Understanding your workflow holds significant importance due to various reasons. By comprehending the sequence of tasks and activities involved in your work, you can enhance efficiency and productivity. This understanding allows you to streamline processes, eliminate unnecessary steps, and identify areas for improvement. Additionally, understanding your workflow enables you to prioritize tasks effectively, allocate resources efficiently, and ensure timely completion of critical assignments. Clear comprehension of your workflow also facilitates seamless collaboration and communication with others involved in the process.
The workflow above represents the workflow of a Junior Underwriter.
At the top, we can see various milestones that the loan file will move through in Encompass. After processing, the loan processor will submit the file to underwriting by completing the Submittal milestone. In the Conditional Approval milestone, the junior underwriter reviewsthe[JC1] [JL2] file to ensure that the file has been properly documented and indexed before handing the file over to the underwriter. Only after the junior underwriter reviews the file and deems it ready for underwriting does the underwriter start reviewing it.
The junior underwriter does not check the Conditional Approval milestone as finished. Only the underwriter does that.
When looking at the workflow example above, we must ask ourselves the following questions:
Do I understand when my work process begins and ends?
Do I understand the specific subprocesses/checks/milestones that I need to complete during this process?
Do I understand the output that I need to produce at the end of the process and each milestone?
Can I identify milestones and calculate timelines for the process?
While some information, such as timelines, cannot be extracted from the workflow, it can be calculated based on the employee’s experience.
Understanding your workflow helps you understand the following:
The evolution of the loan file.
The progress you have made while working on a file.
What documents must be logged into which systems and when.
The owner of the next process in the workflow (LOA/LM or LO).
Timeline and time expectations.
A workflow doesn’t necessarily need to be written down on paper or expressed visually. You may not need to lay it out visually as long as you understand it. Clearly establishing your workflow makes it so that you and other stakeholders can take ownership of the process, set clearly defined goals and expectations, and time the process for future iterations and improvements. This can avoid delays or miscommunication in the future.