In the 1970s, a massive technological change swept across the financial industry with the introduction of automatic teller machines (ATMs). Automation alarmists worried that this innovative technology would lead to mass unemployment for bank tellers and displace thousands of employees. However, the story played out differently. By the mid-1990s, more than 400,000 ATMs were installed across the US and bank tellers began growing faster than ever in the workforce.
It became cheaper to operate a branch and branch offices began to expand. The labor-saving costs created more jobs for bank employees and allowed tellers to reduce manual cash handling and focus on marketing, relationship-building, customer service, and other engaging tasks. Studies show that wages for tellers improved, and more college graduates entered similar roles. It was evident that machines did not threaten employees, but instead offered to empower them.
How can leaders illuminate the many benefits of automation? The critical step is to embrace a human-first approach.
Still, amidst widespread digital transformation and technological advancement, workers across industries continue to fear automation and resist organizational change. How can leaders quell fears, augment training and skilling, and illuminate the many benefits of automation? The critical step to successfully adopting automation is to embrace a human-first approach.
The widespread benefits of automation
There is a compelling case for scaling automation across the enterprise; competitors are moving faster, customer expectations are higher, and employee priorities are shifting daily. Automation offers a path forward by allowing organizations to capitalize on the speed and efficiency needed to capture market share, deliver on-demand digital experiences, and offer employees more fulfilling work. Automation provides benefits in six primary areas, including:
- Productivity: Automated programs oversee repetitive tasks much faster than people can and work 24/7, freeing employees to tackle higher-level work.
- Accuracy and quality: Reducing dependence on manual data entry equates to fewer errors, less rework and better business results.
- Lower costs: Automation may give organizations the option of maintaining a leaner workforce, saving not only wages but benefits, training, real estate, technology support and other related costs of employment.
- Business resilience: Automated systems enhance a business’s ability to continue operating and serving customers effectively in the face of unexpected circumstances.
- Enhanced employee experience: By taking over time-consuming and mundane tasks, automation can help employees focus on more cognitive work and achieve a better work-life balance.
- Customer satisfaction and retention: Automated solutions, such as virtual agents and chatbots, can solve many customer issues immediately. At the same time, a more engaged workforce is empowered to deliver top-notch service when a human touch is needed.
Automation is powerless without your people. Scaling automation only works when employees are partners in designing their new relationships with machines.
Automation is powerless without your people. Scaling automation only works when employees are partners in designing their new relationships with machines. However, new relationships take time and attention. Employees must be willing and even excited to participate in training and skilling programs that support automation.
A company-wide push toward automation should include a robust change management element to inform, educate and motivate employees. This might include practical training for employees on how automation can help them save time, and a program to reskill or upskill workers who might otherwise be at risk of downsizing. In addition, leaders should explore different avenues to sustain organizational change.
A new approach to change management and skills development
Companies see 40% of digital investments fail to meet intended goals due to a combination of preventable factors, including lack of understanding of the objectives (36%), employee pushback (32%), poor communication (28%), and lack of leadership (26%).
Organizational change management (OCM) initiatives are rooted in the understanding that engaged and motivated workers drive business results. Although it may be tempting to launch automation and expect employees to adapt, OCM encourages leaders to design a pathway to adoption before implementing digital technologies and platform modernization at scale. Cross-industry experts work in tandem with leaders to build personalized frameworks that guide organizations on how to prepare teams for change to make it stick.
The introduction of automation hastens the demand for advanced skills. Research shows that by 2030, the time spent using advanced technological skills will increase by 50% in the US and 41% in Europe. Additionally, 40% of surveyed companies are extensive adopters of automation and AI.
Consequently, the need for a workforce that uses basic skills, such as data input and processing, basic literacy, and basic numeracy will decline. At the same time, the demand for technology experts will expand as tasks performed by high-skill workers shift to lower-skill ones.
In response to this movement, organizations must revisit training and skilling programs to upskill workers for an automation-first future, by exploring the following solutions:
- Curriculum design
- Enterprise app training development and support
- Learning content development
- Learning organization strategy
- Learning tools and content assessment
- Training program management.
Gearing up for the future of work
Automation will undoubtedly influence and steer the future of work. For example, 31% of businesses have already fully automated at least one function, and 66% are actively working on automating an essential business process. The same study reports that organizations that successfully scale automation adoption are twice as likely to involve HR transformation, and seven times more likely to include communications functions.
To keep pace with the future of work, leaders must engage HR teams and build talent strategies that reflect the demands of the future workforce. Organizations interested in fully automating processes can partner with experts to strengthen the following:
- HR transformation
- Talent strategy and future of work design
- Workforce transformation.
When organizations embrace automation as a critical component of every business function, it creates unparalleled opportunities for people to rise above the grind of unfulfilling taskwork and access their full potential.
On the surface, automation is a tool to streamline processes, serve customers more efficiently and grow profit margins. It can help organizations overcome the skills gap and shortage of workers in key positions and retain the employees who still work there. But automation is much more than that. It unlocks the next level of human performance and achievement. When organizations embrace automation as a critical component of every business function, it creates unparalleled opportunities for people to rise above the grind of unfulfilling taskwork and access their full potential. Automation allows employees to engage in creative, exciting, rewarding endeavors that lead to elevated career and personal satisfaction.
In this way, hyper-automation can help organizations move past the Great Resignation and usher in the next phase of work: the Great Re-engagement. As the future of work matures in lockstep with technology to achieve incredible levels of productivity, agility and resilience, businesses will be well-equipped to manage whatever challenges the world has in store.
