“I use excel all the time. It is great!” I hear that one a lot, but what does it really mean? Usually, it means that someone has figured out how to do tables in Excel and are happy to layout their information using the Spreadsheet tool. But, when I see a list of numbers and a sum at the bottom, but no formula I ask, “How did you get the sum?” “Oh, I used a calculator,” is the answer I hear most.
So why is this important? Because people are not using the tools they are given to make their work better and more efficient. As a simple example, I was given a list of invoices to double check for an import company. I looked at the list and started plugging it into excel, making each entry into a row in the sheet. “Do you have this in an electronic format?” I asked as I started typing. “No, all I got was paper,” was the response.
After several minutes of inputting number – BTW I hate data entry, I am not wired for it – I totaled the column, and my answer did not match the total on the invoice. With the previous statement about data entry clear in my mind, I went down the list of numbers to see if I had made a mistake in entering the data. Sure enough, I missed typed a few numbers, so I corrected and checked the answer, and it was still off. Now, I am not talking a few dollars off, I am talking over $10,000 difference between my answer and what the invoice showed.
I went to the person that gave me the assignment and asked, “how did you get the final total in the invoice?” She looked up at me and said, “I did not, I was handed the papers and after double checking one entry I figured I should check all of them, why?” “For the most part, they are wrong! Did someone use a calculator to sum the numbers?” I explained.
Growing up the son of a carpenter and General Contractor, we often times had to nail things together. Sometimes we were building a partition wall in a house or maybe building a cabinet. Most people don’t know that there are specialized hammers for each of those jobs, but in most cases a basic claw hammer will do the trick. So, most people only use one type of hammer and get things done, but they also make more mistakes by missing the nail and damaging the wood. If you are building a partition wall, not many people will see the dimples in the 2×4 framing, but if you are making a display cabinet, you can be sure people will see the hammer marks.
Knowing what tool to use and more importantly how to use the tools is vitally important if you are to increase quality by reducing errors and so increase profitability. Training people on your team to use the tools they are given is important. The Government makes sure to regulate training for certain tasks/jobs and machines, but what about office staff? There is very little regulating who should get training on Excel or other similar tools and what level of training is required.
I am not suggesting that every person in your office learn to do VLOOKUPs or use other complex macros in Excel, but the basics of summing a column of numbers or multiplying the value in Quantity column times the Price per Unit value to get a total should be a habit!
What tools are you using? Who trained you on the best way to use them? Who is training your staff and are they qualified? Maybe your “senior” person is the one that you task with training the new team members, but all they are really doing is showing someone “bad habits” or workarounds. Have you run a training audit on your staff?
If you would like help understanding which tools are being used in your company and if they are being used properly, just drop us a line at rick@gramatges.com.
Gramatges Consulting 