Blog | Agnostic, Financial Services, HR and Administration, Hyperautomation

THE FUTURE OF WORK IS SMART

Apr 22, 2022 | 3 min read

Author

Marta Lobato

ROBOYO VOICES: As one of Roboyo’s Senior Automation Consultants, Marta Lobato provides Intelligent Automation expertise and advises business leaders and executives on ways to optimize business processes to enhance digital transformation. Here, Marta shares her wisdom on using automation to work smarter, not harder.

YES, AUTOMATION BRINGS CULTURAL CHANGE. BRING PEOPLE WITH YOU, AND CHANGE CAN BE POSITIVE

As a future-focused organization, you know you need people to work smarter, not harder.

You want employees to take on tasks that help deliver outcomes – not waste time on processes for processes’ sake.

That, of course, is why you’re interested in intelligent automation. By automating intelligently, you can move people away from mundane or process-driven tasks – and refocus on goals. After all, efficiency isn’t about getting more time out of people; it’s about time optimally spent.

But when process automation arrives, what happens to the culture of your organization? How do you maintain the best of the culture you’ve worked hard to instill – while managing the change you need?

If that’s something that concerns you or your co-workers, you’re not alone. Many companies hesitate to implement Intelligent Automation, because of concerns about cultural change.

But at Roboyo, we believe that Intelligent Automation isn’t intended to replace what makes your people unique.

Instead, when we embark on change management at organizations, we focus on what we call Human+. It’s a hybrid, human–digital approach which is fast becoming the future of work – and it’s about helping humans get the smart work done.

A HUMAN FOCUSED APPROACH TO CHANGE

At Roboyo we deal with machines, but we talk human.

So when we start working on an automation program – or scale it up – we ask people how they can work better if they could. After all, process automation isn’t about technologies; it’s about outcomes.

Questions to ask include:

What are the pain points your team is struggling with?
What repetitive tasks are your people doing as preparation for their work – instead of the work itself?
How would your teams like to add value or enrich their careers, if they weren’t spending time on tasks such as inputting (or even analyzing) pages and pages of data?

Once we understand the answers to these questions, we can start discovering the benefits that Intelligent Automation can bring – not only in terms of outcomes such as sales or KPIs, but also in terms of empowering teams.

So yes, Intelligent Automation is about embedding a new culture in an organization – and yes, this requires change. But things work best when you bring people with you.

So what does a Human+ organization look like? It’s one where humans are doing smarter work, with more time for intellectual or high-value outputs – whether that’s kicking off projects, analyzing strategy, or building products and services.

It’s a world where people can play, be creative and improve – while digital co-workers do the essential but mundane tasks on which we all rely.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

Using Intelligent Automation to work smarter, not harder, could even mean a chance to develop a working culture further over time.

Some organizations are experimenting with ideas such as the four-day working week, where employees work fewer hours for the same levels of pay. It’s an idea with potential but which, according to Harvard Business Review, has to be implemented effectively to work.

Arguably, it’s a formal expression of “smarter, not harder”. And if we’re getting the real work done, maybe we deserve our extra day off.

Less formally, working smarter could mean a move away from clock-watching or presenteeism, which benefits neither employee nor organization – while embedding a culture of respect for how human employees choose to manage their time.

Ultimately, though, none of this is possible without talking to people about their pain points and ideas – which is why, when implementing Intelligent Automation, managing change can only happen if you bring people along for the journey.

Find out more about Human+
Contact Roboyo to find out more about the future of work – and how Intelligent Automation can help deliver it.