How to Convince Your Co-Workers You’re Important: 10 Sneaky Tactics

You know reports are important, but your co-workers? They don’t seem to care. And you can’t blame them – reports are boring! But they shouldn’t be. Reports should help your company reach its goals and improve the bottom line, but if nobody is paying attention then reports will just sit on a desk collecting dust.

Follow these 10 sneaky tactics and start convincing your co-workers that reports aren’t so bad after all:

Use These Sneaky Tactics In Your Next Report

A good report is like watching an episode of Game of Thrones: you want all the details and characters laid out in front of you so it’s easy to follow along with but there are also plenty of twists and turns that keep things interesting! Use these sneaky tactics on how to make sure your next report doesn’t end up gathering dust:

Bring Donuts

Everyone loves free food, and annual reports are no exception. Nothing could go wrong with free food!

Using Visual Aids

Your annual reports design needs some visuals so you can show your co-workers the benefits of reports rather than just telling them about them. Use images and charts as much as possible. You want your co-workers’ eyes glued to reports from start to finish! Venngage has tons of templates with eye-catching graphics built right in.

Make it Readable

Make sure reports designs are easy to read and include only relevant information – don’t overload with data that won’t help anyone. No one likes reports that are hard to follow. Use Venngage’s color-coding tool to automatically create reports that are easy for non-designers to read.

Highlight

StartupStockPhotos / Pixabay

Make any points related to reports as high-level as possible. Instead of going into huge detail about reports, try to summarize why reports are important and what they can do for the company so that people won’t get bored.

Be Creative

Almariel / Pixabay

Get creative with your reports design – don’t just create a boring old Powerpoint presentation or Word document, use Venngage’s infographic maker instead! Infographics work because visuals always stand out more than text does.

Start with a Good Title

Give them interesting titles.  If reports have boring titles then your co-workers won’t want to read them. Be descriptive without being dull, like “The Top Three Ways to Boost Our Sales by 20%”.

Connect

GraphicMama-team / Pixabay

Another tactic, when giving presentations, is to talk about how reports will help co-workers rather than just yourself. For example, instead of saying “I worked really hard on my report” say something like “my report shows why we need these changes made.” This way everyone knows that the information presented will benefit other people too.

Include Valuable Information

200degrees / Pixabay

Add numbers and statistics wherever you can to keep it interesting! For example, if your report is on sales then talk about how many units were sold each month since last year vs this year (instead of sharing all the information without specific numbers).

Be Concise

Be brief but descriptive with your report descriptors (like “Our Product Sales” vs. just saying “Sales”). If there are numbers involved, get the full story behind them. You’ll be surprised how much more interesting it makes things for people who don’t work directly on sales reports every day!

Use Venngage’s color-coding tool to automatically create reports that are easy for non-designers to read. Just remember, you can’t just say “Our Product Sales” – give people a little more detail so they know what’s going on behind the numbers.

Use Interactive Presentation Reports

Make reports interactive. Turn reports into a game by asking specific questions and requiring answers from participants as you go along. For example: “How many of our competitors have raised their prices this year?”

Right Timing

Distribute reports before major holidays or vacations if it’s relevant (or simply when everyone is expecting them). It will keep reports top of mind during downtimes and help eliminate questions like “Didn’t we already do this report?”

Be Open

And finally, no matter how great reports may be, nobody likes working through them alone. Invite everyone in your company to your business reports presentations, even if they aren’t directly involved with the data being presented. That way you’ll all be on the same page when it comes time for meetings or decisions.

The next time you have a report, make sure your co-workers are paying attention! Use these sneaky tactics and they won’t be able to look away.

Conclusion

Venngage Screenshot

Use Venngage’s infographic maker to make reports interactive and engaging for your co-workers. Venngage is a free maker platform that has tons of templates and designs you can choose from for your reports. Venngage reports are always easy to follow and include only relevant information. Use Venngage’s templates for reports to stand out from the crowd – now nobody can ignore them!

That’s it – now you have all the tools necessary for convincing co-workers that reports aren’t as boring as everyone thinks they are! Try out these tactics before next month’s report meeting and don’t be surprised if more people show up with their coffee in hand instead of hiding away from meetings like usual.

If you follow these strategies chances are reports will be more interesting and it’ll keep people’s attention, making reporting a little less painful for you! And remember: don’t forget the free food!

Your reports will be better than ever with these sneaky tactics. And when your co-workers ask what you’re doing differently, just tell them it’s a little trick from Venngage!

 

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post and the author’s views here do not necessarily reflect those of the blog owner.