3 Weaknesses of Taking a Manual Labor Approach to Business Management

Managers are saddled with a long list of ad hoc responsibilities. They guide team members through unforeseen obstacles and put out unpredictable fires. But there are also many repeatable components to business management that skilled managers must keep a close eye on. As a manager, relying on manual methods can lead to significant and costly blunders.

Limited insight into how managers are overseeing employee output can run up fines, damage productivity, and harm your organization’s reputation. 

• A simple formatting error can cost your business millions, like Fannie Mae’s infamous $1 billion quarterly earnings error. Technologies like robotic and digital process automation can eliminate “swivel chair integration” caused by manual missteps. 
• Over 70% of business leaders say they’ve made a significant business decision based on inaccurate financials. The majority point to a manual reporting slip-up as the cause of the error. 
• 3 out of 4 business leaders assert that business automation can free up 3 hours of work per day—that’s over $4 million in annual savings for a 500-person organization. 

Managing processes the “old-fashioned way” sounds simple if you’re a solopreneur or small startup. But as you add more projects, more clients, and more employees, manual processes quickly spiral out of control. The sheer amount of responsibility under a manager’s umbrella calls for an efficient business process management strategy. Here’s how automation can strengthen your organization and prevent fallout from a manual approach. 

Lacking repetition

Management is both an art and a science. Many professionals err towards one end of the spectrum. Some are mentorship mavens, able to motivate and inspire their team—an invaluable asset to your organization. But those managers without a natural knack for the practical side often lose track of key tasks. They miss vital details.

Knowledge loss is another downside to manual management. When a long-tenured executive leaves the organization, they take with them a wealth of leadership information. Without a record of the discrete steps underpinning every process, entire processes are lost.

Process automation cements tasks in stone, giving people an irrefutable codex of how to accomplish everything that falls under their responsibility. They can see how previous winning teams performed core duties, revisit a precise checklist of steps, or dive into audit records to find more efficient routes. Also, automated workflows run without interference; a shake-up in management never disrupts the most important things from moving forward. 

Lacking classification

Some managers lean towards micro-management while others afford their teams more freedom. It’s challenging for employees to navigate the needs of each individual supervisor. 

They wind up delivering projects differently based on their manager’s individual expectations, making it challenging for organizations as a whole to aptly predict employee performance. 

Process automation can create a more predictable framework for managers to follow. Employees will know exactly how to perform their duties without undue influence from management styles. When processes are laid out simply, everyone can see who is working on what, and precisely what methods equal success. 

Lacking oversight

Without automation and effective workflow monitoring, team members are free to perform tasks according to their own personal preferences. An organization is at the whim of each individual’s education and work experience as they cobble together their own methods for accomplishing their work. While this might work in very small companies, it is impossible to scale. Newcomers cannot learn the ropes because the ropes were never properly laid. 

Process automation eliminates the risk of complete free-rein leadership. With limited insight into how things get done, it’s difficult for managers to determine bottlenecks or other obstacles. Bad or inefficient habits can ingratiate themselves into your organization until they’re too difficult to repair. Especially in highly regulated industries, there’s no room for “doing things your own way.” Each step must be highly prescribed and scrutinized for compliance purposes—a winning feature of automated business processes.

CNBC pinpoints three modi operandi in the workplace: takers who steamroll others to win the rat race, matchers who reciprocate and mimic the behaviors of others, and givers who focus on team success. Allowing each type of manager and employee to create their own ecosystem of work leads to damaging effects on company culture, predictable performance, and your bottom line. By codifying tasks and processes through automation, you can establish a rulebook that promises the more reliable and repeatable results that drive success.