5 Simple Ways to Create a Weekly Report on Tasks Completed

Weekly reports are fundamental for performance management. This has become more important with COVID-19 as Human Resources Management have had to adapt to remote working. There is a huge variety of task management software that can be useful to track team progress.

Weekly reports encourage employees to make a daily log of their achievements. This improves performance and productivity. It also helps employees identify how their work contributes to a team's overall goals and objectives.

Weekly Reports help managers identify what progress has been made throughout the week and by whom. This informs the future delegation of tasks. It may also help identify strengths and weaknesses within a team which is beneficial for future development and training decisions.

What is a Weekly Status Report?

A Weekly Status Report is a team's summary of the tasks completed, in progress or upcoming during the week. It can also include updates alerting teams to changes in schedules or timelines, deliverables, resources or risks. It is is an efficient and effective way of showing how individual tasks contribute to a team project.

Why is a Weekly Report useful?

A weekly report is useful both for employees and managers. It is important now more than ever as more people are working remotely following COVID-19. Stanford University have revealed that 42% of the US workforce has transitioned into a fully remote work environment.

How do Managers use Weekly Reports?

Weekly reports are useful for managers because they maximise performance management. Employers are able to monitor individuals' progress and identify their employees strengths and weaknesses. This is helpful as it can inform decisions regarding training and development.

Managers also use the reports to understand who to assign tasks to the following week and to provide better feedback.

Finally, employee weekly reports help managers track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The New York Times have emphasized how significant this is as they claim it is more important to measure efficiency through key results, rather than the number of hours clocked by an employee.

What does a Weekly Report Include?

A weekly report includes:

• A summary of objectives
• Weekly task statuses - upcoming, in progress or complete
• Action Items for the following week
• New or unforeseen challenges

5 Simple Ways to Create Weekly Reports

We have identified 5 simple ways to create weekly reports:

1. Excel Spreadsheets
2. Google Sheets
3. Online Report Templates
4. Automated Emails and Forms
5. PeopleGoal's Weekly Priorities App

1. Excel Spreadsheet

It is possible to make a weekly report using Excel Spreadsheets. You can create functions that group daily data to convert it into weekly data.

This requires employees to regularly update spreadsheets with their progress on tasks. Managers may need to remind people to do this at the end of every day.

2. Google Sheets

Similar to Excel Spreadsheets, you can create weekly reports on Google Sheets. It is possible to create shared documents where employees have access to the data and can make edits for everyone to see.

3. Online Templates

There are numerous websites where you can find weekly status report templates. These are often customizable so your organization can change the colours to suit your branding.

You can also add or remove sections to make the report relevant to your team and their objectives.

4. Automated Emails and Forms

You can schedule a weekly email that sends a form out to your team. This will ask them to complete a series of questions that will indicate the progress made towards a project throughout the week.

This is better suited to smaller teams or organizations.

5. Try PeopleGoal's Weekly Priorities App

We recommend trying PeopleGoal's Weekly Priorities App! Our workspaces maximise performance management as we create the perfect workflow for you and build custom reports.

This app documents the tasks you and your team set yourselves at the beginning of the week. This encourages everyone to be accountable for their work and helps managers keep track of who has completed what.

At the beginning of the week, the app will ask what your tasks are and whether there is anything preventing you from achieving these.

At the end of the week you will be asked for every task's status. This will allow you to build a weekly report measuring task completion. These metrics can further be downloaded and converted into spreadsheets.

You can download the New Weekly Priorities App Here 👈

Weekly Reports: Our Final Thoughts

Weekly reports are fundamental to the performance management of your team. You can use weekly reports to track task status changes and progress, employee productivity and Key Performance Indicators. This is more important now than ever before as more people work remotely to reduce the spread of coronavirus.

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