Reporting system in the organization – how to report well?
I just realized that I have not written about reporting systems in the organization yet. This is a management area that is assessed differently by managers and employees. You can meet different opinions, often extreme. On the one hand, managers expect quick feedback reported in a systematic way. On the other hand, employees preparing reports often complain about time-consuming filling in them and lack of feedback.
These controversial opinions have been developed in bad reporting systems. First, determine what the report should be used for. The information resulting from the reports is to enable managers to evaluate the progress in the implementation of tasks. Based on this assessment, managers should provide information about their progress at work. The conclusions from the analysis of reports should be used to plan corrective actions (if needed). Often, however, reports are perceived as an audit tool that is not for development, but only as a bogey for ineffective employees. As a result, reports are created according to the needs and not based on facts. Data entered into them does not reflect reality. This is a completely bad way.
When creating a system of reports in the organization, managers should adopt the following rules:
- Maximum simplicity and limitation of filling out reports.
- Maximum automation of reporting of these areas that are possible.
- Establishing uniform definitions and criteria for creating reports.
- The optimal reporting schedule.
- Linking reports from the KPI of organizational units and individual employees.
- Showing in the reports the indicators that employees can influence.
- Providing regular feedback based on the analysis of reports and taking them into account during meetings with employees.