Automation is becoming more popular across industries as organizations discover its benefits. Educational institutions can implement these tools for increased organization and efficiency, allowing faculty to support their students, families and teachers.
In This Article
Applications for Automated Workflows in Private Schools
Automated workflows have many applications in private K-12 schools, assisting administrators, faculty and teachers in completing daily operations. Some functions you can streamline with automation include:
- Filing forms: Automated workflows allow schools to adopt more paperless systems. You can use these platforms to manage forms from students and families, from collecting e-signatures to storing documents in centralized systems.
- Sending reminders and notifications: Communication efforts are essential for schools, from your internal staff to your target audience. Systems can automatically send reminders about approaching deadlines and due dates to teachers, administrators and families filling out forms and planning for the upcoming year.
- Initiating processes: Administrators and faculty must manage many internal processes. Automated scheduling can help front offices better handle teacher sick days by starting operations, like connecting with available substitutes and sharing plans and procedures.
- Sorting and sending requests: In addition to notifications, requests are another way internal departments communicate in schools. Automated workflows can organize maintenance requests and sort them by priority, streamlining communication between departments and teams for more streamlined operations.
- Handling admissions and enrollment: Automated workflows can help the administration organize operations unique to admissions and registration. Some functions include sorting and managing applications and adding students to classes that meet their preferences and school requirements.
Understanding the applications and functions of automation helps school administrators determine the best path forward for their schools. From improving scheduling in schools to supporting operations unique to your industry, automated workflows can provide comprehensive functionality and assistance.
Benefits of Automated Workflows in Education
Automation offers several advantages to help schools run smoothly, supporting various goals, initiatives and processes. You can see comprehensive improvement when using automated workflows while targeting specific growth tailored to your institution and school community.
1. Increase Organization
Automated workflows eliminate the need for manual operations in many applications, like filing documents and forms. Manual labor can often lead to accidental mistakes and omissions in tasks, from placing a form in the wrong location to entering emergency contact information incorrectly. When individuals need to locate information later, they can face challenges due to the decreased organization.
With automated organizational features, you can better expect information to be in its intended location for increased reliability. You can search for files by name or type, allowing you to navigate your online resources easily. Because systems will automatically enter data, you can avoid inaccuracies and commissions that come with manual input. This benefit streamlines several school operations, from admissions and enrollment to planning field trips, substitutes and recording finances.
2. Improve Accuracy and Reliability
With better organization and automatic data entries, schools can experience better data accuracy and reliability. With fewer mistakes and accidental omissions, you can ensure the data you are looking at is complete and accurate for a stronger depiction of your school and student body. Your faculty can use data to drive decisions that reflect your current needs and metrics.
While this function mainly streamlines processes for faculty, it can also benefit your students and families. Automated grades will update as teachers grade assignments and projects, providing students and families with the most accurate and updated version of their performance.
3. Boost Efficiency and Productivity
Organization and accessible, accurate data can boost your school’s efficiency and productivity. Automated operations take some of the tasks from your staff, allowing them to turn their attention to other essential functions. When they can save time entering data manually and filing forms, they can provide the best care to your students, families and teachers who need assistance, care and resources for better school services.
For example, when your front desk staff no longer have to update emergency contact forms each year, they can spend more time sorting school supplies and starting the year with the resources you need to support your teachers and students. Alternatively, you can develop stronger strategies to target and retain students and families. Your faculty and administrators are excellent resources and tools, so automated workflows can allow you to optimize their skills and strengths.
4. Reduce Waste
Paper systems can create cluttered office spaces with complicated filing systems that are challenging to learn and navigate. Further, it increases the amount of waste your school creates. While the information stored on forms is necessary, you will likely throw away papers at the end of the year to clear spaces and prepare for the new school year.
Instead, you can replace your filing cabinets with paperless automated systems. This option can further boost organization in your offices, removing bulky storage bins and drawers and making more room for essential materials and supplies your staff and teachers need. With less waste, you can better optimize your available space on campus.
When you want to promote better sustainability on your campus, paperless systems and automation can help your school support the environment. By eliminating waste at the source, your school can create a better carbon footprint.
5. Save Money
Along with waste management and reduction, paperless systems help schools save money. They reduce how much paper and ink you must buy throughout the year, letting you allocate funds to other areas of your budget. Increased efficiency and productivity better optimize your employees’ time, allowing you to save money on daily operations and staff.
Many automated workflows report real-time data so your school can better understand your performance and resource use. These features can highlight inefficient processes and resources, enabling faculty to implement changes that prevent overspending.
6. Personalize Student Interactions
Automated workflows can help schools form better relationships with potential and existing students. With increased organization and efficiency, faculty can spend more time working directly with students and developing programs and marketing campaigns that better fit their needs. Further, automation can gather essential data and carry out operations to increase personalization.
When creating content, your automation can add names to email, text and mail campaigns, tailoring your marketing materials to your recipients. Databases file and sort student and family communication preferences, so you can optimize your contact methods to better reach your audience and boost information.
Automated workflows can track student interests and send relevant information for stronger admissions and enrollment campaigns. For example, suppose a student expresses interest in your music program. In that case, automated workflows can remind them about information sessions and auditions, ensuring they have chances to get involved with your school. When students receive relevant information tailored to their interests, they can feel more connected with the school community, boosting student retention.
Implement Automated Workflows With Ravenna
When you want to benefit from automation, you need a quality solution tailored to your industry and needs. Ravenna is a robust admissions solution for private K-12 schools to connect more with your students and families. Our automated workflows solution allows you to optimize communication and productivity by automating your marketing and enrollment processes.
Request a demo today and discover how Ravenna can transform your school.
