5 Reasons Why Sending Weekly Activity Reports to Your Boss Can Improve Your Professional Relationship

Consistent and transparent communication through weekly activity reports fosters a solid professional relationship between employees and their managers, leading to greater understanding, collaboration, and success. - Herb Lundquist

In a fast-paced technical environment, an engineer named John and his boss, Sarah, need more time to review weekly activities in detail. To keep Sarah informed, John sends her a weekly report highlighting his progress, any roadblocks encountered, and notable achievements. Despite their busy schedules, Sarah reads John's updates and provides feedback. John's proactive approach to communication strengthens their professional relationship and contributes to his overall success at the company.

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For several reasons, sending weekly updates to your boss via email is a good practice for engineers:

1. It helps to keep your boss informed about your current projects, progress, and achievements. This enables your boss to clearly understand what you are working on and how these things are performing.
2. It allows your boss to provide feedback, guidance, and support, which can help you to improve your work and achieve your goals.
3. It provides a written record of your activities, which can be used for performance evaluations, project reviews, and future planning.?

The Best Managers Are Not Simply Bean Counters

While productivity software can be a valuable tool for tracking employee activities and generating reports, relying solely on this data can have limitations in understanding individual employee performance. Here are some reasons why:

1. Lack of Context: Productivity software may track the time spent on a task or the number of completed tasks, but it cannot provide context on the quality of the work done or the challenges the employee faces.

2. Limited Scope: Productivity software may only capture data on tasks assigned or tracked within the software, leaving out other essential activities the employee may be working on.

3. Inaccuracy: Productivity software may not always accurately capture an employee's true productivity, as it may not account for factors such as breaks, interruptions, or multitasking.

4. Unreliability: Productivity software may malfunction or experience technical issues that could result in inaccurate or incomplete data.

5. Lack of Personalization: Reports generated by productivity software may not be tailored to the manager's or employee's specific needs or preferences, resulting in less effective communication of progress and achievements.

In contrast, reports produced by employees themselves can provide a more comprehensive and personalized view of their work performance. By allowing employees to create their reports, they can give context, highlight their achievements, and identify areas where they need support or guidance. This can lead to more effective communication between employees and their managers, ultimately improving their overall performance and job satisfaction.

Suggested Weekly Activity Format

When creating a weekly activity report for your engineering manager, here are some valuable elements to include:

1. Introduction: Begin with a brief introduction outlining your current role and the main projects you are working on.

2. Progress Update: Could you provide an overview of your progress on each project over the past week? This should include any milestones reached, tasks completed, and roadblocks encountered. Could you be sure to provide specific details and data to support your progress update?

3. Achievements: Highlight notable achievements or successes from the past week, such as completing a project ahead of schedule or resolving a particularly challenging issue.

4. Challenges: Describe any challenges you faced during the week, including roadblocks or setbacks. Could you be sure to outline any actions you took to overcome these challenges?

5. Goals for the Next Week: End the report by outlining your goals for the coming week. This can include tasks you plan to complete, milestones you hope to reach, or challenges you wish to overcome.

Remember to keep your report concise and to the point while still providing enough detail to give your manager a clear understanding of your progress and contributions.

Overall, sending weekly updates is a simple yet effective way to communicate with your boss and demonstrate your value to the company.

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Marc LeVine is a Syracuse (NY) University graduate with a degree in Industrial Psychology; Marc is currently a Talent Acquisitions Manager at Thermo Systems. He received the Excellence in Talent Acquisitions Award from HR Awards in 2021.

Marc's prior employment includes senior Human Resources and Staffing Industry management roles with Edgewood Properties in Piscataway, NJ; Brickforce Staffing in Edison, NJ; InfoPro Inc. in Woodbridge, NJ and Plainsboro, NJ; and Harvard Industries in Farmingdale, NJ; a former Fortune 500 company. He also served as Director of Human Resources for New Jersey Press, the parent company of the Asbury Park Press, Home News and Tribune, and WKXW-NJ101.5. Earlier in his career, Marc served as Director of Career Services and Placement at Union Technical Institute in Eatontown and Neptune, NJ. In addition, Marc owned and operated Integrity Consulting Associates, a New Jersey-based Human Resources and Social Media Marketing firm, for 11 years. Marc also served as Council President in his Freehold Borough, NJ hometown.