Enhancing Employee Experience through Automation
Automation. It’s a buzzworthy term for good reason, creating new opportunities for cost savings and process efficiency that can significantly boost the bottom line. And yet with these benefits also comes a tangible change for the teams who implement and utilize the automation. Many workers are left with a nagging question: “Will my job be replaced by automation?”
The reality is people do matter in each of their respective fields and, with automation, they are free to do work that has much more value. By automating low-value tasks, workers can execute more efficiently on high-value work that benefits most from human touch.
High-value work usually involves communicating with others in the company to reach cohesive, logical, and oftentimes compassionate decisions. According to a senior partner at McKinsey & Co., as productivity increases through automation, companies will be able to reinvest in their workforce and employee training. Automating up to 45% of low-value tasks will “generate a more engaging and challenging work experience.”
Along with being able to utilize their unique talents and perspectives, employees gain additional benefits with automation:
Professional Opportunities & Growth
Through automation, lower production costs will free up budgets to create a variety of professional growth opportunities. Businesses must ensure that workplace learning and development is designed for more complex work. This will preserve the existing library of knowledge while broadening employee skill sets to take on more responsibilities.
Employee Engagement
Properly executed automation solutions free workers to have more face time with their colleagues, develop their professional relationships, and exercise innately human skills, like cognitive reasoning, empathy, and creativity. These opportunities strengthen employee engagement and foster a sense of empowerment, leading to better overall performance.
Workplace Competency
According to McKinsey Global Institute, the need for higher social and emotional skills in the workforce will increase an estimated 26% by 2030, and the rise in high-value tasks can help accommodate that need. More complex tasks will require thoughtful human interaction and frequent collaboration, resulting in better teamwork, and ultimately leading to a workforce with more robust social and emotional skills.
Automation will take some work off the plates of today’s employees. Soon people will look back at this low-value, tedious work the same way we’d look at someone today if they suggested that we calculate all financial data manually by hand. Through automation, businesses will lead their employees towards a future of more stimulating, exciting and fulfilling work.
