The role of employees in delivering successful automation
McKinsey’s recent report 'Your questions about automation, answered' provides interesting insight into the minds of leaders whose companies are piloting automation.
The technology is on the rise with companies using it to make business processes more effective, while improving experiences for customers and employees. But what has become apparent is just how involved employees need to be in order to make automation successful.
Companies that the report defines as 'automation leaders' actively involve colleagues, offering training and providing targeted support in what can be a complex operating environment. This in turn hands over control to the workers to improve their own productivity.
In addition, companies that are at least piloting automation technologies report that within the next two years their organisations will require more advanced cognitive skills within their workforce. This includes quantitative and statistical skills, critical thinking, and project management. And here is where companies yet again need more engaged employees.
At a time when businesses are already facing a huge skills shortage, it is imperative that we stop thinking about automation technologies as a way of replacing the human element. Automation, and particularly intelligent automation that relies on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms needs to be seen as a partner that helps employees optimise their work.
领英推荐
In fact, automation can be used to provide new opportunities for employee upskilling and professional growth. For example, automating repetitive tasks and freeing people up to take on higher-level activities. Or, by identifying time in workers' schedules that can be efficiently spent on training or coaching, nudging them with alerts to start alternative work tasks or simply to have some additional break time in a busy schedule.
No automation technology can mimic human capacity for empathy and situational dexterity today or will likely be able to mimic anytime soon. But automation is still a key ingredient in successful future-proofing of a business. We just need to change our perspective on how it’s implemented and used.
?Read the full report here: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/your-questions-about-automation-answered