Bypass the Word Salad: Make Your Business Reports More Effective

In any business, success doesn’t come from profits alone. It’s all about the paper trail. 

Depending on what kind of business you are a part of, that paper trail will look different. You’ll have different information to report, different goals for the future, different metrics overall. 

If you know how to craft an effective business reports, you will be prepared to:

• Make evidence-based decisions

• Anticipate and solve issues quickly.

• Set and adjust company goals as needed.
  

Needless to say, your business report will need to do some legwork. That will require research, possibly some calculations, an idea of progress made, and clear goals for the future. 

What are our potential pitfalls? Where can reporting go wrong, and what can we do to fix it?

You Didn’t Let in the Audience

As I said, depending on what kind of business you are a part of, your paper trail will look different. Regardless of those differences, your business will have stakeholders. Somebody outside of yourself and your team will rely on you for something. 

How are they going to feel if the language you’re delivering to them is jargon-filled or doesn’t serve their interests? 

Have your stakeholders in mind when you’re crafting your business report. Plain language, meaning audience-focused language that is easy to use and apply, can help with this. 

Let’s say that your company is changing a piece of their software to increase productivity. The software is fairly new, and you want to communicate the change to your stakeholders and team members.

Let’s not say, “To execute our strategy, we will be using a phased implementation program to optimize ROI.” 

This language is vague, and the acronym isn’t helping. Your team deserves better, especially since this change will impact their work moving forward.

Let’s try, “Team Y will be testing out the new software. If there are no errors and productivity increases, the software will be utilized in other teams. The schedule below shows the projected rollout plan, assuming the test is successful.” 

This sounds like progress and a well-organized section of a business report. This tells us what changes are going to be made, describes the plan in enough detail so as to be understood, and it gives a clear timeline.

Too Much Information

You want to be transparent with your stakeholders, but you’re going to lose their interest if you don’t keep to the necessary facts. 

Every word in your business report should matter. You and your team should be able to revisit this report when necessary, and you should be able to find the information you need without wading through details that don’t serve you. 

Which details do serve you?

Your paper trail depends on your organization. In our previous example, there was a new software being introduced to the company. Those details matter because they describe a change to workflow. Consider these questions:

• What is working well in your organization right now, and what would you like to see improved? How, then, are these improvements going to take place?

• What are some past, current, and projected metrics, and how should the team interpret those metrics at this time?

• Are there any changes taking place in your organization? What about expected changes in the future?

• What kind of research is taking place, and what is being used in that research?

• Has the team received any feedback? How do you plan to use it?
  

Regardless of the structure of your organization, questions like these are relied upon often. Make sure that you're answering the questions that your audience needs answered. 

No Business to Action On in Your Business Report

Your team needs to know that they’re working towards something that has meaning. Without any actionable insights, your team is left with a sheet of words and numbers that tell them facts that they don't know what to do with. 

Imagine your organization released a new product, and it’s not selling in the way you’d hoped. 

After providing the employees with the metrics, there's an analysis below that reads something like: “Numbers are down. We don’t like it. Work harder.” 

That’s not productive for anyone and it’s disrespectful to your team. 

How about this?

“Since our numbers for Product Z weren’t what we hoped, we want to implement a different marketing strategy moving forward. Instead of focusing on [previous marketing strategy], we want to slowly shift to a different approach that appeals to [audience]. Our market research shows [findings] about those who did purchase the product. We have decided to use this information to inform our new approach. 

Given these findings, we would like to try [new strategy]. [Describe new strategy].”

The way that your organization approaches finding solutions speaks volumes. You can’t expect everything in your business to go well all the time. Since your plan will likely need to evolve, you’ll want to motivate change. So, give your team some solution-focused language to work with, and help them prepare for the future. 

Quality communication, both written and verbal, is key for every successful business. You deserve it, and your team deserves it.

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