Reflection is essential to improving business performance. For this reason, many companies have adopted “weekly reports” to review and visualize their operations on a weekly basis.
Continuous use of weekly reports has the advantage of facilitating the sharing of progress and making the reports available as information assets. On the other hand, there are many people who may be concerned that they are simply creating a weekly report and not utilizing it well in their business operations.
In this issue, we will focus on the purpose of creating a weekly report, necessary items, and points to avoid wasting the weekly report for below people.
- “We want to instill the purpose of creating a weekly report to our team member”.
- “To reflect the items required for the weekly report in the format in advance”
- “To streamline the tedious weekly report in order to free up time for other tasks.”
This article will help you understand how to operate the weekly report efficiently and improve your business performance.
Contents
- 1 What is a weekly report?
- 2 3 purposes of the weekly report
- 3 5 items required in a weekly report
- 4 Major tools available for creating and sharing weekly reports
- 5 4 key points to keep your weekly report from going to waste
- 6 Is it a hassle? What is the problem with weekly reports?
- 7 Best tool for solve the cumbersome management regarding weekly reports
- 8 Summary of the overview of weekly report and how to write it
What is a weekly report?
A weekly report is a document that reports on the week’s work to your supervisor.
Since it is a weekly report, the main content of the report is not the daily details of work, but rather the degree of achievement of goals and reflections on the work. Weekly reports are also important for supervisors to accurately grasp progress, and the information left behind can be used as know-how and customer information.
The Daily Report is a similar document, but the difference is that the main purpose of the Daily Report is to “report details of work in a day”, while the Weekly Report is created to “share the degree of achievement of goals for week”.
Thus, if the weekly report is properly accumulated and operated, it can help improve the work performance of the team and the efficiency of the entire company.
3 purposes of the weekly report
The purpose of creating a weekly report varies from company to company, but can be categorized into the following 3 main types make sure employees are properly aware of the intent of creating a weekly report, and aim for a voluntary approach.
(1) To improve business operations
The first purpose of creating a weekly report is to improve operations.
Visualizing and reviewing the work of week will clarify issues in the course of business and enable you to devise and implement improvement measures. As a result, work can be conducted more efficiently, and the ability of employees and teams to solve problems can be nurtured.
In addition, feedback on the weekly report from a supervisor with a wealth of experience and know-how can provide the benefit of giving each employee a chance to become aware of his or her own work. In this way, it is an important document that can serve as a catalyst for communication and an approach to improving operations.
The second purpose of using a weekly report is to facilitate the sharing of work progress.
Supervisors can check the weekly reports shared by their subordinates to grasp the progress of the entire project from individual work to the project as a whole. Being able to check progress on a weekly basis makes it easier to recognize issues that need to be resolved.
In this way, the weekly report can be utilized to accurately grasp the progress of the work, so it is necessary to submit the report to project members related with as soon as possible after its creation.
(3) To make it an information asset for work
The third purpose of using the weekly report is to operate it as an information asset.
Since the weekly report contains weekly issues, solutions, and the percentage of work accomplished, it can become information asset by accumulating them. For example, past weekly reports can be used to find approaches to solving problems or as customer information.
However, in order to utilize the weekly report as an information asset, it is essential to have an environment in which the created weekly report can be easily reviewed. However, if weekly reports are managed on paper, it is time-consuming to find the necessary weekly report, so the trend is to use IT tools such as Stock for centralized management.
5 items required in a weekly report
Here are the 5 items required for a weekly report. By incorporating the following 5 items into the format, you can check the status of your business without over- or under-checking.
- Item 1: Weekly goals
- Item 2: Business report/results
- Item 3: Impressions (positive points/points for improvement)
- Item 4: Goals for the next week
- Item 5: Matters to discuss and share
Describe goals quantitatively using numbers, such as “Advance this work to 80%”. Note that qualitative expressions do not clarify the results and make it difficult to come up with improvement measures.
Describe your work for the week and its results. In this section, only facts, not subjective impressions or findings, should be clearly stated.
Describe what you noticed in the work and how issues can be improved. Be careful to include how to replicate the findings, rather than just your impressions of them.
Based on “items 1-3”, set goals for the following week. Set realistic goals with reference to your supervisor’s feedback.
A column for consultation and sharing is provided for the purpose of smooth communication as well as understanding subordinates’ problems at work.
In this way, set items to maximize the effectiveness of the work review.
Major tools available for creating and sharing weekly reports
Below are 3 ways to manage your weekly report with tools. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of each and select the best tool for your company.
The first method is to send the weekly report to your supervisor in the body of an email.
The advantage of email is that it cannot be edited after it is sent, so it remains as evidence correctly. On the other hand, there are many disadvantages, such as the difficulty in compiling and analyzing the weekly report, and the fact that the report is buried in other e-mails.
Also, we cannot ignore the fact that it is difficult to share information with the entire team when sharing information, such as setting CC and BCC and inserting canned messages.
Word/Excel
The second method is to create weekly reports in Word or Excel.
The advantage of Word and Excel is that they are familiar tools and can be used company-wide. In addition, by creating a template, the format of the weekly report can be standardized.
However, since Word and Excel are files, another tool must be used when sharing them. Therefore, sharing them can be time-consuming and there is a disadvantage that messages with files attached may be lost in other messages.
Information sharing tools
The third method is to use information sharing tools to create and share weekly reports. Although information sharing tools are expensive, they are the best way to manage weekly reports for the following 5 reasons.
- Centralized management of weekly reports
- Can be used on a smartphone
- Can be shared regardless of time and location
- You can use templates to save time and effort
- Creation, sharing, and management can be completed in one tool
One of the reasons why weekly reports can be burdensome is the time-consuming process from creation to submission. Therefore, a tool like Stock, which allows anyone to easily create and submit weekly reports, solves all the problems of traditional weekly reports.
