Strategically improve data and reports to reduce disgruntled employee's pain
http://www.accountingfacts.net/articles/2179/1/Strategically-improve-data-and-reports-to-reduce-disgruntled-employees-pain/Page1.html
gary Patterson
Gary W. Patterson has helped companies improve their profitability, reengineer their business models, and strengthen or gain competitive advantage in the marketplace. You can reach Gary at http://www.FiscalDoctor.com or take the free Fiscal Test at http://fiscaldoctor.com/fiscaltest.html. By gary Patterson
Published on 03/4/2009
How would you like at least one of your "do more with less projects" to actually leave your surviving people with less to do? Even better what they do after this project could ne more efficient that what they were doing before.
Strategically improve data and reports to reduce disgruntled employee's pain
Prune unused reports to humanely do more with less.
Many of us are making all out efforts to reduce operating costs throughout our entire company. When was the last time your company pruned unread reports or those which have long outlasted their prime and have minor usage?
Consider how many of these reasons are valid at your company on this decision to prune or not to prune.
Most reports require significant efforts to accumulate data, record it, verify the information or at least conduct some form of sanity check on the final product.
Just as people get out of shape becoming flat or flabby, companies and their reporting infrastructure do the same.
When asked, most department heads and managers complain about drowning in data, far too much of which little or no use has.
If you think green, consider how many copies and how often reports are printed out, bound and saved somewhere. Sometimes in triplicate. Less reports save trees.
Those same managers, who are complaining about drowning in data, are starving for information they need to run their business better. Now that you freed up resources from this process by eliminating outdated reports, how about reallocating those freed up people and processing to deliver reports that actually help run the business better?
When information technology publications start making this suggestion as they now are doing, companies probably should have done this a year ago.
Psychologically, why not institute at least one review process to do more with less to be something that does not require firing people and actually helps surviving employees have less work or at least more effective work to do?
To leverage this process even more, think about what other line items or issues deserve a periodic review? And remember this process in the good times, so your business does not get fat, flabby or overweight again.
The Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Even those companies addressing such issues as attaining corporate goals and vision; identifying, prioritizing and pursuing new opportunities; effectively balancing risk and reward based on existing resources, and; optimizing infrastructure to achieve growth and profitability can find room for small actions, which add up to help meet loftier strategic goals. Prune unused reports to get rid of a lot of dead wood reports costing time and money.
And do it is a way that improves the morale of your surviving employees.
Many of us are making all out efforts to reduce operating costs throughout our entire company. When was the last time your company pruned unread reports or those which have long outlasted their prime and have minor usage?
Consider how many of these reasons are valid at your company on this decision to prune or not to prune.
Most reports require significant efforts to accumulate data, record it, verify the information or at least conduct some form of sanity check on the final product.
Just as people get out of shape becoming flat or flabby, companies and their reporting infrastructure do the same.
When asked, most department heads and managers complain about drowning in data, far too much of which little or no use has.
If you think green, consider how many copies and how often reports are printed out, bound and saved somewhere. Sometimes in triplicate. Less reports save trees.
Those same managers, who are complaining about drowning in data, are starving for information they need to run their business better. Now that you freed up resources from this process by eliminating outdated reports, how about reallocating those freed up people and processing to deliver reports that actually help run the business better?
When information technology publications start making this suggestion as they now are doing, companies probably should have done this a year ago.
Psychologically, why not institute at least one review process to do more with less to be something that does not require firing people and actually helps surviving employees have less work or at least more effective work to do?
To leverage this process even more, think about what other line items or issues deserve a periodic review? And remember this process in the good times, so your business does not get fat, flabby or overweight again.
The Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Even those companies addressing such issues as attaining corporate goals and vision; identifying, prioritizing and pursuing new opportunities; effectively balancing risk and reward based on existing resources, and; optimizing infrastructure to achieve growth and profitability can find room for small actions, which add up to help meet loftier strategic goals. Prune unused reports to get rid of a lot of dead wood reports costing time and money.
And do it is a way that improves the morale of your surviving employees.