It seems everywhere you look, ChatGPT (or another form of AI) is being used at work to improve workflows and take menial tasks off people’s plates. As business process consultant and Asana expert Marquis Murray notes, automating processes like these can help prevent burnout. That’s because, he says, the tasks that can be automated are usually the tedious ones that wear us out the most. Automating them lets workers focus on more engaging, creative and mentally stimulating work. Murray adds that companies can boost productivity and get more out of the tools they pay for by making workflows simpler and more straightforward, especially while team members work remotely. So how can you simplify your workflow processes?
To find out, we interviewed Murray for some expert advice. And expert advice we received.
How to simplify your workflow processes
Workflow optimization might sound daunting, but it’s simply the process of making workflows faster, more effective and simpler. It helps your organization stay agile and keep up with changes in your industry, and staying agile can make a real difference to how an organization performs.
This is where experts like Marquis Murray come in.
For years, Murray has helped teams optimize their workflows, improve their systems, and implement new software or automation, or get more out of the tools they already have. To do that, he often takes workflows apart and rebuilds them into systematized, streamlined processes that last.
His expertise didn’t grow overnight.
When he started his own organization, he noticed that his workflows were holding back his productivity and engagement, even as he hired new staff to take on some of the work. “I was the one having to train them over and over again, repeating myself, and so I eventually just got frustrated and […] started to record videos of everything that I was doing,” he says.
Murray started recording processes with Loom so he could walk employees through tasks without repeating himself. From there, he began examining more workflows, looking for places where tools could improve processes that weren’t automated yet, or where existing tools could be used better.
Loom freed up time Murray had been spending on explanations he’d already given. More importantly, once those processes were recorded, he found himself less bogged down by tedious work. “That’s really my mission,” he says. “That’s why I’m here: to eliminate team burnout.”
Relieving workers from repeatable tasks with AI
We, and many of the people we’ve interviewed for our blog, support remote work. But we also recognize it can make streamlining workflows trickier. Murray notes that many employees struggle with uncertainty about their tasks and responsibilities when working remotely. That can lead to longer but less productive hours and less engagement with work because of burnout.
So, wherever possible, Murray advocates for automating repeatable tasks.
Besides helping prevent burnout, automation brings stability. If someone goes on vacation or leaves the organization, the company runs into fewer roadblocks.
Murray also notes that automating tedious tasks lets employees focus their talents elsewhere. That helps them feel more engaged, which matters even more when they’re working remotely and often in isolation.
“It’s extremely powerful,” Murray says, “once you introduce automation, what you can do.”
Marquis Murray’s top two tips for optimizing team processes
The trouble with optimizing team processes is that there’s no one size fits all solution. That’s why experts like Murray exist. Organizations need one on one attention and tailored solutions that address their own environment, industry and employees.
But if Murray had to offer advice that could help most organizations, it would be what he learned from his own experience.
1. Document everything early and often
As he mentioned, Murray once found himself repeating instructions and teaching the same processes over and over as his organization grew.
So for early stage startups and solopreneurs looking to grow their teams, Murray recommends documenting every process you can, sooner than you think you need to. Leaders often wait until they’ve hired three or four people before documenting anything.
“But by that point,” Murray says, “it might be too late because you’re now spending your time, like I was in the beginning, onboarding these folks. So, as soon as you can, everything that you do, document it.”
That applies to leaders, managers and the workers with boots on the ground. If anyone leaves, whatever their role, the gap they leave can be filled as smoothly as possible.
Which brings us to Murray’s next point.
2. Don’t hire too quickly
If there’s one piece of advice that hits the nail on the head, it’s Murray’s second point: “Don’t hire until it hurts.“
As Murray has learned, the moment you start adding team members, nearly everything in the organization gets more complicated. From payroll and HR to task delegation and communication across departments, the more people you add, the more coordination you need.
Murray suggests growing slowly and only hiring once workflows are stable and another team member becomes a must for keeping everyday processes running. That means testing processes, documenting them and only bringing on more people when it’s truly necessary.
Simplifying workflow processes starts with you
You can’t depend on others alone to change how your organization works. As Murray says, if you want to improve your team’s processes, start with what you’re doing.
“What a lot of leaders overlook,” he says, “is to actually talk to their people. Talk to the people who are actually following these processes every single day and get their input. Ask them what they want this to look like. Because a mistake a lot of leaders will make is they’ll […] make this change and not consult anyone.”
When leaders come up with solutions on their own, they often think in a vacuum. They don’t consider how those solutions will work alongside other processes.
So consult your team members and fellow leaders. Run interviews and surveys so everyone’s input is considered fairly. Most importantly, trust your team. There’s a reason you hired them, and as Murray notes, you’re wasting their time and yours if you don’t listen to them.
If you still need an outside eye, reach out to professionals like Marquis Murray.
Photo courtesy of Marquis Murray.
Summary: After talking with business process consultant Marquis Murray, our takeaway is that organizations can improve productivity and employee retention by simplifying workflows. Sometimes that means automating processes with new tools or using existing tools better. Other times it means making sure every process is documented and understood by the whole team, so the workplace stays stable.
Special thanks to Marquis Murray for the expert advice in this article. For more on streamlining work processes and improving communication across your organization, visit marquismurray.com.
And when hiring starts to hurt, especially for the same frontline roles over and over, you don’t have to add the workload to your team. Workwolf® sources candidates, filters them with AI, phone screens them with its recruiters and books the best fits into your calendar, so you only meet the finalists and make the hire. Book a call to see how it would work for your roles, or run your numbers in our hiring ROI calculator.