4 key points to keep your weekly report from going to waste
Here are 4 points to avoid wasting the weekly report. Teams that are able to work quickly through the weekly report have the following points in place.
(1) Utilize templates
The first point is to utilize templates.
One of the reasons why the weekly report is not effective, such as improving work speed, is that the contents are too thin. This problem is that employees find it tedious and time-consuming to create the weekly report from scratch.
In order to solve the hassle of preparing weekly reports, it is effective to prepare a weekly report template to reduce the time required to prepare the weekly report. By providing a template for the weekly report in advance, you can reduce the burden on employees and allow them to look back and devise measures for improvement.
The introduction of a template will also reduce the burden on supervisors who check the weekly reports of their subordinates, since the format of the weekly report will be standardized.
(2) Confirm that the PDCA cycle is being followed
The second point is to confirm that the PDCA cycle (Plan→Do→Check→Act) is being followed. Using the following 4 items as a reference, verify that the weekly report has contents that can be utilized in the next step.
- Plan：Are the objectives and goals of the work plan clear?
- Do： Is there no omission in the analysis of issues as well as what has been done?
- Check：Is the past weekly report utilized and are there any repeated failures?
- Action：Are appropriate goals set?
In this way, a weekly report that is aware of the PDCA cycle has the merit of making it easier for employees to feel their own growth and to work proactively on the weekly report.
(3) Always provide feedback
The third point is to always provide feedback on the weekly reports shared by subordinates.
Weekly reports that are “submitted and done” without periodic feedback will result in a decline in motivation among subordinates. On the other hand, if you make it a habit to give feedback, you will have more opportunities to talk with your subordinates and hear their concerns.
In particular, in order to motivate your subordinates, be aware of feedback that gives them new perspectives. The best advice is not to give specific answers, but to encourage subordinates to take action on their own initiative.
(4) Centralize the weekly report and comments
The fourth point is to centralize the weekly report and comments.
One way to provide feedback on the weekly report is to share the weekly report file via a chat tool.
However, the information gets buried in the communication related to other tasks, or the files and comments are lost over time, making it impossible to look back on the weekly report. As a result, it becomes difficult to utilize the weekly report as know-how.
Using an IT tool that can link the weekly report to the comments makes it easier to look back, since all information can be managed in one place.
Is it a hassle? What is the problem with weekly reports?
This section explains the problems with weekly reports, which are often thought of as a “making reports is hassle”.
The problem with weekly reports is that the mandated weekly report is “just to be submitted”. Even if a weekly report is prepared in a timely manner, if it “just accumulates in a file after management checks it”, it is impossible to discover and solve business issues, and subordinates become less motivated to prepare the report.
Therefore, in order to get rid of the “burden of creating weekly report”, it is recommended to create an environment that reduces the time and effort required by subordinates to create and share weekly reports, while at the same time streamlining the supervisor’s feedback and management of the weekly report.
For example, by introducing a tool like Stock, which unifies the format and makes it easy to create weekly reports while also making it easy to provide feedback and manage them after sharing, you can solve the problem of weekly reports that can be a hassle.
Best tool for solve the cumbersome management regarding weekly reports
Below is best tool that can streamline the sharing and management of troublesome weekly reports.
Weekly reports, if shared and managed properly, can help improve business operations. However, methods such as e-mail and Excel require more man-hours to share than necessary and have the fatal disadvantages of being difficult to manage and not providing immediate access to necessary information.
Therefore, it is necessary to operate weekly reports using “information sharing tools” that can centralize everything from sharing to management. In particular, if the tool is easy for anyone to use, employees will be able to use it immediately without any resistance.
In conclusion, the best choice for weekly report management is Stock, which can be used by employees in a non-IT company, and can share and manage weekly reports without burden.
Weekly reports created in “Note” of Stock can be instantly shared with any member of the team, and the intuitive “Folders” management makes it easy to find past weekly reports. In addition, “Message” associated with the Notes allow for feedback without getting mixed up on the topic.
Stock｜The easiest tool to operate a weekly report
The simplest tool to stock information "Stock"
https://www.stock-app.info/en/
Stock is the simplest tool to stock information. Stock solves the problem, "there is no easy way to stock information within the company".
With Stock, anyone can easily store all kinds of information, including text information such as requirements, images, and files, using the Note feature.
In addition, by using the "Task" and "Message" functions, you can communicate with each topic described in the Note, so that information is not dispersed here and there and work can always be carried out in an organized manner.
＜Why do we recommend Stock?＞
- A tool for companies that are not familiar with ITYou don't need to have any IT expertise to get started.
- Simple and usable by anyoneStock is so simple that anyone can use it without any unnecessary features.
- Amazingly easy information storing and task managementIt is amazingly easy to store information such as shared information within a company, and intuitive task management is also possible.
＜Stock's pricing＞
- Free plan ：Free
- Business plan ：$5 / User / Month
- Enterprise plan ：$10 / User / Month
Summary of the overview of weekly report and how to write it
We have focused on the purpose of creating a weekly report and points to avoid wasting the weekly report.
The weekly report is an important document that helps teams share progress and improve operations. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize templates and provide appropriate feedback so that employees do not feel that creating weekly reports is a hassle.
However, if sharing and managing the weekly report is time-consuming, it can cause the weekly report to be neglected. Therefore, build an environment where creating, sharing, and managing the weekly report can be done easily by using “an information sharing tool that anyone can use easily”.
In conclusion, a tool like Stock, which is not excess or insufficiency with functions necessary for creating, sharing, and managing weekly reports. Also, you can centrally manage all information, is essential for the operation of weekly reports.
It only takes 1 minute to register for free, so using Stock to operate your weekly report efficiently and improve your business performance.
