Definition of Workflow
A workflow constitutes a sequence of tasks that process a set of data. A workflow shows you how your business processes work. It shows the sequence of tasks that need to be done before you get to the desired outcome. And if it’s well done, you can optimize your organizations and see your employee’s productivity increase.
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The 3 Basic Components of a Workflow
It isn’t enough to know the definition of workflow to take advantage of this fantastic tool for businesses. So let’s get a deeper understanding of it. A workflow usually consists of three basic components:
- Input – Think of it as a trigger to your workflow. It’s the things that you need to start your workflow. These could be anything from your employees, materials, and other resources.
- Transformation – And this is the process of your workflow. It’s the order of steps you need to go through before getting to the desired outcomes.
- Output – And lastly, there’s output. It is the result of your workflow. For example, this could be a new hire in an employee onboarding workflow.
Types of Workflow
Process Workflow
This is the simplest and most common version of all of them. With this workflow, you know exactly what is needed to start the workflow, what process you need to go through, and the outcomes. It’s like following a cake recipe. You get your ingredients, follow the recipe, and then you get a tasty cake.
Case Workflow
This workflow is a bit more complicated than the previous one. In this workflow, you know the input and output of the workflow. However, you don’t know the steps for getting to the desired outcome. Let’s take customer service, for example! Before getting a support ticket, you already know what is needed for starting this workflow and the outcomes. You need a client with a support ticket for input, and the output is the customer’s problem solved. However, you can’t predict what steps are needed to do before you get the input.
Project Workflow
The last type is a bit similar to the process workflow. Like with the process workflow, you know your inputs and outputs. Plus, you can predict what steps need to be taken before getting to the desired outcome. However, what sets them apart is that a project needs more flexibility. That means during the process, some changes will be made before you get to the desired result.
7 Amazing Benefits of Using Workflows
Now that you’ve got a deep understanding of workflows, you might be wondering why you should use them? There are many incredible benefits you’ll feel if you start using workflows. Here are just seven of them:
Increased Productivity
Thanks to clearly defining the steps and automation, you and your employees should be more productive than ever. That’s because everyone knows what they need to do and free time to work on the most critical tasks.
More Consistent Results
And due to increased productivity, you should start seeing more consistent results as a by-product.
Improved Onboarding and Adoption Rates
Thanks to a well-thought-out onboarding workflow, it should be more accessible than ever to go through the process of finding new employees to hire. That gives you more time to take action on the things that matter.
Less Micromanagement
Thanks to workflows, your employees should now clearly understand their responsibilities. That promotes them to practice more self-management, which frees up managers’ time to work on more crucial aspects.
Reduced Costs
As a by-product of better productivity and consistent results, your business should also start seeing its costs plummet. That’s primarily thanks to not needing extra employees to keep up with the amount of work.
Quicker Problem Solving
Thanks to you for documenting the steps of a process, finding a solution for a problem is easier than ever. With a workflow, it’s easy to pinpoint what causes your problem, which gives you more time to find a good solution.
Increased Revenue
And to top it all off, your business should also start seeing your business grow to new heights. That’s because of the cost savings, increased productivity, and quicker problem-solving
Use Cases of Workflows
So, now you understand the benefits of using workflows! However, you might be scratching your head at how you could use it to your advantage? Well, there are many use cases for workflows! Here are just four of them.
For Onboarding Employees
The first use case for workflows is for onboarding employees. We know how daunting this can be; you’ll have to do so much! But with a workflow, you can make it easier than ever.
First, you could start by clearly defining how the process goes from getting applications to deciding who gets the job. Then you can find ways to automate the process. For example, you could automatically send test assignments to people by email.
For Support and Customer Service
Another place where you could use a workflow is in your customer service. While you might not be able to write down exact steps for your customer service, as client problems are usually unique, there are a few ways you could use them.
For example, you could outline the entire process of dealing with customer service. You could start by getting a support ticket from a customer. Then you could define what happens next in different situations. For example, what happens when your support cannot solve the problem themselves? And then you could end it by closing the ticket.
For Healthcare Management
Pharmacies and other healthcare-related organizations are extremely busy. So they can benefit from the workflows a lot. So how could they use workflows? Well, for example, they could define the process of getting medicine. The workflow could start with clients placing an order for their treatment. Then you could go through the prescription verification process and end with giving the medicine to the client.
For eCommerce Businesses
If you own an online store, then you can also benefit from workflows. One of the best ways of using workflows is to define the process of customer acquisitions. That workflow could start with a stranger clicking onto your site, then looking at your products, and ending with a product on their doorstep. That gives you a lot of insight into where you could improve your sales funnel and pinpoint problems for why your store isn’t converting.
How No-Code Will Change The Industry
But before we end this article, I want you to know about one thing, and that’s how no-code will change everything.
As I previously mentioned, businesses are looking to manage their businesses more efficiently and get more profits. And for that reason, companies quickly need to change the processes to be as effective as possible. And that’s where no-code comes in!
No-code is a platform that you can use to program something like an application without ever writing a line of code. And since most business owners don’t know how to write code, they can use these platforms to create and finetune their business applications to work as productively as possible.
That gives businesses many benefits. One of the best is that you could create applications without needing a team of developers to do it. And the best part, you could do that as fast if not faster than with them! That will help you save money and time.
Conclusion
And that’s what a workflow is. So to recap, a workflow is a sequence of steps that processes a set of data. That gives businesses many benefits like increased productivity and increased profits. So if you haven’t implemented any workflows to your small business, I highly suggest you do it!
