With all of the technological aids and software advances available today in the American workplace, it is surprising to find that 60% of workers still claim they are easily bored at work because of mundane or tedious tasks (Chicago Tribune, April 13, 2008).  What this means to your organization, is the probablity of increased mistakes, lower productivity, and faster turnover of employees.

The critical question managers must ask is: "What tasks are we doing today that are not essential, unused, or could be better done through automation?"  The easiest way to find unnecessary tasks is when you are going through the process of upgrading a software application.  While going through the mapping of processes, it is interesting how many tasks you uncover that are being done simply to overcome an already existing inadequacy of your technological infrastructure.

Spend the time to clearly understand your workflow processes, and many of these productivity enhancements can be uncovered.  And in so ding this, you can reenergeize your team by moving their activities to necessary tasks that can actually positively affect your customers' satisfaction.