2023 Workflow Management Best Practices

Establishing a smooth workflow management structure is a critical task for most companies. Daily operations can get disorganized from addressing unforeseen emergencies or miscommunication from team members. Though inevitable, such events can create bottlenecks and leave managers wondering where they went wrong. Following workflow management best practices is the key to reducing potential delays and establishing a process that is sustainable for the long term.

Workflow Management in 2023

For many employers, 2022 has been a year of adjustments so far. Either they are navigating a hybrid workforce in a post-pandemic world, or they have chosen to operate remotely for the foreseeable future. Out of of 510 employers in a recent Mercer survey, 70% reported that they plan to adopt a hybrid work model this year. Only 20% have plans to return to an office-based setting. While some worry about the potential ramifications of permanent hybrid or remote working conditions, others have embraced these changes to reduce the risk of losing valuable employees.

Increasing numbers of employees today seek flexible working options to accommodate the rapid social and lifestyle changes to which they have grown accustomed over the past two years. Beneath the practical requirements of a changing social landscape lies uncertainty about the future as a contributing emotional factor. Whether your office implements remote or hybrid working options, managing employees from a distance presents a new set of professional challenges. 

Arranging meetings and gathering employees for Zoom calls while also accommodating flexible work schedules is more complicated than simply gathering employees in the office. Furthermore, ensuring that each team member is on the same page is nearly impossible. Building a strategic and functional workflow management structure requires managers to improve processes that create a sustainable platform and ensure the stability of company operations.

Workflow Management Best Practices

Workflow management entails managing a stream of tasks to build an organized system that ensures productivity. Following workflow management best practices sets managers on a path to success by identifying areas in need of improvement and encouraging the use of valuable software to help fix and fortify weak spots. Here are three examples to consider.

1. Clearly Define Workflows to Maintain Accountability

Email is an inevitable a part of daily operations—so much so that it often consumes the workday. With the right workflow management structure in place, team members can easily take on emails to reduce high inbox volume and hold individuals accountable to dissipate the high volume of tasks.

The best way to achieve this goal is by utilizing a shared inbox solution. Many companies manage multiple email inboxes such as support@, info@, or sales@. But finding an effective way to do so is a challenge. 

Shared inboxes combine each company email address into one location to make email management easy for teams to address together. However, many standard solutions lack accountability measures, as anyone on the team can formulate a response without notifying other team members. 

A platform that establishes clear accountability from the start builds better workflow management solutions for managers. For example, Gmelius offers a shared inbox solution with collaboration features using Gmail. Each company email address can be managed from inside Gmail, with unique features designed to hold team members accountable and receive clear assignments from managers. 

The ability to assign an email directly from Gmail limits added communication methods. Gmelius also offers Gmail notes and shared Gmail labels to provide clear context and easy navigation when addressing tasks. Gmail alone is not enough to guarantee a smooth workflow, but managers will find their daily workflow is simplified with the help of Gmelius. 

2. Avoid Employee Burnout

Along with remote and hybrid working conditions comes the potential for employee burnout. Remote employees struggle to find balance operating on flexible hours. An employee could begin working at 5:00 AM, but potentially extend the workday until 10:00 PM. While these conditions allow additional breaks for personal matters, the ability to “unplug” is a challenge. 

Assignment overload is one contributing factor that many companies are not addressing head-on. A Deloitte survey found that 70% of working professionals feel their employers fail to utilize the right tools to alleviate employee burnout in their organizations. Another 21% of respondents say their company does not offer programs or initiatives to prevent the onset of burnout. This alarming statistic suggests that companies do not have the right workflow management structure in place. 

Gmelius provides team analytics to give managers an inside look at the weekly number of emails resolved, as well as the number of replies completed. 

Balancing workload is critical in keeping operations smooth and team members focused on critical tasks without too many assignments overloading the workday 

3. Real-Time Email Collaboration

Asynchronous communication is the heart of remote work, and few would doubt its necessity for remote teams. But companies must also utilize solutions that facilitate instant responses to improve email response times and ensure workflow remains consistent. However, finding a solution that allows teams to collaborate in real-time via email, and more importantly, on one platform is difficult. Many platforms lack real-time collaboration, or require extensive integrations to do so. 

Gmelius allows teams to collaborate in real-time via Gmail to receive answers quickly through one platform instead of multiple. While every company should establish guidelines on how quickly an employee should respond to internal requests, utilizing a solution that allows real-time collaboration reduces the number of steps it takes to get there. And email isn’t the only method where this best practice can be of use. 

With Gmelius, teams can collaborate in real-time with the following features: 

• Email notes. Build private conversations on the side margins of an email and receive instant feedback. Teams can even see when their colleague is typing. 
• Tagging. Tags such as “urgent” or “pending” are shared across your teams and synchronized in real-time across devices.
• Shared Gmail labels. Share new or existing Gmail labels and synchronize conversations in real-time across teammates.
• Live Feed & Notifications. Receive a real-time updated live feed with Gmelius that lives in the right-hand sidebar of Gmail.
• Shared Gmail drafts. Draft the perfect response and get instant updates when a team member has added their input. 
• Slack. Unique two-way integration allows teams to receive real-time notifications of inbox activity. 

These are only some of the many ways Gmelius can be used as a workflow management solution for teams to expedite daily tasks and build productivity. 

When researching the best workflow management best practices to follow, consider Gmelius for their abundance of features and integrations designed to improve communication and collaboration amongst a team. 

The best workflow management best practices can be found with Gmelius. Check out our features and integrations and learn how Gmelius is built to improve team communication and collaboration. Ready to get started? Sign up today!