Increase the Efficiency of Your Board Post-Meeting Processes

During board meetings, the directors set goals and strategies and resolve critical issues that need urgent attention. But in reality, optimizing the organization’s performance doesn’t end during board meetings. What happens outside meetings is equally important as what happens during board meetings.

Most of the time, directors need time to ponder before coming up with a sound decision. Moreover, their hectic schedule makes it difficult to monitor action items that need to be accomplished. Thus, the board, together with the aid of corporate secretaries and board administrators, should simplify the workflow to carry out decisions even outside the meeting.

The Benefits of Efficient Post-Meeting Workflows

Boards still need to have an organized system of processes even after the board meeting to ensure efficiency and produce effective results. Here is how streamlined post-meeting workflows benefit the board:

Boost productivity and save time

In most cases, directors hold meetings to address certain issues that require immediate action. An efficient post-meeting workflow cuts unnecessary processes by reducing redundant workloads and speeding up resolutions and actions. Tools such as digital signature and actions tracker simplify the processes and help board directors and administrators to be more systematic, even outside meetings.

Heighten the accountability of board directors

Board directors normally have tight schedules with some sitting on different boards. Having a post-meeting workflow increases the engagement of the board on important matters.

For instance, the fast dissemination of minutes after a meeting guides directors on deliverables they must focus on. Having an effective workflow ensures that no action item is forgotten or overlooked. It allows the board to avoid or address bottlenecks that may cause delays in implementing what was discussed during the board meeting.

The process informs everyone of their respective responsibilities and who to coordinate tasks with. An effective workflow keeps directors proactive in decision-making and in producing their respective deliverables. It also allows them to cascade action items to respective units to execute plans and strategies.

Accelerate decision-making

Besides increasing the accountability of directors, post-meeting workflows also improve the coordination between directors and promote synergy, thus accelerating the decision-making process. Having a seamless workflow fast-tracks reviews and approvals, especially when signing is needed.

For instance, a board resolution requires the directors’ decision. The directors need to review, approve and sign the resolution for it to take effect. There are cases, like in sequential order of signing, that board directors have to sign off the resolution first before the chairperson can sign for final approval. An efficient workflow ensures no bypassing of stages during approvals. Meanwhile, the board secretary or administrator can share and keep copies of the board resolution for documentation.

5 Essential Tools for Post-Meeting Workflows

Without tools, accomplishing all the assigned deliverables and action items of directors can be tedious. Organizations should invest in tools that further simplify the post-meeting workflow. This allows the directors, secretaries, and administrators to allocate time and resources to other important tasks.

A board management software is a one-stop platform that is equipped with tools to streamline board meetings and workflows. These tools streamline post-meeting workflows by enhancing collective boardroom performance, collaborations, and productivity. Convene is a board management software equipped with convenient and powerful tools as well as robust security features to help directors, secretaries, and administrators manage their workload.

Secure document repository

Being able to go over the meeting minutes and board packs complete with annotations and action points speeds up decision-making. Furthermore, directors can refer to past reports and data to give them better insights. It is important to have a secure repository that gives directors easy accessibility to materials necessary for decision-making.

Directors may also request board documents from board secretaries who collate these materials. Convene’s Document Library allows secretaries to manage board documents in one centralized location. This helps board members retrieve past documents anytime and anywhere, without relying on board secretaries.

Not only that, having a role-based access control limits access levels to confidential files through permission-based settings. Such roles define what can be done with the board materials, guaranteeing maximum data security.

A dedicated room for reviews and approvals

The board, administrators, and secretaries can employ a single platform to line up all the board materials in need of approval. These documents can be compiled into an organized list, minimizing back-and-forths during the signing.

Convene offers the Review Room where board members can collaborate and communicate on documents even without video-conferencing. Corporate secretaries can compile a list of board materials, and then invite the directors to review and annotate the board documents. The annotations made by the directors on a document are visible to those who have access to the room. Additionally, the status of the review can be tracked, notifying the directors of any materials pending approval.

Collaborative board resolutions

The board must carefully consider and collectively agree on any resolution. Thus, it is necessary to use tools to collaborate and effortlessly vote on board resolutions.

Convene’s Resolutions feature allows directors to address urgent matters by voting on viable courses of action. It encourages the board to be productive and collaborative in real-time, even outside meetings. The voting tool tracks the results of votes to speed up the tallying of votes and formulate sound resolutions.

Integrated e-signature feature

Signatures guarantee the veracity of resolutions and board materials that are being circulated within the organization. Digital or electronic signatures are legally binding and are now widely accepted by organizations.

Convene has an integrated e-signature tool for directors to make sign-off workflows more efficient. Directors can effortlessly sign documents anytime and anywhere, even without needing to print the documents. This reduces delays in the approval process, particularly during high-stake situations where decisions are urgent.

Not only that, adopting a platform integrating e-signatures saves secretaries and administrators time and effort in tracking documents for sign-off. This removes the tedious task of printing and distributing documents that need to be signed in sequential order.

Organized actions management

Monitoring the deliverables and action items of directors increases their accountability and promotes transparency among them. Since the board addresses important organizational matters, the progress of action items and activities should be tracked at every stage.

An actions management tool makes sure that no deliverable or action item is overlooked. It can help the board streamline the post-meeting workflow by promoting accountability and setting a timeline so they can accomplish the deliverables on time.

With an action management tool, directors are held responsible, as action items are delegated and set with deadlines. Directors can update the status of the action items to show the progress. Meanwhile, administrators can follow up on the action items and deadlines of each director.

Optimizing post-meeting workflows with one-stop platforms

Strong corporate governance processes encourage accountability and drive growth in organizations. As technology plays a greater role in internal processes nowadays, organizations are looking into adopting available tools which can streamline and automate processes.

A board management software like Convene is an all-in-one platform for document approvals and post-meeting processes. It will enable you to manage your organization’s resources and also keep track of document approvals and action items anytime and anywhere.

If you are operating within the Microsoft space, seamlessly integrate all your processes into one platform — Convene in Teams (CiT). With a Teams-based board portal, directors and administrators won’t have to go over several apps like the SharePoint document repository and OneNote for your board processes. CiT lets you maximize the collaborative capabilities of Microsoft Teams through expert governance tools which you can access on one platform.

Find out more about Convene and Convene in Teams and how these platforms make activities beyond the meetings simplified and efficient.