Workflow Automation Explained

Workflow automation is the process of using technology to connect systems and automate repetitive, manual tasks, freeing up employees to focus on more meaningful, high-impact work. It’s a powerful strategy to boost productivity, reduce errors, and combat employee burnout.

Are your teams drowning in a sea of copy-pasting, manual data entry, and endless approval chains? This “busy work” doesn’t just slow down projects; it drains morale and stifles the innovation your business needs to grow. But what if you could eliminate those frustrating tasks and give your employees back their most valuable resource: time?

We sat down with two of CIT’s in-house experts, Cole, a Power Platform Developer, and Kelsey, a Graphic Designer and marketing automation strategist, to discuss how workflow automation transforms the way we work. They shared practical insights on where to start, what to automate, and how to get your team excited about the change.

Key Takeaways

• Identify the Friction: The best candidates for automation are repetitive, rule-based tasks that involve copy-pasting data, manual notifications, or simple “if this, then that” decisions.
• Start Small: You don’t need a massive, complex overhaul. Simple automations, like setting up rules in your email inbox or creating a scheduled daily message in Teams, are easy wins that build confidence.
• Focus on the Human Element: The goal of automation isn’t to replace people; it’s to empower them. By removing mind-numbing tasks, you free up your team for strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, and more fulfilling work.
• Document Everything: Before you can automate a process, you must understand it. Clearly documenting your current workflows is the most critical step to identifying opportunities and ensuring a smooth transition.

Table of Contents

• What Kinds of Tasks Are Perfect for Automation?
• A Tale of Two Automations: Real-World Examples
• Overcoming the Biggest Hurdle: Getting Team Buy-In
• Glossary of Terms
• How to Get Started with Workflow Automation
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Kinds of Tasks Are Perfect for Automation?

The simplest way to spot an opportunity for automation is to look for patterns of repetition and frustration. As our developer Cole puts it, “There’s just so many things that people don’t even realize are kind of bothering them until you show them how much easier it can be.”

Here are the prime candidates for your first automation project:

• Copying and Pasting Data: Any time an employee is manually moving information from one system to another, such as transferring lead information from a social media form to your CRM or copying account numbers between spreadsheets, it’s a major risk for human error. Automation ensures data integrity and saves countless hours.
• Standard Notifications and Approvals: Think about processes like submitting an expense report or requesting time off. An automated workflow can instantly route the request to the right person, send reminders, and notify the original requester once it’s approved or denied, eliminating the need for manual follow-up emails.
• Simple, Rule-Based Decisions: Tasks that follow a clear “if this, then that” logic are easily automated. A classic example, as Kelsey notes, is your email inbox. “When I get an email from so-and-so, I want it to go to this email box. That’s an automation. That’s how simple they can be.”
• Connecting Disparate Systems: If your team has to constantly switch between different apps to get work done, you have a prime opportunity. Tools like Power Automate or Zapier act as bridges, allowing your software to “talk” to each other and move data seamlessly in the background.

A Tale of Two Automations: Real-World Examples

To make this tangible, let’s look at two very different examples of successful automation from our experts.

1. The Financial Services Overhaul

Cole shared a story from a previous role at a financial institution where a simple request, setting up an automatic money transfer, was buried under a mountain of manual work.

• Before: An employee had to manually look up a member, copy and paste multiple account numbers, fill out over a dozen fields (including their own employee number), and submit the form. An admin team then had to manually verify every single detail—from checking that the start date was in the future to ensuring the account types were correct. Finally, they had to re-enter the data into another complex system. The process was slow, tedious, and ripe for costly errors.
• After: The process was streamlined into a simple, intelligent form. The employee looks up the member, and all their accounts appear in a dropdown list—no copy-pasting required. The system automatically prevents them from selecting a date in the past. The form then routes to the admin team, who simply click “Approve.” The automation handles all the complex data entry on the back end. The result was a massive reduction in errors and a huge boost in employee efficiency and morale.

2. The Marketing Content Engine

Kelsey detailed how our own marketing team automates the content creation process, turning a single podcast recording into a wealth of marketing materials.

• Before: The process involved manually transcribing the podcast, writing a blog post from scratch, creating social media updates, drafting emails, and sending a flurry of messages and files back and forth for approval. It was a full day’s work, filled with administrative tasks.
• After: Now, the podcast transcript is automatically generated. That transcript is fed into an AI tool that creates a first draft of a blog post, complete with SEO-optimized titles and headers. This draft is then automatically placed into our project management tool and assigned to the content manager for review. Once the blog is approved, further automations trigger tasks for creating social media posts and internal notifications. This frees up the marketing team to focus on strategy and enhancing the content, not just managing it.

