How To Reduce And Manage Human Error In The Workplace

In the post-pandemic economy where organizations are struggling with reduced onsite headcount and ever-increasing responsibilities, management commonly struggles with inefficiencies and errors in the workplace. In today’s fast-paced business landscape, many employees are increasingly feeling overwhelmed and rushed to complete their tasks while maintaining expected customer service levels, causing all sorts of problems for business owners. This type of inefficiency is never ideal and if you don’t put measures in place to reduce and manage human error, you could very quickly find yourself on a very slippery slope.

As an employer, you need to sit back and analyze your business processes, speak to your team and start putting systems in place to help you better manage human error in your workplace. Nowadays, there is a huge selection of business software packages that you can choose from to help streamline your operations and ensure everything runs smoothly forward.

With the right procedures and protocols in place, you can be confident that there will be fewer errors moving forward, putting you back in the driver’s seat when it comes to the success of your company. Let’s take a closer look at some useful remedies for workplace dysfunction so you can get your employee performance metrics back on track.

Try Using A Timesheet

Incorrect contractor invoicing can impact already thin profit margins if left unchecked. In fact, many organizations are still struggling to get an accurate picture of exactly how much time their employees actually spend working on specific tasks. Current data shows that having a strict, easy-to-follow procedure for employees to track their activities leads to less confusion and more accurate payroll expenditures.

You need to stay on top of your payroll as under-billing leads to lower morale but, at the same time, over-billing leads to financial ruin for the company. A timesheet app can reduce errors on both sides of the balance sheet, leading to stronger financials come tax season.

Provide The Right Tools

Corporations serious about profit arm their employees with the best applications available so they don’t feel limited in their abilities to perform the tasks you ask them to complete. From powerful desktop systems running the latest enterprise email, office suites, file-sharing apps, and communication platforms, your teams should never have to worry about poorly designed or error-prone systems impeding their workdays again. Bad systems lead to stressed workers, resulting in poor performance and missed service levels so make sure you provide your team with the tools they need.

Also read: Top 10 Collaboration Apps for Your Business

Good Documentation

Running the best applications is only one piece of the puzzle.  If nobody can understand how they work, then you still shortchange yourself and your staff since they have to spend hours of their valuable time figuring out the correct workflow. Be sure to provide good documentation and training whenever new software systems or apps are brought online.

Lunchtime training sessions where your team can enjoy a meal together while they learn the inner workings of these new applications are always a smart investment to make. You could even consider establishing an online resource your employees can reference any time they need clarification on how to use different systems and software.

Establish Reasonable Deadlines

Rushed work will often lead to errors and stress. Project managers should directly communicate with everyone regarding timeline expectations. Effective two-way communication is critical when creating project schedules. Direct reports should have adequate time to review project milestones before they blindly sign off on their part of the project. Morning scrum sessions are a great way to continually ensure everyone is still on track and working on on-time towards the project milestones that have been set in place.

Effective Postmortem Sessions

When mishaps occur and deadlines are missed, it’s critical to have an honest assessment of where things got off track and why. This is not to hurt feelings or place blame, but to ensure that the same mistakes or miscalculations aren’t repeated going forward.

When servers crash and websites are offline, customers get angry and your revenue will suffer. Strong leadership allows staff to air their concerns, admit failures, and put systems in place to rectify the issues. When errors occur, hold root cause analysis meetings to achieve clarity and prevent future failures and be sure to update any relevant documentation to reflect these new procedures and hold re-training sessions if you deem it necessary.

Also read: How to Increase the Productivity In Your Hybrid Team In Five Easy Steps

Culture Counts

Having an open-door policy for your staff to comfortably bring up any concerns they have is critical to reducing workplace errors and poor performance.  Smart organizations allow for open two-way communications directly to management. Human resources are the most important investment you have.

Maximize this investment by empowering them to speak up and raise any issues before they spiral into much bigger problems. In many cases, front-line workers will be the only ones capable of drawing attention to issues or errors, so empower them by implementing and maintaining open communication lines.

Reduce The Number Of Human Error In Your Workplace

Human error is something that you will always have to contend with. However, by following the tips above, you can put safeguards in place so that you can significantly reduce the number of mistakes made by your team from one day to the next. With fewer errors in the workplace, you and your team can work more confidently towards the goals that you have set in place.