Workflow automation is a powerful tool that can help those in higher education administrative positions be more innovative. There are many different ways to implement workflow automation, and it’s essential to find the right one for your schools’ needs. By leveraging these tools, you can better manage resources, improve productivity and increase the visibility of tasks within your organization.
What is workflow automation?
Workflow automation is the process of taking a series of tasks and optimizing them, helping you complete workflows and projects more efficiently. Think about how many procedures your organization has going on each day, from hiring to student support. A good workflow tool can make it easier for faculty and staff to keep track of these moving pieces with less effort. It’s beneficial in institutions where lots of things are happening simultaneously and deadlines need to be met without fail.
Why is it important for higher education?
There are many reasons why workflow automation is essential for colleges and universities, especially in administrative roles. For example, higher education has several tasks that need to be completed not only by faculty and staff, but also by students or outside parties such as vendors or donors.
By using a platform like Capacity, you can automate mundane tasks that take up too much time, while keeping track of everything without much effort. Workflow automation helps everyone involved by reducing confusion about what needs to get done next. The correct processes can be set up in advance instead of relying on different departments to complete the tasks. In higher education, everyone is busy with other important tasks, so things can be easily missed along the way. Automating your workflows can help alleviate any crucial mistakes along the way.
What are some examples of how workflow automation can be used in higher education?
There are many ways to leverage workflow automation in your day-to-day work as an administrator. Here’s a look at how some of these tools can be used:
Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
Higher education always looks for the best and brightest students, but that means many applications have to go through careful review before being accepted or rejected. A sound applicant tracking system makes it easier for admissions staff members to track all applicants. Accept those who meet the criteria set out by their institution and keep tabs on which ones still need more information, so they don’t lose interest throughout this process. The same goes for any other stage during student life where you’re managing tasks with various groups across campus, such as orientation week or sending out feedback about a professor after the end of a course. Once you set up your ATS correctly, it should be easy to automate all these tasks through this application without too much effort on anyone’s part.
Helpdesk
Higher education is a dynamic environment where everyone from the admissions staff to professors and students are constantly interacting. Sometimes things can go wrong, whether it’s technical issues or other problems that may arise as people navigate your website or make use of specific tools you provide. Having a helpdesk in place makes it easier for those who need immediate assistance. Use a knowledge base to provide basic trouble-shooting solutions, or have someone reach out to help in real time.
Surveys
College administrators are always looking for ways to assess how their institution is doing in terms of what’s working, what isn’t, and how they can improve. Surveys and other feedback methods like focus groups help you find out more about your students’ experiences on campus so that any adjustments made along the way will keep them happy and engaged throughout their time with you. Workflow automation tools can send surveys to large groups of students and get results back promptly so you can get more insight into their education experience.
There’s no way around email in any industry, but it can quickly become an overwhelming task that takes up too much time if you’re not careful about how you manage your inbox. Workflow automation can help by allowing chatbots to respond to routine questions that get sent your way so you can focus on other things instead of having to type out the same answer multiple times. This also makes it easier for students, vendors, or donors to contact someone in a timely fashion.
How Capacity can help automate your workflow.
Along with being able to help with all of the above, Capacity is also an excellent option for streamlining the workflow of an administrator. Capacity is an all-in-one platform for higher education administrators to help them save time and work more efficiently. Capacity allows you to automate repetitive tasks, create surveys, intelligently process documents, create chatbots and construct complex automated workflows that can handle any situation you may come across in your work life.
There are many benefits to workflow automation for higher education, especially for administrators responsible for ensuring that the entire process is streamlined. Implementing a support automation platform like Capacity can provide benefits for faculty, staff, and students. It’s important to take some time to see how Capacity can align with your current systems.