What is Workflow Analysis?

Workflow Analysis is the process of breaking down the performance of a workflow and

examines trends for improvement. By looking at a workflow at a granular task level,
business users can tweak processes for optimal efficiency and workplace productivity.
Workflow analysis often reveals redundant tasks, bottlenecks, and opportunities for
more automation.

If you are responsible for organizational efficiency, you’ve probably spent time thinking
about workflow management, BPM, and automating redundant processes (Business
Process Automation). Many people simply jump on the workflow automation
bandwagon because of the fear of missing out–they don’t want to lose out on all the
vague ‘benefits and advantages’.

But sometimes, these efforts just don’t seem to work like they are supposed to. The
reason? They didn’t do workflow analysis.

There’s no point setting up an automated workflow unless you know the benefits you
expect to receive, and how your workflows can be improved. Unexamined workflows get
stale quickly and become part of a legacy system.

However, if you have hard data and feedback from stakeholders, you can use workflow
analysis to find several easy ways to improve on what you already have.

Why Do You Need Workflow Analysis?

Your market and environment are constantly evolving. If your workflows aren’t able to
keep pace with internal and external advancements, you risk becoming unable to fit the
constantly changing needs of your customers and employees.
 Workflow analysis makes sure the benefits you wanted when you signed up for
workflow automation actually occur. This includes efficiency and productivity in business
processes, customer satisfaction, regulatory compliance, and employee engagement.

Here are a few steps to help you do your own workflow analysis.

Step 1: Collect Hard Data

Take a report of the workflow you want to examine. Analyze the statistics and see which
ones are performing as required and which ones aren’t.

What kind of data do you need? Start with this list:

 Number of items in that workflow initiated over a period

 Number of items completed
 Number of items rejected
 Average, min, and max time is taken to complete each task
 Number of times a task is sent back or rejected
 Number of times an item requires extra clarification

Consider an expense report workflow. Looking back over the last month, you may find
that you had 68 expense reports submitted and 55 had been completed, but none
rejected. You have a four-step workflow: initiator, manager approval, department head
approval (for reports over $1,000), and finance processing. The average time for
finance processing to complete is just six hours, and the department head approval is
four hours.

However, there’s a lot of chaos at the manager approver task as the average time is
three days. Delving in further, you see that most tasks are completed within a day, but
several items have been pending for more than a week.

Look for workflow analysis tools that can give you all of this information

Step 2: Collect Soft Data

To further your workflow analysis, you need more than just numbers. Now you need to
go and talk to the people who use the workflow tools most frequently. Start with those
who fill out the form.

Your sales team is responsible for 80% of the expense report submissions, so you talk
to them about their thoughts on the workflow. Are they pleased with the ease of the
form? Do they have any complaints about submitting their requests? Are their
reimbursements getting approved on time?

Suppose your Sales VP says he loves being able to quickly zip through approvals on
his phone and doesn’t have to worry about logging in to a system. Finance people also
 say they are happy and have everything they need; most of the sales managers are
also satisfied.

But what if a few complain that they don’t have all the data they need to approve the
request. They send emails to the sales reps to get more details, but it usually takes time
to get a response.

This is extremely important information when performing your workflow analysis.

Workflow analysis tools usually only focus on the hard data, so this gives you a chance
to take your analysis to the next level.

Step 3: Ask the Hard Questions

The next step of workflow analysis is to ask the questions that guide the workflow. What
is its purpose? Who is it supposed to serve? What defines a good process? Some
workflows are created to minimize errors. Others are meant to speed up the process.

In our example, the workflow exists because the Sales VP felt she was spending too
much time approving expense reports through emails. She also wanted a better
alternative to ensure accuracy and speed of processing.

When you keep the big picture in mind as you are doing workflow analysis, you can ask
questions like:

 Is this step really needed?

 Can it be converted from approval to a notification?
 Does everyone have enough data to perform their task?
 How can we bring in more automation?

Going back to the earlier example, a few expense reports might not be making it
through on time because one sales manager feels that there are certain data lacking.
The sales manager isn’t using the workflow system correctly and rather than sending
items back to the person through the system, he is sending emails.

The best solution to fix this problem is by making changes to the workflow form so that
the manager feels he has everything he needs (perhaps adding a new parameter or
making a field mandatory) and also providing some refresher training on the system.

Using a combination of workflow analysis tools and in-person conversations, you can
come up with the right solution.

