Everyone makes mistakes. It’s just part of being human. Unfortunately, in the workplace, mistakes can come at a high cost. Business workflow automation can reduce that cost by eliminating the “human” component of many common workflows.
Business workflow automation doesn’t only reduce errors in the workplace; it also saves time and money in the process. Take a look at how it can minimize the high cost of workplace errors for your company.
Small Mistakes; Big Money
According to an article in Harvard Business Review, mistakes in data cost US companies over $3 trillion a year! That’s an astounding number that should strike terror into the minds of every business owner.
But why is this number so high?
The same article surmised that errors are costly because no one takes the time to get to the root of the problem—explaining their requirements to the person who inputs the data. Instead, each person who encounters bad data makes their own accommodations. Checking and correcting inaccurate data becomes another part of the workday, taking time away from income-generating tasks.
And time is money.
Top Causes of Workplace Errors
Humans are susceptible to several conditions that can quickly lead to errors in the workplace. Organizational processes can also contribute to workplace errors. Here are just a few examples.
Fatigue: Fatigued employees can easily misfile, misclassify, or simply forget to complete steps and procedures necessary for proper workflow. These errors can have serious consequences.
Speed: Whether an employee is rushing to get out of the office on a Friday afternoon or feels pressure to get more work done in less time by their supervisor, speed results in sloppy work, which causes errors.
Poor training: Poorly trained employees can’t help but make mistakes, even when they do their best.
Unclear process: Workplace processes can be undefined, and employees follow steps because they have “always been done this way.” Without a clearly defined process, inexperienced employees may not know that a task needs attention or understand what exactly needs to be done in what timeframe.
Lack of accountability: When processes do not have assigned users, it can be unclear who has authorization to complete the tasks. This may result in misuse with tasks performed by unauthorized users who do not have the proper security level.
Poor controls: When regulatory compliance or organizational rules must be followed, oversights can occur without the proper controls in place. It also becomes difficult to determine if compliance has been met.
Fortunately, even when these issues are present, you can avoid many workplace errors with business workflow automation.
Control Costs with Business Workflow Automation
Business workflow automation solves issues caused by poor training or unclear processes because those requirements are programmed into the workflow. An automated system doesn’t get fatigued, doesn’t rush through its work, and doesn’t waste time making accommodations for bad data. Automated workflows provide security—making it clear who can do what and tracks what occurs. By structuring controls and making it possible to move to the next step only if all requirements have been met, it eliminates oversights and misuse, and enforces better compliance.
Workflow automation tools provide cloud and SaaS platforms, data analytics, forecasting tools, process automation, and more. They minimize errors and the costs associated with those errors.
These tools increase data integrity: Data is correctly categorized and filed the first time, every time. This means your employees can spend their precious time on more critical, income-generating tasks.
If you think it’s time to stop throwing away money on data errors, contact us today to schedule your demo. We can help you choose the business workflow automation tool that best fits the needs of your business, and we’ll show you how to get the most out of it.
