I’ve been in this reporting fellow’s shoes before, except that I knew how to work with databases where he probably does not. I took a project that used to take my boss a full week to get only 30% of the job done and modified the reporting so that I was able to do the whole job in 2.5 days. I didn’t find that I suddenly didn’t have enough to do, instead I found that I was able to get a whole lot more done with my time that I otherwise wouldn’t have because I spent so much time doing it all by hand as my manager had taught me to do.

When I left the company the boss asked me not to train anyone else to fill my position, but they couldn’t handle having the production level decrease so they took that report and split it between 5 people who would do it the old way as my manager had done. The only thing I changed was taking it from a drawn-out process into a streamlined one where our result was that production multiplied. When I left they took it back to the slow process and production took a huge drop. From talking to the old coworkers a few months ago they’re still doing it the old way and the 5 people that took over what I was doing have all quit, been replaced by people who also quit, and is now being ran by 5 new people who probably will not last much longer either.

The long, senseless processes are what will cause your good employees to quit from frustration and burnout, where offering them new tools that make their jobs easier, faster, and more enjoyable is likely to result in a more pleasing and more productive experience for the employee that will make them want to stick around longer. Giving your employees the tools they need to make their jobs faster and easier is a great way to build loyalty and a sense of belonging to the team/family that the company should be.