Step 4: Implement the Changes and Follow Up

Once you’ve identified all the changes that came from your workflow analysis,
implement them in your system. Notify all stakeholders of any change, and let them
know if there will be any downtime, or how to handle items in the middle of a changed
workflow.
Workflow analysis isn’t just a good way of identifying if there are any changes that need
to be done with a workflow. You can also prepare useful reports and see which
workflows and which aspects of a particular workflow are helping your organization
grow. It’s important to analyze and improve your workflows continuously.

Great workflow analysis tools ensure that you can get all the data that you need to
perform the analysis effortlessly, thereby saving you time, effort, and money.

A good tool helps you identify which processes are running smoothly and which need
work. Using that information, you can move ahead and find out where to make changes
and where not to so you reduce costs.

That’s exactly what Kissflow is designed to do: help you analyze your workflows so that
you can create a truly efficient and productive business process, tailored to your
particular needs. You can use Kissflow to find out where your processes need work,
and where they’re running smoothly.
WORKFLOW
WORKFLOW ANALYSIS
 Workflow analysis is a process in which businesses examine the progression of workflows in
order to improve efficiency.

Workflow and usability are not afterthoughts; they impact the core of any project and
dictate how it should be engineered.Ryan Holmes
Workflow analysis identifies areas for improvement, for example:

 Bottlenecks
 Redundant tasks or processes
 Inefficient workplace layouts
By improving workflows, your resources are used more efficiently, and your staff is better able
to work to capacity. It’s particularly important in situations where teams handle core processes in
succession. For example, if Team B often finds itself waiting for Team A to complete its process
before it can proceed, or conversely, can’t keep up with input from Team A, you have a classic
bottleneck situation.

It also works for individuals performing a task. Any task is divided into phases. Particularly in
established businesses, individuals could be performing unnecessary tasks simply because they
were once told to get their work done that way or always have implemented a certain process.

Why Your Company Needs to Perform

Workflow Analysis
The leaner and the more efficient your business processes are, the less it costs to get each task
done. Small time wasters can cumulatively cost your businesses a great deal of money. So, for
example…

 PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
A sales clerk who has to cross the office every time he or she prints an invoice may only need a minute to do
so. Let’s say that by the end of the day, he or she has spent ten minutes fetching printouts. By the end of the
week, that’s 50 minutes of selling time wasted. Multiply that by the number of clerks doing the same thing,
and you have wasted hours of potentially productive, moneymaking time.

Redundant tasks that could be eliminated or automated can be even more costly. Records and
reports that are never analyzed or used can take hours to compile, and your employees may never
question them. All they know is that they were told to complete the report as part of the process
years ago, and they’re still doing so because that’s the way the work is done.
Plus, efficient workflows will have a lot of knock-on effects. Your clients will experience shorter
lead times, for example, or your staff will feel more motivated because they recognize the
potential to get much more significant outcomes faster than before. If you’re able to simplify
workflows, it’s also a lot easier to onboard and train new employees or even work remotely.

How Should You Perform Workflow

Analysis?
It’s a good idea to do a full workflow analysis for every task and process in your business, but
there are clear areas where improvements will have the greatest impact, and these should be
analyzed first. They are the core tasks that your business performs, and core tasks are the ones
with the greatest value-add. In most businesses, for example, the admin would be seen as a
support function, while the revenue-generating activities the company engages in are the core
tasks.

Since each business is different, it would be difficult to give a step-by-step breakdown in detail,
but in effect, you’ll be answering the following questions:

1. What do we do? Which core processes generate revenue for your business? Your
business has an internal value chain. From an overview perspective, how does revenue
generation begin and end? For some businesses, the sales process comes first, for others,
production or purchasing is the first step. Be critical. For example, if production comes first,
how sure are you of sales? Is there a way to secure orders before production even begins?
2. How do we do it? In order to complete work what steps are followed? Record every
single task that goes into producing the end result in each of the areas you identified in the
first step. Every single activity, no matter how obvious, small, or trivial it may seem should
be included.
3. Why do we do it? Examine each of these smaller steps. If there’s no answer to the “why”
question, you may well be doing something that’s a complete waste of time and resources.
Non-value add steps in the value-adding process are clear targets for simplification. Record
keeping and storage activities are clear areas with no profit. Sometimes, they are necessary.
However, sometimes they can be eliminated with no impact other than efficiency
improvement.
4. Which departments do what? Workflows invariably pass from one person to the next
and from one department to the next. For example, in making a sale, your sales representative
gets an order from a customer. Now, your warehouse staff must draw and pack the order.
Dispatch staff sees that it’s sent off, and accounts management staff will now track payment.
There will also be intra-functional workflows. For instance, what does your accounts
department do between being made aware of a dispatched order and collection of the bill?
5. What does each person do? To complete a task, what steps are required from each
employee who forms part of the workflow? Why do they do it, and what are the benefits?
Analyzing and Improving Workflows
Keep your eyes firmly on the goal. The entire process is aimed at improving efficiency. Take a
fresh look at your workflows as if you were an impartial outsider. Indeed, many companies even
hire consultants to do this for them.

