How Can You Efficiently Automate Recurring Tasks with Customizable Workflows in Your Company?

Question:
Our company deals with a lot of recurring tasks, especially related to onboarding new employees, processing client requests, and managing project checklists. We are looking for a way to automate these processes so that we can save time, reduce errors, and ensure consistency. We’ve tried using spreadsheets and manual checklists, but they are time-consuming to maintain and prone to mistakes. Is there a tool that offers customizable workflows and automation to streamline our recurring tasks?

The Problem:
Many companies, particularly small-to-medium businesses, struggle with managing recurring tasks efficiently. When processes like onboarding or project management require repeating the same steps for each new client or employee, manual methods such as spreadsheets or email reminders quickly become tedious, error-prone, and time-consuming. Consistency and quality often suffer as a result, leading to missed steps, duplication of effort, and, ultimately, reduced productivity.

A manual approach also lacks the flexibility needed for customized workflows. Without automation, you rely heavily on staff to manually update progress, which can lead to oversight, especially when people are juggling multiple tasks.

Comparing Available Options:
Several tools aim to solve this issue. Let’s look at a few popular ones:

1. Trello with Checklists: Trello is a simple project management tool that lets you create boards and add checklists to tasks. While it’s great for visual organization, it lacks robust automation for recurring tasks. You can set up templates, but users still need to manually apply them each time, which doesn’t fully solve the automation issue.
2. Asana’s Task Templates: Asana offers task templates and recurring tasks functionality, which is useful for ongoing projects. However, Asana’s automation is limited in flexibility and customization when dealing with complex workflows involving different team members and steps. Its recurring task function is helpful but can’t fully replicate the level of customization that some businesses need.
3. Zapier Automations: Zapier is another tool that connects apps and automates workflows between them. While it’s powerful in terms of integration, you still need to set up each process manually. For businesses looking to streamline internal processes without building multiple “zaps” and troubleshooting them when integrations fail, it might not be the most efficient solution.

The Recommendation: Process Street’s Customizable Workflows
After weighing up these options, my recommendation is to use Process Street’s workflows for its unique ability to fully automate recurring tasks with customizable workflows. Unlike other tools, Process Street allows you to create structured workflows that automatically kick off when a trigger event occurs. This is ideal for repetitive tasks like employee onboarding or client onboarding, where you need the same steps followed every time, without fail.

The power of Process Street lies in its ability to create customizable workflows with built-in conditional logic, form fields, approvals, and integrations with other apps. This makes it a one-stop solution for recurring processes. Its simplicity in setting up workflows ensures that even non-technical teams can configure automated processes that require little ongoing maintenance.

Example Scenario:
Let’s say your company has a standard onboarding process for new employees that involves several departments: HR for document submission, IT for account creation, and the Finance team for payroll setup. With Process Street, you can create a workflow that begins as soon as a new hire signs their contract.

1. Step 1: HR uploads the signed contract and enters the employee’s details.
2. Step 2: IT receives an automatic notification to create the employee’s email account and grant access to necessary software.
3. Step 3: Once IT completes their part, Finance is automatically notified to set up payroll.
4. Step 4: HR is prompted to schedule onboarding training sessions.

Each department can tick off tasks as they’re completed, and the workflow can’t proceed until the previous step is finished, ensuring no steps are missed. The workflow is fully customizable, so you can add conditional steps (e.g., if the employee is remote, trigger an additional step to ship equipment) and integrate with other apps like Slack or Google Drive for even greater automation.

By using Process Street, your team no longer needs to manually track each task, reducing the risk of human error while improving overall efficiency. This also frees up time for your staff to focus on higher-value tasks rather than managing repetitive workflows.

If you’re looking to automate recurring tasks and streamline your processes with a solution that’s both customizable and easy to use, Process Street is the right choice.