Overcoming the Biggest Hurdle: Getting Team Buy-In

Technology is only half the battle. The biggest challenge in implementing automation is often human resistance to change. Employees may feel their jobs are threatened or that they are losing control.

“People are kind of getting a little bit tired of [new technology],” Cole explains. “They’re just a little bit burnt out of things that don’t quite work for them.”

The solution is simple: talk to them.

Instead of imposing a new tool from the top down, involve your team in the process. Ask them about their pain points. Frame automation as a way to eliminate the most frustrating parts of their job so they can focus on what they do best.

To build trust, Cole suggests a trial period. In the financial institution example, they first implemented an “approval step” where the automation would show the admin team exactly what it was about to do and ask them to click “approve.” This gave the team full visibility and control, allowing them to see that the system worked reliably. Once they felt comfortable, the approval step was removed, and the process became fully automated.

It’s about shifting the narrative from “we’re automating your job” to “we’re automating the busy work so you can do more of the important work.”

Glossary of Terms

• Workflow Automation: The design and execution of workflows using software so that manual tasks can be completed automatically without human intervention.
• Low-Code/No-Code: Platforms that allow users with little to no programming experience to build applications and automations using visual interfaces, drag-and-drop components, and model-driven logic.
• Power Automate: A Microsoft service that helps you create automated workflows between your favorite apps and services to synchronize files, get notifications, collect data, and more.
• Zapier: An online automation tool that connects your apps and services. You can connect two or more apps to automate repetitive tasks without coding or relying on developers to build the integration.
• API (Application Programming Interface): A set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. Automation tools often use APIs to connect systems.
• Business Process: A collection of linked tasks which find their end in the delivery of a service or product to a client. Documenting these processes is the first step toward automation.

How to Get Started with Workflow Automation

Ready to start reclaiming your team’s time? You don’t need to be a developer to begin. Follow these simple steps.

1. Identify the Problem: Before looking at any tools, understand your goal. Talk to your team and storyboard their day. Where are the bottlenecks? What tasks do they complain about most? Look for anything that involves repetitive clicking, copying, or manual data entry.
2. Document the Process: Write down the existing workflow step-by-step. If you were to hire someone new tomorrow, what instructions would you give them to complete the task? This document becomes the blueprint for your automation.
3. Start with a Small, Personal Win: Encourage your team to experiment with simple automations in their own daily lives. This could be setting up an out-of-office reply, creating email filters, or using a tool like Microsoft Power Automate to set up a daily “Top 3 Priorities” reminder in Teams. This builds familiarity and confidence.
4. Explore No-Code Tools: Platforms like Power Automate and Zapier have pre-built templates for thousands of common workflows. You can often get started by simply connecting your accounts and following the on-screen prompts. Many even use natural language, allowing you to describe what you want to do in plain English.
5. Build, Test, and Iterate: Your first automation won’t be perfect. Build the workflow, test it with a small group, and gather feedback. As Kelsey notes, “Any of these big, complex workflows are just smaller flows combined. Do the three-step and feel really good about that, and then you can keep going.”

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the first process I should try to automate?
Start with something simple, repetitive, and low-risk. A great first candidate is any task where you’re just moving data from point A to point B without changing it, like sending notifications to a Teams channel when a new file is added to SharePoint or saving email attachments to a specific folder.

Will workflow automation replace my employees?
No. The goal is to augment your employees, not replace them. By automating mind-numbing, repetitive tasks, you empower your team to focus on strategic initiatives, customer relationships, and creative problem-solving—the human-centric work that a machine can’t do.

Do I need to be a developer to create automations?
Absolutely not. The rise of low-code and no-code platforms like Microsoft Power Automate and Zapier has made automation accessible to everyone. These tools use visual, drag-and-drop interfaces that allow you to build powerful workflows without writing a single line of code.

How do I measure the ROI of automation?
You can measure ROI in several ways. Quantitatively, you can track time saved (hours per week x employee’s hourly rate), reduction in errors, and faster project completion times. Qualitatively, look for improvements in employee morale, higher engagement, and increased innovation, as your team is freed from tedious work.

Listen to the Full Episode

Hear directly from Cole and Kelsey as they share more real-world examples and dive deeper into the tools that power productivity.