Ask yourself whether modified or even completely different workflows could be more effective.
Get as much input as possible from the people involved in each process. You may find that they
have already identified areas that are holding them up and preventing them from delivering
greater productivity. The more input the people who execute workflows have, the more easily
they will accept any changes you ultimately decide to make.

A lean workflow will use the least amount of workforce resources, time and effort possible to
produce the desired result. That means that you don’t lose an ounce of quality or service-
orientation. On the contrary, it allows your employees to focus on the tasks that matter most to
you and your clients.

Automating Workflows with Software

One of the easiest wins with workflow improvement is to use software. Workflow management
software allows you to make your workflows more efficient by automating all the
communication.

Your employees don’t have to spam each other with emails on who’s supposed to do what – the
software manages the tasks automatically.

Meaning, once employee #1 is done with their task, the software automatically assigns employee
#2 the subsequent task.

This allows for a lot more efficiency for your business overall – your employees will be able to
spend time on tasks that create real value. And the best part? Tallyfy’s workflow management
software is free for up to 5 users. Give it a try and see the increase in efficiency first-hand.

 Want to learn how more about workflow software? Our comprehensive guide

explains how the software works in practice. Stuck choosing between different
software providers? Read up our comparison of different workflow management
systems.

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Workflow Analysis is a business methodology of analizing internal workflows to improve the way
core business processes are being run within a company, helping organisations to become more
efficient.
By ensuring that a company is operating to its fullest strengths and that every single aspect of the
working day is being performed to the highest standards, they can ensure long-term profitability and
growth.

The problem tends to come for a

business when they start to notice inefficiency in their performance, but can't quite put their finger on
where the problem is. With the help of Workflow Analysis, this becomes much easier. By carrying
out regular workflow analysis, anything that isn't quite operating to the standard that it should be can
be improved or replaced with something more efficient along the way.

This means that your business never has to suffer from a large drop-off in performance – it can
instead be noticed quickly and effectively. This makes running your business properly and ensuring
that profits are always coming in, rather than losses, becomes the norm.

Productivity within the workplace is going to determine just how successful you are with clients and
customers, so weeding out any significant problems along the way can be extremely useful in
protecting your long-term legacy.

Ideally, any workflow analysis should show that you are getting the very highest levels of
performance and efficiency from every sector of your business. However, this usually won't the case
as there is always something that can be improved upon along the way - it might be something small
and seemingly insignificant, but some basic changes can make a massive difference to the overall
performance of your business.

This means that even the most efficient of businesses might be suffering from a small problem
somewhere along the lines that could be causing a chain reaction elsewhere, and slowing down
productivity.

If one sector is not on time, it means that the next sector – waiting on them to finish – is slowed
down also. Poor performance and low productivity will spread throughout a business. This is why
having a solid plan in place will be so useful in ensuring that you don't need to suffer in the long-term
from dips in performance.

Workplace analysis takes a deep look at every operation and aspect of your business, and fills in
any holes that could be reducing profits.

WHAT IS PROCESSPOLICY.COM?
ProcessPolicy.com is an online software solution for workflow management and task
management.

Analyze and improve employee performance through workflows, task and time management,
escalations and alerts.
Automate your company's internal procedures using the built-in workflow processes and internal
company policies.
Enforce company policies through electronic forms, checklists, questionnaires, audit trails,
escalations and alerts.
Improve employee efficiency
Automate your paper-based processes, reduce the administrative burden, while increasing
compliance.

Locate work bottlenecks

Analyze the efficiency of your tasks with real-time reporting, through performance dashboards and
gauges

Reduce costs
Do more work with less employees, reduce wasted time, rework and manual tasks.