Weekly Status Update.

Making sure you know where the audits are at, and who’s doing what.

Performing a weekly status update is a great way to ensure all audits are on track and any issues are proactively addressed before its too late. Particularly where you have a large audit team, or a large number of audits in progress, the weekly status update is a great way to stay on top of everything which is going on.

We have built a template to help capture everything that’s going on in a simple and straight forward manner.

An overview of our Weekly Status Report template is included below:

This is only an extract of some pages from the template. To download an editable version of the Weekly Status Update, please CLICK HERE.

To update the Weekly Audit Status document, below are some strategies I like to do:

1. Hold a meeting. Set a weekly meeting, either early on a Monday or towards the end of the week. A Monday morning meeting means everyone can catch up briefly, but also set the tasks for the week. A Friday meeting might be a good way to wind down the week, combined with a bit of trivia (or drinks) and provide a retrospective status of all audits. The choice is yours when you want to hold the meeting.
2. Set a revolving chair. Each status update meeting should be held by someone different in the team. Their responsibilities should include note taking / updating the Weekly Audit Status deck and directing the meeting. Not only does this ensure shared responsibility, but also helps build some softer skills such as holding engaging meetings and time management.
3. Go around the circle. There are good and bad sides to this. By going around the circle and each team member providing an update on what they are working on for the week and their updates for each of their audits, team members may be able to ask for help should they have too much work on, or conversely, offer help should they have some capacity. The bad side is that some team members may see that as an opportunity to showboat. The “I do more than xx” and inclusion of every little task, may create tension in the team. Such instances should be managed careful so not to demotivate any team member. Regardless, by going around the circle, it ensures every team member gets a chance to talk.
4. Update live! The template is in PowerPoint, meaning whether the meeting is face to face or virtual, the PowerPoint can be shared and viewed by others. The Chair should take ownership and share the deck on the projector and update the document live as people provide their updates. This saves time (as minutes are not taken out of the room and typed up later), but also ensure the update is accurate, as team members can review and provide feedback should the update be entered incorrectly.
5. Communicate. Share the update once completed with the rest of the team via either email or saving it on the Shared Drive / Team pages.

When performing the meetings, make sure there is some flair. The meetings can be accompanied by either an award which might acknowledge someone who has done something great during the week, or even something silly – such as locking their keys in the car. Alternatively, a photo of the week, quiz, or cake, are all great ways to help liven up a meeting.

As with everything we do, its important to make sure all comments during the meeting are documented. If it’s not documented, its not done, and the Weekly Status Update can be extremely valuable should there be issues further down the track as it provides a rolling record each week.

For smaller teams or remote teams, this activity might want to be performed on a fortnightly basis.

To download an editable version of the Weekly Status Update template, please CLICK HERE.