report. An accurately prepared report reflects on how well employees are doing, how efficiently they carry out their work, and where they might improve their work. A staff work report can be imagined as a report card for a team’s work.
Post the COVID pandemic, there have been quite a lot of changes in the way businesses operate. With hybrid and remote working environments becoming the new normal in most organizations, the need for newer and more effective ways to track and report employee performance is greater than ever before. Project teams are scattered across locations and operate in varied working conditions. Establishing SOPs for gathering work data is a challenge with team members working in different working conditions.
Another point of concern is the quality of data that is provided for the staff work report. The main reason is disparate systems used for gathering work data. The data thus gathered is in different formats based on different coding structures. Sometimes incomplete or incorrect data is provided, which requires review and corrections. Managers tend to spend a lot of time validating the data.
Managers need to follow up with team members to send in work data in a timely fashion. When team members delay turning in the data, the creation of the final report is also delayed. In the next section we will look into the common challenges faced while creating staff work reports.
Challenges in Creating Staff Work Reports
Lack of proper data
The quality of data received for the staff work report plays an important part in the outcome of the report. With teams scattered across locations and the use of disparate systems, results in various data formats. To be usable, this data must be consistent and accurate, and devoid of duplicated or outdated data. When data is not cleansed and reviewed properly, it can invalidate the entire report and eventually result in misguided decision making.
Lack of data security
Without proper data security, companies can face cyber attacks and data breaches, as well as threats from human errors. Manual methods of gathering data for reporting lack the level of security required for preserving critical business information.
Static Reports
Team members require access to relevant information in a timely manner to make accurate decisions. Static reporting or reports fail to provide insights into data that is relevant for only a particular time period. Static data, however, has a short shelf life and is not useful for long-term planning or forecasting.
Poor report design
Different staff members have different preferences for how they want to view data. Some may want a chart view, while others may want a bar graph view. Also the level of details required by each stakeholder also varies. For example, board members want a high level view, while department heads may want a detailed view into the performance of each employee. This makes it difficult to arrive at a uniform format for staff work reports.
Inexperience of staff
The methods for gathering reports vary for each person. Not all teams are sufficiently equipped with the necessary training or experience to interpret or digest the data. The inexperience of staff results in discrepancies in the way data is gathered and presented.
Lack of reporting SOP
Most organizations do not have a standard operating procedure around the way staff work reports are prepared. The lack of SOPs for reporting makes it challenging for users to understand the best way to present data.
Workflow Automation – The Key to Streamlined Staff Work Reporting
Most organizations encounter one or more of the challenges listed above while making staff work reports. All of the challenges are typical of manual workflows for preparing staff performance reports. Manual report generation increases the likelihood of mistakes and overlooks. Most enterprises are not built with robust, in-house reporting capabilities that enable them to generate comprehensive reports. Teams often follow manual processes that entail exporting data from disparate systems, importing them onto spreadsheets, manipulating them manually, and formatting them to suit their needs.
It is clear that neither are manual methods scalable nor accurate, and do not provide inputs required for making real-time decisions. Manual processes also require significant staff time and resources. Automating the entire report generation workflow is the most effective way to overcome all of the drawbacks of manual processes, and also improve the efficiency of staff work reporting. Automated reporting tools also reduce the risk of reporting errors that occur in manual processes. These tools also provide intuitive dashboards that reflect real-time data and present it in an easy-to-understand format.
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Cflow – Streamlined and Simplified Staff Work Reporting
Cflow is a no-code workflow automation solution that can accelerate and streamline the staff work reporting workflow. The visual workflow builder in Cflow makes it easy to create process workflows by simply moving visual elements. Even citizen developers with business knowledge can create workflows for any process using this workflow builder. Why is Cflow the best automation tool for creating staff work reports?
- Automated routing and notifications – All staff work reports need to be reviewed and approved by department heads or managers. Cflow automatically routes tasks and notifies stakeholders on pending reports.
- Rules Engine – Cflow is a customizable platform. It features a one-click setup for creating workflows that can be customized with multiple conditions, operators, and operands.
- Reports and analytics – All details related to the workflow are available for you to glance and make informed business decisions. Managers stay updated on employee productivity at all times based on these reports.
- Data security – Cflow offers best in class security with the highest level of reliability and protection for your data. Frequent data backups and multiple storage solutions in Cflow provide best data security features for critical business data.
- Auto approvals – Some tasks/requests in process workflows are routine and do not require manual intervention. Users can configure rules so that such requests can be auto-approved.
- Link multiple processes – Unlike manual processes that rely on disparate systems, Cflow provides comprehensive solutions by linking teams and departments. The workflow solution ensures seamless integration and ensures you work in sync.
Automating the staff work reporting with a robust automation solution like Cflow helps you create real-time reports that are accurate and comprehensive. When you automate the staff work reporting process with Cflow, you take off the heavy lifting for your employees. This time can be spent on more productive work that improves the business’s bottom line.
Conclusion
Manual workflows for creating staff performance reports siphon off resources for mundane activities. Repetitive tasks like report generation are prime candidates for automation. Take the next big step towards efficient and accurate staff work reporting with workflow automation. No more inconsistencies or misguided business decisions with Cflow. Automate your staff work reporting process today by signing up for Cflow.
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