Summer is vacation season and that’s a good thing. People need time away to recharge and refresh, and most businesses want their employees to take time off and come back to work ready to go.
Ensuring all the bases are covered during peak vacation times, however, can be challenging. When your “expert” in some aspect of business is away, the people left to cover for them can feel a bit unmoored. Automated workflows can help.
Workflow automation not only helps businesses operate more efficiently and with higher productivity, it can help ensure smoother operation when key personnel are away. Here are some workflow-related tips for making sure your business operates as it should when people are on vacation.
Automate Approval Steps While Approving Authorities Are on Vacation
Suppose an automated workflow has a step where a particular person has to sign off in order for the workflow to advance to the next step. This is common in design workflows. When the person who is the approving authority is on vacation, you don’t want to have to contact them to log in and approve something, but you can’t just let projects grind to a halt.
Before an approving authority leaves on vacation, they should designate someone to act on their behalf. This is easy to do if your workflow software allows for easy modification to workflow role access. Another option is to make the workflow automatically override the approval step while the approving authority is away, though for some projects this approach could be risky.
Have an “On Call” Workflow Based on Double or Triple Account Support
Each and every client account should have multiple people who understand it. When an account manager goes on vacation, at least one other person back at the office should know the status of the account and what’s generally going on with it.
No client account should be left “abandoned” when its owner goes on vacation.
Since the people at the office may be taking on extra responsibilities when others are on vacation, some businesses create a simple “on call” workflow for each account. That way, if someone from the client account should have a question, there will always be someone available to help them. And by rotating who is “on call,” that responsibility can be spread out so no single person is overloaded.
Use Automated Workflows for Scheduling Vacations
One of the best ways to ensure smooth business operation during vacation season is to have an automated workflow for scheduling vacations in the first place. Such a workflow, perhaps with an interactive vacation calendar included, can prevent multiple key people from taking vacation at the same time.
A key part of a workflow for vacation scheduling could be a simple vacation request form, which can be used by managers to ensure that staffing is adequate at all times. When the process of scheduling vacation time is automated, there is far less risk of being understaffed and overworked.
Workflow Training Is Essential
Finally, to ensure business carries on effectively during vacation season, it’s important that people are thoroughly trained in the workflows they use and the workflows they may be asked to use to cover for other people. Training is an up-front expense, but it is one that pays off both short- and long-term, so don’t neglect to train everyone who may be needed to participate in a workflow.
PerfectApps is workflow software that gives companies like yours the flexibility to create, test, and modify workflows for maximum efficiency and productivity. It allows automated alerts to ease communication, and also allows role-based access to workflows. It even comes with an extensive library of form templates that can help you get workflows up and running quicker than you thought possible.
With PerfectApps, scheduling staff vacation is easier, and coping during times when staffing levels are low due to vacations is also easier. Did you know you can test drive PerfectApps by signing up for a free trial? Give it a try, and if you have any questions at all, please contact us at any time.
