How Managed Services Improve Federal Office Workflow Management
December 6, 2022
Workflows are fundamental for any organization and especially federal agencies where following and maintaining procedures and processes are critical. While workflows create clarity and efficiencies, they can also be time-consuming to construct and establish. Let’s look at the importance of workflows and how managed services can improve federal office workflow management.
What Is a Workflow?
A workflow is basically a step-by-step guide for a process or task that bears repeating. When a process will be carried out over and over again and needs to maintain a specific redundancy and accuracy, workflows provide instruction and a plan to follow. It may also include particular persons or teams assigned to the task or steps within it. Here are a few examples:
- HR workflows for actions like time-off requests, reimbursements, or changes in insurance.
- HR workflows for hiring, interviewing, and onboarding
- Team or department workflows for project phases
- Marketing workflows for quotes, advertisements, and content creation and approval.
- Department workflows for safety and quality assurance
- Customer service workflows to handle requests, questions, and complaints
Workflows are usually visualized in a list, flowchart, image, or cycle format and typically follow a sequential order. They may, however, also be created in a state machine format, which is for processes that might not necessarily always go in chronological order, or in a rules-driven, if/then format.
Why Do Federal Offices & Agencies Need Workflows?
Workflows provide clarity, definition, and insight into tasks, functions, order, and responsibilities. When created, they can help identify existing holes in current processes, help uncover new (and easier) ways of doing things, and eliminate confusion.
Once implemented, workflows can positively impact efficiency and reduce errors and oversights. Thus, when considering high-level goals of improving productivity, streamlining processes, improving customer satisfaction, and reducing confusion, errors, or accidents, workflows become a powerful tool and ally.
Once you have a finalized workflow, it can also help you see how to allocate resources more effectively, including for time, personnel, and departmental budgets.
On the flip side, the absence of workflows can create an environment of chaos and confusion, creating unanswered questions of ‘what do I do first,’ ‘what do I do next,’ ‘who can I ask about this,’ and ‘who is responsible for that’. It can hamper productivity and decrease employee engagement by:
- Taking up time seeking the answers to those questions
- Creating chaos from not understanding hierarchies
- Creating confusion by not doing the same thing the same way every time
- Enabling redundancies that clog up the pipeline
- Having to fix avoidable errors
Especially for federal offices with inter-departmental or even inter-agency projects and tasks, workflow management is indispensable for successfully achieving goals.
How Does Managed Services Improve Federal Office Workflow Management?
Managed services and turnkey organizational solutions provide much-needed experience and insight into successful day-to-day operations and workflows. With the knowledge and technology to streamline processes, increase efficiency and effectiveness, and make clients, customers, and employees happy, there are plenty of reasons for letting managed services drive federal office workflow management. Here are just some of GovStrive’s quantifiable benefits:
- 80% of employee calls to HR resolved in one day or less
- 200,000 qualifications completed per year
- 100% automation of organizational chart creation
- 82% of organizations improve new hire retention
Managed services can also assist in top federal workflow management areas like business process reengineering when your current workflow system needs to evolve or isn’t working as smoothly or as effectively as you would like. Key factors in successful planning and implementation include:
- Understanding and setting goals
- Collecting and analyzing the data from the current way of doing things
- Using this data to create a roadmap for a new way of doing things
- Documenting future processes to integrate new technology, service delivery models, and workforce roles
- Identifying and analyzing any gaps to fill in holes and improve outputs
- Delivering a final playbook that will meet all goals and improve organizational performance and effectiveness
Managed services can also support federal program management, whether in its initial inception or when it needs redevelopment. Our holistic approach covers:
- Project governance – who’s in charge and where
- Schedule management – setting a plan, including tasks and resources
- Financial management – balancing budgets and actual spending
- Risk and issue management – helping to identify and resolve any issues
- Quality control – using templates, workflows, and reviews
- Resource management – ensuring operation efficiency
In addition, managed services and, in particular, GovStrives’ federal HR and Civil Rights-focused solutions can provide timely, proven support for talent acquisition, hiring, and onboarding, federal benefits management, and records management.
It’s time you learned about the power of GovStrive. Contact us or download our corporate overview today!
